Iβm dying to hear this book and itβs IMPOSSIBLE to find. You would think with everything being digitized it would be easier. I noticed there have been 58 requests on one of the audiobook sites, I can only assume itβs a pleas from this very Janitors, Garbagemen, and Baloon Animal Artist Union. Anyway on the off chance one of you has a digital copy of it please let me know
Obviously the biggest obstacle is that old story of a big filmography. The only way to really do it would be to go the Demme route and condense his pre French Connection films in an episode or 2.
What I really wonder about is how much do younger people(35 or under like me) care about Friedkin. Sure, everyone knows about The Exorcist, but what about his other stuff? I feel like when you compare him to other filmmakers of his time(De Palma, Carpenter, Demme, Zemeckis), even when talking about his top 5, most of them are pretty underseen. Like I said, everyone is aware of The Exorcist, but how many people have seen French Connection, Cruising, Sorcerer, or To Live And Die In LA? And that's just his best stuff. I feel like there's very little awareness of his filmography on the whole.
Anyway anyway anyway, be interested to hear what people think and possibly what people's favorite Friedkin is. Especially interested in non Exorcist answers. My personal fave is To Live And Die In LA. Perfect 80's crime thriller.
Recently I saw Friedkinβs 1977 film Sorcerer. Itβs about a group of desperate men stuck in some shit hole in South America. Or maybe Central America. Doesnβt matter. The point is, these four desperate men get jobs driving loads of unstable dynamite across the jungle. Very dangerous. Iβd always heard that this was a good film. One of the last of the 70s new Hollywood era, when directors went for more gritty, dirty, downer films. The movie is fairly obscure. Have you seen it and what are your thoughts?
For some context for those who havenβt seen this movie, these guys are transporting cases of old TNT that are so unstable they are swearing nitroglycerin. So any sudden move or disturbance can set off the explosives. And thereβs no magic in this movie, Sorcerer is the name of one of the trucks carrying the volatile dynamite.
But damn this scene is intense, the sound design is perfect. Iβm not exaggerating with what I said in the title, I canβt think of a more suspenseful scene than this.
What do you think?
If so, did you like it?
Counting down the Top Ten Movies of William Friedkin, a powerhouse filmmaker whose impact on the changing cinema landscape of the 1970s is still felt today.
https://mattsmoviereviews.net/top-ten-william-friedkin-movies.html
https://preview.redd.it/8djk4qgi10z61.jpg?width=990&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0918658849043de8cd561cdf39aa6ef0fc0ff28a
It's been a long time since Friedkin was the filmmaker against which all others were judged, but there was a time. Many forget that Friedkin's original claim-to-fame was his 1962 documentary The People vs. Paul Crump, which got a man off of death row. From there it was a slow build from further documentaries to a Sonny & Cher vehicle to eventually making the kind of narrative films he wanted to make, and when he got there The French Connection and The Exorcist became unquestioned landmarks.
After the seventies he became wildly erratic, but then again he is a strange man. Personally I consider him less one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and more one of the most interesting energies that film has ever known.
Since making Killer Joe in 2011, he has been involved with relatively few projects. He has directed opera, including a 2014 production of Salome, and 2015 productions of Aida and Rigoletto, the former of which was reprised in 2017. Maybe it's for the best that a man so inconsistent with moviemaking but with so much drive and perfectionism should take to the craft of stage direction. Here's some footage of the first production of Aida, and some words from Friedkin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN-ejXDQjuM
To date, the last film Friedkin made was the 2017 documentary The Devil and Father Amorth. It's a documentary about an alleged possession. All I can say is that he needs to make another film. Because this one can't be the last.
As for the future, Friedkin has been keeping it close to the vest as to what he will do, but turning 86 this year means that he doesn't have much more time. I don't want to promote Twitter, but he does have a verified account so if you want to keep up with him you can track that down. Also it's worth noting that in the past he talked about adapting William Peter Blatty's novel Dimitir, which Blatty considered the best novel of his career. This film has never come to pass, but I'd love to see it.
I'll leave you with a couple of conversations with Friedkin, but I'll ask first - favorite deep cut film? Mine personally would be The Birthday Party, from 1968.
Friedkin talking with Alec Baldwin in 2015 in front of a live audience, released as an episode of Baldwin's podcast Here's the Thing: [https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pZGb2VpVRAO39yffkpHVZ?si=91Q2hGFtScqsn2Kk2T7sGA&dl_branch=1](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pZGb2VpVRAO39yffkpHVZ
... keep reading on reddit β‘Dir. Alexandre O. Philippe
Documentaries on the making of Friedkinβs The Exorcist are literally a dime a dozen, packaged with every release of the film (although none as exhaustive as Mark Kermodeβs The Fear of God available on the 30th Anniversary DVD only) and uploaded to YouTube or marked as talking-head docs for online streaming channels like Shudder β the funders of this documentary film. What separates Leap of Faith from other Exorcist documentaries is that it is predominately concerned with Friedkin himself and creative decisions he made rather than Cursed Films-type ramble rousing. Clearly, Friedkin has a casual relationship with the director as their conversation comes across as breezy and clean, revealing his process and series of decisions that resulted in many of the hallmarks differentiating The Exorcist from other Satanic films. From his childhood in Chicago to his love of art and music, thereβs an elegiac quality to the conversation as minor comments from the director make it clear that some of the magic has gone from Hollywood in the age of the internet and CGI. Iβm not going to say that this is a must watch for fans of The Exorcist, Friedkin does retell a lot of famous stories or describes things that are pretty much public knowledge to informed fans, but if you have access to Shudder itβs an enjoyable 103 minutes. There are some small nuggets of gold though, from explanations of Mercedes McCambridgeβs βmethodβ to act Pazuzuβs voice, to the real story about Lalo Schifrinβs rejected score, viewers will probably learn something new about one of the most important horror films of all time. (4/5)
Though never reached the same level of acclaim for the rest of his work, Friedkin has worked tirelessly across many genres, pushing boundaries and creating provocative films in his own intense and energetic style.
Released in 1985, Friedkinβs To Live and Lie in LA received a lukewarm reception at the time, dismissed by many as a Miami Vice rip off or a vain attempt to recreate the magic of the French connection by relocating the story to the west coast. He would forever be in the shadow of his early masterpieces, but in my video I argu that To Live and Die in La is more than a retread.
