Taksi-blyuz

This film shows the conflict and forming of a friendship between two opposites: Shlykov, the hard-working patriotic cab driver built like a tank, and Lyosha, the thin, panhandling urban Jew.

A taxi driver in Moscow named Shlykov gets stiffed of his fare by the Jewish saxophone player named Lyosha who calls himself a genius who "speaks to God". Shlykov tracks down Lyosha and takes his saxophone and that is when the fun begins.

Lyosha fails to make money fast enough to pay Shlykov back but Shlykov decides to give him back his saxophone anyways. Lyosha, sensing Shlykov's soft heart, tries to further take advantage of him by begging him for money. After Shlykov lets Lyosha in his apartment, and after Lyosha causes him great trouble costing him even more money, Shlykov takes Lyosha to jail.

After a violent outburst by Shlykov he decides to go back to the police station to drop the charges against Lyosha. He has decided that sending Lyosha to jail would accomplish nothing. He wants to show Lyosha what life is like for honest hard-working people. Shlykov makes Lyosha come to work with him. The "intellectual" breaks down when forced to do what millions of other people in the country have to do everyday of their lives. Both characters show impulsive and unpredictable behaviour, but for different reason. Lyosha is simply a drunk. Shlykov is a patriotic ex-athlete full of proletariat angst and senses his nation is dying because of the "rotten" westernized hooligans he sees everywhere in the streets who lack any work ethic.

I will not reveal the ending to you but I will tell you this story is not a fairy tale.

I think this film goes much deeper than just showing what life was like in the USSR; the two characters can be found in almost every culture in the world today.

Excellent performances by both Zajchenko and Mamonov.

*Please note: This review discusses many key events of the film, including the end. Do not read if you have not seen the movie!!!

Taxi Blues is a film about control. It isn't, however, as simple as it initially seems. At the film's conclusion, the audience is left to ask, "Who's really controlling whom?"

At the beginning of this film, Chlykov has complete control of his life. He manages his cab, and his side job of selling alcohol, with an iron fist and the facial expression to match. He is the master of his domain and no one in his or her right mind would dare to question his authority in any way.

The problem is that Lyosha is not in his right mind. His life is careening out of control and he has one priority. Alcohol. From the minute that he requests his first bottle from Chlykov, their lives become irrevocably entangled. In the beginning, it is very clear where the power lies. As the film continues, however, it becomes harder and harder to tell who is controlling whom. Although he does not seem to realize it, Chlykov's life begins to revolve around the very man he seeks to reform. As a result, aspects of his own life start to slip from his control.

For example, when Lyosha begins to seduce his girlfriend, Chlykov, in a desperate attempt to prove his authority, smashes Lyosha's saxophone and then engages Christina in an aggressive sexual act against her will. For those few minutes, Chlykov is free of his self-induced commitment to Lyosha. However, his freedom is short-lived. A few minutes later the phone rings and he is soon back at the jail to meet Lyosha, once again putting his own life on hold.

By the end of the film, the roles have reversed. Lyosha gets his life together, at least temporarily, and is on top of the world as a beloved, world-renowned musician. Chlykov's life, however, is reminiscent of Lyosha's at the beginning of the film. He severs connections with his girlfriend, his friends and his once structured existence. It is no coincidence that in the last scenes of the film, Chlykov is in a speeding car, spinning wildly out of control.

Pavel Lungin's film Taxi Blues explores many different aspects of contemporary Russian life. Set against the cultural malting pot of Moscow, the story unfolds as two men compare and contrast their lots in life, each admiring what the other has and wishing they could have it as well.

The film begins with a taxi driver, driven by the hardships in life and accustomed to the dark side of life in Moscow. He picks up a group of musicians after a night out on the town, and after the last one has been dropped off, he is stiffed on the bill. Enraged, the taxi driver stalks the last musician out of the taxi, corners him, and steals his saxophone. In return, the musician is thus forced to perform manual labor for the taxi fare, and to get his saxophone back! The conflict in the film is evident through the two characters involved here. The taxi driver is a dark, strong-willed character, and the musician is a thin and weak soul. They see each other as complete opposite, almost as enemies. But, they somehow manage to find a friendship through their encounter. Gradually, each becomes dependant upon the other, and this is essentially the film's theme. What Lungin is attempting to convey here is that sometimes the bleakest situations in our lives can provide our best opportunities for self-improvement. Both characters are lost, but in different capacities. They are alone, frustrated, and tired, but both experience these things on different levels; the working class level, and the creative/artistic level. Through their experiences together, both men help one another to achieve something greater for themselves, and their friendship is a testament to that.

This film is more deeper thats you can imagine. This film is about 2 Russian souls, two tragical souls in the 1980xx( at the end of soviet union). This men are the parallel to the soviet - both are tragical, needs new oxygen, new energy to survive!

I think that only Russians can understand that cinema, its very hard to see this film, if you are not living in Russia. Unreal playing by actors, amazing Vladimir Cherkasin soundtracks

If you like this film, you can see all the films with Petr Mamonov or films by Pavel Lungin.

I think that this film is more than 10/10

The past collides with the present in this unflinching portrait of life behind the late Iron Curtain, showing the often antagonistic relationship between a half-mad, free-spirited saxophone player and his older, old-fashioned alter ego, a hack who has seen too many changes through the window of his Moscow cab. Alexei's exuberant, non-conformist energy is the catalyst for the drama but this is clearly Ivan's film, and the story matches his often irrational mood changes while staying remarkably true to its characters, presenting both archetypes in three not altogether appealing dimensions (Ivan is a traditional anti-Semite; Alexei is an irresponsible deadbeat). The film conveys with almost naked candor the seamier side of the new Moscow subculture, adding a somewhat veiled accusation of moral corruption and decadence in the social reforms of Perestroika. The imagery is often arresting, but if the film is critical of Western influence it isn't entirely immune to them, and it's disconcerting to see the story end in a routine car chase slapped together from what look like outtakes from a William Friedkin movie.