An iconic painting of Robert De Niro on one of the best posters of the 1970s for director Martin Scorsese’s brilliant Taxi Driver. The film follows De Niro’s Travis Bickle, an unstable Vietnam veteran who works as a taxi driver on the streets of New York City, and whose anger at the perceived corruption and sleaze around him takes him down a path of violence from which there may be no return. Cybill Shepherd plays Betsy, a worker for a presidential campaign with whom Bickle attempts to start a relationship, and a young Jodie Foster stars as a prostitute who he decides needs ‘saving’ from her predicament.

The artwork on this poster is by the late Belgian artist, illustrator and cartoonist Guy Peellaert. Born in 1934, Peellaert studied fine arts in Brussels and was heavily influenced by American and British pop culture, as well as film noir and pulp literature. He moved to Paris in the 1960s and began work as a set decorator, as well as an advertising designer. He subsequently began work on two comic strips that were featured in the controversial magazine Hara-Kiri.

In 1973 Peellaert collaborated with the British rock journalist Nik Cohn on the incredibly successful Rock Dreams, a book featuring stylised, exaggerated paintings of musicians that celebrated the rebellious side of rock and roll. The book apparently sold over one million copies and helped to propel the artist’s career to the point where he was collaborating with artists such as The Rolling Stones (on the cover for It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll) and perhaps most famously with David Bowie on the controversial cover for Diamond Dogs, which depicted the singer as a half-man, half-dog creature, complete with genitalia (censored for later releases).

He also worked on film posters with directors such as Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas), Robert Altman (Short Cuts) and on this brilliant image for Taxi Driver that perfectly depicts the strange character of Travis Bickle and the loneliness and alienation he feels on the streets of New York. Peellaert sadly passed away, aged 74, in 2009 but left behind an incredible legacy of art and design that will live on for decades to come.

I was completely thrilled to find and win this one sheet in near mint, unfolded condition. It’s crude to talk about the cost of a poster but it didn’t come cheap and I feel the expense was worth it for such an iconic one sheet.

Guy Peellaert’s official website can be found here.

This is the original UK quad for director Martin Scorsese’s superb Taxi Driver. The film follows De Niro’s Travis Bickle, an unstable Vietnam veteran who works as a taxi driver on the streets of New York City, and whose anger at the perceived corruption and sleaze around him takes him down a path of violence from which there may be no return. Cybill Shepherd plays Betsy, a worker for a presidential campaign with whom Bickle attempts to start a relationship, and a young Jodie Foster stars as a prostitute who he decides needs ‘saving’ from her predicament.

This poster features an image of Travis Bickle walking down a New York street and the same photograph features on several other Taxi Driver posters, including the Japanese B2, this ‘reviews’ style US one sheet and the Park Circus 2006 re-release quad for the film. There is also an international one sheet for the film that has the same blue colouring as this quad.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s superb neo-noir Drive ended up at the top of many ‘best of 2011’ lists, including my own, and there were few films released last year that matched it for sheer cinematic cool. The nameless protagonist was played by Ryan Gosling who suddenly found himself rocketing to the top of the Hollywood hot list, helped in no small part to the silk ‘Scorpion’ jacket and toothpick his near-silent character sports throughout the film.

At the time I, along with many others, felt that the official US one sheet failed to capture the spirit and feel of this supremely stylish film and its release felt like something of a missed opportunity. Thank goodness, then, that the talented graphic designer and illustrator James White (AKA Signalnoise) also felt this way and took it upon himself to design a fitting poster for the film. The results speak for themselves and James’ use of a single image from the opening sequence of ‘cat and mouse’ (as seen in this clip) combined with the striking neon colours is the perfect distillation of the film into one frame.

The poster was designed as a personal project and something of a tribute to the film but, thanks to the effort of James’ agent, Ollie Judge, James was able to gain permission from the film’s rights owners and print the poster as official merchandise to sell on his website.

I was lucky enough to be sent this first edition late last year that was printed as a limited, not-for-sale run before the rights had been secured. You’ll notice the text at the bottom of the poster that confirms this.

See this blog post on my site for and interview with James and details on the making of this awesome poster.

The official poster will be available to purchase online on Thursday, January 19 at 1pm EST. The poster will be activated in the Signalnoise Store at that time. I will have 300 copies of the 22″ x 28″ poster for $50 along with a super limited 30 copies of the 24″ x 36″ poster for $90.

The trailer for Drive can be watched on YouTube.

This is a ‘review’ one sheet and was originally meant to have local reviews printed into the blank space on the right side, as seen here.