RIP William Friedkin. Ballsy director. Made some of the greatest movies ever. One of the best conversations I’ve had on the show. https://t.co/529RvAAMI7
— marc maron (@marcmaron) August 7, 2023
August 7, 2023
"Some of the greatest movies ever" = "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist."
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Friedkin, talking with another director about the staying power of a cinematic masterpiece: "4 years is a pimple in the asshole of humanity".
#SafeForWork.
The Boys in the Band holds up.
Huh, never saw the Exorcist (not my kind of movie) but recently rewatched The French Connection on The Criterion Channel and it was ... terrible. I mean, I get it and I enjoyed it but, frankly, from this distance there was nothing to distinguish it from Shaft in production quality or filmography.
IMHO.
-XC
Watched the French Connection when I was in college. Went back to see it many times. Friedkin was a documentary filmmaker and made the French Connection like it was a doc. The film had a profound influence on my life. Surveillance was depicted realistically and I fell in love. I would conduct surveillance for 4 decades as a PI.
I can barely recall The French Connection and never saw The Exorcist. What else he do?
Probably the most Overrated filmmaker of all time. French Connection is dated and slow. It has so many plot holes you could drive a car and an El Train through them. The Exorcist was good for its day. But doesn't hold up.
He remade "wages of Fear" by Clouzot, one of the greatest movies of all time as "Sorcerer" which was a dull flop. He had signed Steve McQueen and Yves Montand to do it, then decided McQueen wanted too much money. McQueen dropped out and because he did, Montant also dropped out. He ended up doing it with Roy - low charisma - Schnider and a bunch of nobody Euro actors. Of course, the direction was dull too, so maybe McQueen should have counted himself lucky.
Other "great" Friedkin movies: Trashy "The night they raided Minskys" the even more trashy, homophobic "cruising", the dull C.A.T. Squad, and even duller "Rules of engagement".
Sorry he's dead. Glad he stopped directing movies.
"The Exorcist" has always been overrated as a horror flick, but both "The French Connection" and "To Live and Die in L.A." are great films. I also recommend his Twilight Zone segment "Nightcrawlers" from 1985.
Anybody who could film "The French Connection" in New York City and "To Live and Die in LA" in Los Angeles the way that he did, in those days, in that way, is a flipping genius!
A classically great, American director. Sort of makes sense that he came from Chicago. He's got that feel to him.
RIP
Those two movies are among the best ever made- both top 50 movies in my opinion.
He also made two other really good movies that I have watched more than once- "Sorcerer" and "To Live and Die in L.A". Of the movies he made in the last 20 years, "Bug" and "Killer Joe" are fairly good- the second of those is better than the first.
"The French Connection" and "To Live and Die in LA" are two of the most intense movies I have watched. RIP.
RIP William Friedkin. Ballsy director. Made some of the greatest movies ever. One of the best conversations I’ve had on the show.
He was blessed that he didn't kill anybody while he was shooting The French Connection.
They shot on actual streets, without blocking it off or keeping out the pedestrians. On the commentary Friedkin is bragging about it, I remember him kind of laughing about almost hitting some people with their cars. Pedestrians are jumping out of the way to avoid being killed.
I think I went to law school before I saw this movie, so when I heard the commentary I was like, "holy shit, you're a fucking idiot."
I'm glad he didn't kill anybody. His life could easily have been like John Landis, or Alec Baldwin.
We all do stupid shit in the course of our lives. So be happy when you are blessed and the bad things that could have happened, did not happen. And be forgiving of the people who are not lucky.
We're all sinners. RIP.
I enjoyed The French Connection, but didn't think it lived up to the hype.
The Exorcist completely freaked me out. Horrifying, yet strangely spiritual.
But I think his masterpiece is To Live and Die in L.A. It included the greatest car chase in movie history.
BTW, whenever you hear the label "Ballsy" applied to film director, you can be sure he wasn't "ballsy" at all.
I’ve never seen The French Connection.
Avoided The Exorcist at the tome but did eventually see it. Don’t particularly care about it.
At the time
Reading the comments, just confirms the truism. NO matter how bad a movie is, somebody likes it.
I remember watching Ishtar, now considered one of the biggest comedic bombs of all time, in a crowded 80s movie theater, the the crowd LOVED IT. I kept thinking, "Goddamn this is the worst, when is this damn thing going to end?". But the judging by the movie theater reaction it was a comedy classic.
Or go read IMDB ratings on any movie no matter how low its ratings. You will always find 10-20 percent of the reviewers giving it a 10/10. "Police Academy part VI, its the greatest thing since Citizen Kane! 10/10". IMDB ratings:
French Connnection 7.7
Exorcist 8.1
Live and Die in LA - 7.3
Cruising 6.5
Socerer 7.7 (LOL!)
I stood in line in the snow for an hour or so to see The Exorcist the first week it was released. I went with several frat brothers, one of whom - a varsity athlete - dragged his mattress into another guy's room afterwards, because he was too freaked out to sleep in a room by himself.
I watched it again a year or two ago and was struck by just how good it is dramatically, and how good the performances are. The naysayers on here probably stood in line for hours just to watch Clint Eastwood toy with Clyde the Orangutan.
Remember my teen sister seeing The Exorcist on a date when it first came out and waking me up after because she was having nightmares. It did not have too much effect on me because I read (devoured) the novel first. Living in DC one summer, I did make a pilgrimage to the stairs.
Does anyone have an opinion on the Director's Cut, which I only learned of today?
Remember my teen sister seeing The Exorcist on a date when it first came out and waking me up after because she was having nightmares. It did not have too much effect on me because I read (devoured) the novel first. Living in DC one summer, I did make a pilgrimage to the stairs.
Does anyone have an opinion on the Director's Cut, which I only learned of today?
rcocean… your as tough a critic as that asshole Robert Christgau.
For a few of you, one line from “To Live and Die in L.A.” as spoken by the guy who played the counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe):
“Your taste is in your ass.”
Funny note from his Wiki page:
In 1965, Friedkin moved to Hollywood and two years later released his first feature film, "Good Times," starring Sonny and Cher. He has referred to the film as "unwatchable".
I remember discussions about watching The Exorcist because we were Catholic. The Vatican actually cooperated in its making and declared it a spiritually accurate film, but too extreme for children.
In return, Warner Brothers made up a fake campaign claiming the Vatican was trying to suppress it in order to boost sales.
Today, they would just put Linda Blair on Ritalin.
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