"Taxi Driver" followed in 1976—Scorsese's dark, urban nightmare of one lonely man's gradual descent into insanity. The film established him as an accomplished filmmaker and also brought attention to cinematographer Michael Chapman, whose style tends towards high contrasts, strong colors, and complex camera movements. The film starred Robert De Niro as the troubled and psychotic Travis Bickle, and co-starred Jodie Foster in a highly controversial role as an underage prostitute, with Harvey Keitel as her pimp. "Taxi Driver" also marked the start of a series of collaborations between Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader, whose influences included the diary of would-be assassin Arthur Bremer and "Pickpocket", a film by the French director Robert Bresson. Writer–director Schrader often returns to Bresson's work in films such as "American Gigolo", "Light Sleeper", and Scorsese's later "Bringing Out the Dead". Already controversial upon its release, "Taxi Driver" hit the headlines again five years later, when John Hinckley Jr. made an assassination attempt on then-president Ronald Reagan. He subsequently blamed his act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's "Taxi Driver" character (in the film, De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, makes an assassination attempt on a senator).