Film RIP William Friedkin

Made so many classics. My current favourite of his works is Sorcerer.

Sorcerer-bridge-scene.jpg
 
He was a great noir director with French Connection, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in LA, and Killer Joe.
 
RIP to a King. Someone who was the (despite the Oscar wins) probably the most underrated New Hollywood director of them all - there were a few misfires but he was producing consistently interesting films into his late 70s.

Exorcist is, arguably, GOAT, or at least up there amongst the very highest tier - just transcendent film-making in terms of the art, in terms of that almost-metaphysical viewer experience it can still provoke (as much as Bergman, pre late-period Malick, Dreyer, Tarkovsky, all those 'serious' film-makers), and also in how it engages, in more complex ways than lots of people allow, with its milieu. Plus just terrifying, even after all the copies and parodies. And TFC, Exorcist and Sorcerer is one of the great 1-2-3 runs of movies, up there with Coppola Godfather-Conversation-GF2 or the major Europeans..
 
Sweet Square said:
Still one of the greatest conversations between two directors

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Refn is (partly intentionally) hilarious. He's 'eccentric' in ways slightly different to Friedkin's, i guess, 'erudite bluntness' or 'autodidact working-class Chicago guy', but the clash is partly played up, I think -they also recognize acertain overlap of sensibilities There are definitely parallels with end- Seventies to 1990 Friedkin and Refn's style; so, not highest peak Friedkin but some of the best 2nd tier stuff, like Cruising and To Live and Die in LA (especially, down to the lighting), is comparable with Drive and Only God Forgives and Neon Demon...
 
Rewatched The Exorcist a little while back and I was just astounded at how well it still holds up. Absolute masterpiece.
 
Fecksake. Such a legend. To Live and Die in L.A is a absolute classic, even if the ending is alittle cringe.
 
Just as the new Exorcist film is about to come out. That franchise is seriously cursed.
 
Baxquux said:
Refn is (partly intentionally) hilarious. He's 'eccentric' in ways slightly different to Friedkin's, i guess, 'erudite bluntness' or 'autodidact working-class Chicago guy', but the clash is partly played up, I think -they also recognize acertain overlap of sensibilities
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Yeah they are both having laugh with each other while also getting in jokes that have a bit of truth to them. Makes the interview so great.

Baxquux said:
There are definitely parallels with end- Seventies to 1990 Friedkin and Refn's style; so, not highest peak Friedkin but some of the best 2nd tier stuff, like Cruising and To Live and Die in LA (especially, down to the lighting), is comparable with Drive and Only God Forgives and Neon Demon...
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Agree.
 
Sad news. One of my favorite movie directors. Magical and truly unique.

Sweet Square said:
Made so many classics. My current favourite of his works is Sorcerer.

Sorcerer-bridge-scene.jpg
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Love that movie. Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream matches perfectly too. One of the few movies I actually bother to bring out the projector to see it at home as large as possible.

Haven’t seen a movie by him I didn‘t like a lot. my favorite seems to be Cruising, watching that once a year.
 
:lol:

it’s really interesting seeing sorcerer being at the top of his best films. It’s an amazing film. but when it came out it was panned by everyone and freidkin was accused of being pretentious for wanting to copy a classic. it also didn’t help that the film bombed at the box office.
 
French Connection was another masterpiece for me. Just realised it also had Schneider in it - knew the dude mostly from that Sci-Fi tv crap with a talking delphine so that‘s good to know.
 
Always been an admirer since his extensive interviews in Mark Kermode's excellent 1998 Excorcist documentary, Fear of God. Which you can see on iPlayer. They also did one for The French Connection on YouTube (in incredibly low-quality). Both are well worth your time.
 
Sweet Square said:
Made so many classics. My current favourite of his works is Sorcerer.

Sorcerer-bridge-scene.jpg
Click to expand...
It's such a gorgeous and mesmerizing film. The bridge scene, in terms of tension, is pretty insane. It's not quite up there with Aguirre in terms of slow descent into madness set in the context of raw nature, but it's not far off.
Baxquux said:
RIP to a King. Someone who was the (despite the Oscar wins) probably the most underrated New Hollywood director of them all - there were a few misfires but he was producing consistently interesting films into his late 70s.

Exorcist is, arguably, GOAT, or at least up there amongst the very highest tier - just transcendent film-making in terms of the art, in terms of that almost-metaphysical viewer experience it can still provoke (as much as Bergman, pre late-period Malick, Dreyer, Tarkovsky, all those 'serious' film-makers), and also in how it engages, in more complex ways than lots of people allow, with its milieu. Plus just terrifying, even after all the copies and parodies. And TFC, Exorcist and Sorcerer is one of the great 1-2-3 runs of movies, up there with Coppola Godfather-Conversation-GF2 or the major Europeans..
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You don't post enough in the cinema thread!
Murder on Zidane's Floor said:
Killer Joe was great.
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oneniltothearsenal said:
Definitely an underrated and underseen film.
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Best seen with a bucket of fried chicken.
HookedOnAPhelan said:
:lol:
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feck him and Alexander :lol:
 
weetee said:
Love that movie. Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream matches perfectly too.
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Its incredible. If I remember Freidken first saw them perform live at a Church and then asked them to make the soundtrack.

Rooney in Paris said:
It's such a gorgeous and mesmerizing film. The bridge scene, in terms of tension, is pretty insane. It's not quite up there with Aguirre in terms of slow descent into madness set in the context of raw nature, but it's not far off.
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Yep a truly a special film.

Freidken tells a incredible story of watching a screening of the Exorcist in the Philippines. The cinema only had the English version with no subtitles, so every 10 minutes the film would be paused and a worker would explain vaguely what had just happened on the screen to the audience.

From this Freidken decided his next film - Sorcerer had to be more universal and make sense regardless of language.




jungle scene is you can really sense every moment made in the trucks from the gear changes to the tires moving.
Herman Toothrot said:
He originally refused to record a commentary for Cruising. He only did so after hearing the commentary Kermode recorded with someone else which was then destroyed.
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Cheers didn’t know this.
 
Also Steve Mcqueen was suppose to be the lead actor in Sorcerer but couldn’t be arsed to do the travelling. So Roy Scheider got the role instead.
 
I’ve been struggling with insomnia the last few days so have been binge watch Friedkin interviews




 
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