The history of the tape "Taxi" began in parallel with the work of Luc Besson on the fantastic picture "The Fifth Element". While the director was waiting for the "green light" from Columbia Pictures to start filming an epic blockbuster with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, in just 30 days he wrote a script about a crazy Marseille taxi driver who helps not the most professional police officers to investigate the case of a gang in Mercedes. But, since the priority for Besson was still the "Fifth Element", it was decided to entrust the work on the picture to another director.
The production company Gaumont, with which Besson had repeatedly collaborated before ("Subway", "Blue Abyss", "Leon") did not believe in the script and refused to work on the project. The alternative was ARP Sélection - with them the director came to a mutually beneficial agreement and began to look for a suitable director. Such was the acquaintance of Besson Gerard Pires, who at that time had not made a movie for about 15 years, but was engaged in the creation of commercials, including for the French car manufacturer Peugeot, which is symbolic, given the brand of the car of the main character of the future franchise.
Start of filming and cast
Marseille was chosen as the filming location. The cast included not the most famous artists at that time. The main character, taxi driver Daniel, and in the past - a pizza delivery man, was played by Sami Naseri (who had previously played a cameo role in Besson's Leone), the image of the half-drunk policeman Emilien on the screen was embodied by Frédéric Diefental, who had several small projects behind him, the role of the protagonist's companion went to the promising Marion Cotillard. The role of Commissioner Gibert was played by Bernard Farcy, and the detective Alain by Edouard Montut. By the way, only these two actors and their characters have appeared in all the films in the franchise, up until the fifth.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that one of the main stars of "Taxi" was Daniel's car - a snow-white Peugeot 406, thoroughly tuned and decorated by artists.
Computer graphics during work on the tape were almost not resorted to, the energy and speed of cars were emphasized by angles and angles of shooting. The invitation of Formula 1 operators also contributed to the result.
In total, more than 100 cars were involved in the filming of "Taxi" and not all of them survived their scenes - there are many accidents in the film, and it is difficult to count how many police cars were destroyed in an attempt to catch up with Daniel's elusive taxi.
Shortly before filming began, Gerard Pires fell from his horse and ended up in the hospital for several weeks. In order not to get out of schedule, he was replaced on the court by Gerard Krawczyk, who subsequently shot three sequels of Taxi. Pires, at the end of each day, reviewed the filmed material in order to control the process as much as possible.
The Formula for Success and the Punishment for Humor
The main trump cards of "Taxi" were Besson's script and genuine chemistry between the actors on the set. A pleasant impression was left by the humor of the picture - not crossing the line, which would make it indecent or frankly vulgar. However, just for the jokes "Taxi" was punished with a ruble, or rather - $ 2 million In the German company Mercedes-Benz did not appreciate the phrase of the main character in the finale of the tape: "Well, Bavarians, so drive tractors?" and filed a lawsuit.
According to the plot, the main character is in love with speed, raves about racing and endlessly tunes his 406th to set new "records", as if mocking the cops of Marcel, whom he does not like very much. His initially forced partner is not a particularly successful policeman, investigating the case of daring robberies, behind which stands a gang in red Mercedes. The tandem of self-confident and able to find a common language with anyone Daniel and naive simpleton Emilien fell in love with the audience thanks to the excellent play of artists and easy, lively dialogues of Besson. Heroes often find themselves in ridiculous and comical situations, which is facilitated by the satirically exaggerated professional unsuitability of the Marseille police in general, and Emilien in particular. Also amusing is the detail introduced by the author for greater contrast between the characters: while Daniel is a driver from God, his friend tries to pass the license exam eight times without any positive result. By the way, Emilien studied at the driving school, which bore the name of the director of the tape - J. Pires.
- © Still from taxi/kinopoisk.ru
The investigation of the gang case and even real opportunities to capture criminals are somewhat disrupted by the mistakes of a young policeman who, in addition to wanting to curry favor, has a more lofty goal - he expects that success will help him get the attention of his colleague Petra, whose role was played by Emma Sjoberg (Wiklund). But all attempts to track down or arrest the daring robbers on their own end in vain. To top it off, Emilien manages to forget the stove at home and burn down the apartment. As a result, the policeman is forced to ask Daniel to shelter him with his mother, and he, being not happy with the new neighborhood (which also spoils relations with the taxi driver's passion), decides to help a friend in catching criminals. As a result, a real friendship is struck up between Emilien and Daniel.
As Gerard Krawczyk later recalled, already on the first day of filming, he firmly knew that some kind of miracle was taking place on the set, a magical merger between the city of Marseille, the main characters and the group's ideas regarding the film, although at that time no one could guess how successful "Taxi" would be.
In the finale, a gang of robbers does not find themselves in a trap invented by the cunning Daniel, Emilien receives the recognition of colleagues and the attention of Petra, the heroes are awarded, and the taxi driver himself realizes a long-standing dream - takes part in real races. However, already at the start he learns with horror that he is part of a team sponsored by the police.
The picture was a huge success in France and abroad - the picturesque streets of Marseille, the acting, the script, the stunning race scenes, the exciting soundtrack - all this made the film truly beloved by the audience. It was awarded two César Awards for Best Sound and Editing, and box office success contributed to sequels.
Story continues
The "spare" director of the first film, Gerard Krawczyk, who took over the reins of power in the company of Luc Besson, who re-wrote the script and took on the duties of producer, released Taxi 2 in 2000. The entire main cast of the original film returned to their roles, the chases and special effects became larger, and the humor gradually began to lean towards exaggerated caricature, although in the second part it was not yet as obvious as in the subsequent ones.
The story of the Japanese mafia, which tried to disrupt the negotiations of the Minister of Defense of the Land of the Rising Sun with the French leadership, but as a result was brilliantly beaten by the duo of Daniel and Emilien, was no less successful at the box office, and the final race in Paris became one of the best scenes in the entire franchise. The release of the tape was overshadowed by a sad event: during the filming of one of the final scenes, Alain Dutart, who worked in the cameraman's team, died. The legendary 406th made a long jump-flight in the tunnel, but due to an error in the calculations, it flew further than it should have, and touched a member of the film crew. Due to his injuries, he died soon after. His assistant was injured, to whom the car broke both legs. Several trials took place in the case, in which Luc Besson, Gerard Krawczyk and stunt director Remy Julien acted as defendants. The latter was found guilty of causing death by negligence, sentenced to a fine and a suspended sentence. But the spinning flywheel of the film franchise did not stop it.
- © Still from taxi/kinopoisk.ru
In the third part of the comedy action movie (2003), not only a pinch of completely absurd humor was added, but also a world-class star - in a small scene at the very beginning of the film, Sylvester Stallone appeared. Otherwise, the template remained similar to the first films of the series: a strange gang of antagonists, Emilien's endless blunders, Daniel's prudence and intelligence, Gibert's ridiculous behavior ... A classic, again justified financially - "Taxi 3" successfully rolled, collecting more than $ 65 million.
The fourth part, although it was quite successful from a commercial point of view, was created by the same team and included all the same elements, turned out to be the least successful in terms of the reaction of the audience - the comedic component turned into a completely grotesque, which is worth only one scene with the storming of the mansion of the main antagonist at the end, or more precisely, its finale for Gibert. As a big guest star in the film of 2007, the football player Djibril Cisse, who played himself, lit up. Anyway, it was the fourth part that became the last series of "Taxi", in which the viewer could watch the adventures of their favorite characters.
"They just killed what we did..."
The fifth – and the most unsuccessful in the opinion of the audience and critics – part of the franchise was released in 2018. Luc Besson either tired of "Taxi", or concentrating on other projects, did not even write a script for the new tape, limiting himself to producing, while the story, directing and performance of the main role was taken up by Frank Gastambide, who completely redrew the plot for his character. The result was either a weak remake or a free essay on the theme of "Taxi" with the deliberate exploitation of familiar images in the person of Gibert, who became mayor, Alain performed by Edouard Montut and the unchanged white 406th. The tape cannot boast of at least a decent rating on aggregators and, although it did not turn out to be a complete failure in commercial terms, it did not reach the success of previous films much.
Commenting on the fifth film, Sami Naseri said that it was shot by "incompetent people" and wondered how Besson, being a "smart man and businessman by life", entrusted them with the franchise. The actor also stressed that he is ready to return to "Taxi", but only with the participation of the old team.
"If Luc Besson assembles an old team, then, of course, we can talk about something. We made four amazing parts of "Taxi", this is a real masterpiece of French cinema. But the people who put on Taxi 5 now, they just killed what we did. If we play the old line-up there, I think it's going to be something completely different, a new movie. The French didn't understand why I wasn't in this movie. No one understood," Naseri said in an interview with TASS.
Whether the film "Taxi 6" will ever be released is still reliably unknown, as well as who will shoot it if the project is given the "green light". But despite the crumpled fifth part and controversial decisions in several previous ones, the first part of the cult franchise was and remains the real gem.