Don't usually create dedicated obiturary posts, but in the case of the recent passing of William Friedkin, this is a notable exception to the rule.
Amongst the New Hollywood era collective, William Friedkin was one of the few film makers who didn't sell out or lose all of his mojo during their career. Friedkin taught us how to make money and how to kill in his films. That's more educational than anything I ever learnt at school.
His anecdotal tales were always entertaining, and most of all, he always threw caution to the wind and didn't pull his words. This element, and more importantly, an oeuvre which would leave most of today's film makers green with envy, made him a truly based individual.
Obviously, he will always be associated as the man who gave us the horror classic The Exorcist (1973), but The French Connection (1971) was my first Friedkin film and it's etched itself way more onto my brain. The chase sequence with Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle pursuing a hijacked train through the grimy and busy streets of NYC is one of my fave chase sequences of all time. More recentlly, the film entered the limelight again when that great bastion of refined cinema known as Criterion Films censored it on its subscription channel. Another example why physical media is still important today.
Despite it being a musical, I've tried to catch one of Friedkin's earliest and hard to find films, The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968). The reason why I've always wanted to check it is the late British comedian Norman Wisdom in it. Knowing there's a film out there helmed by Friedkin which features Albania's adopted son in it makes me want to see it, regardless of quality. Not many directors out there make me want to do that, which made Friedkin such a special film maker, in my opinion.
R.I.P. William Friedkin.
Edgar Wright just shared an email from Friedkin on Instagram where Friedkin said he knew he couldn't top the chase scene from Bullitt so he knew he had to do something different.
ReplyDeleteIt's close, but my fave Friedkin is To Live And Die In L.A. Sorcerer as his underrated imperial phase flick, and Bug should be in the movie dictionary under true late-career highlight.
Actually prefer Sorcerer over The Wages of Fear.
ReplyDeleteA safe bet Kermode will discuss a fair bit about Friedkin on his podcast or for the BFI.
Hope we're spared from him being outraged by THAT scene in Killer Joe again.
ReplyDeleteI've still never seen Cruising.
The chicken drumstick scene? Didn't know he had issues with that film.
ReplyDeleteTempted to revisit Cruising on account of Mike Malloy's excellent coverage of the "cop sleaze" movie subgenre. Big fan of the other films listed.
I've seen 3 Kermode vids talking about how he found that scene #problematic. Clearly doubly offensive to him as a feminist and a vegetarian.
ReplyDeleteCan't trust overweight vegetarians. Doubly more so when they describe themselves as male feminists.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I made the mistake of listening to Kermode & Mayo's recent podcast while they were away and Rhianna Dhillon and Anna Bogutskaya were hosting. If I had to down a shot everytime they mentioned the words "feminism" or "feminism" in a sentence I would have been fucked.
😄 I watched their Talk To Me review and cursed Kermode & Mayo for always being on holiday whenever there's a movie I like out. Kermode gave it a good review in The Observer tho.
ReplyDeleteStill need to see that film.
ReplyDeleteAlways seems to be the case of Kermode going on his hols whenever a remotely interesting film is coming out.