William Friedkin made movies likeThe ExorcistandSorcererhis way, no matter what changes transformed his industry.
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WasWilliam Friedkinthebestdirectorof the 1970s?
He was certainly themost1970s director, making 70s movies long after the 70s had ended.
But it was belatedly reclaimed as a stealth classic and one of his best films.
He didnt come from money.
His mother was a registered nurse.
His father was a softball player, merchant seaman, and mens clothing salesman.
Although it was criticized for choppy editing and hard-to-follow plotting (theMadparody was titled Whats the Connection?
I was making a film about unsympathetic characters,he toldForbeslast year.
But I tried to present them as honestly as I saw them.
Kael was being mean, but she wasnt wrong.
The result was the most revolting horror film ever released by a major studio at the time.
It was so big that it had to be financed by two studios.
The story was adapted from the same French novel as Henri-Georges Clouzots classic French thrillerThe Wages of Fear.
(Its not a remake ofThe Wages of Fear!
Somebodys probably doingHamletsomewhere right now; thats not aremakeofHamlet.
From the 80s onward, Friedkin scrambled to get funding for his projects.
He never again had commercial success like hed enjoyed in his heyday.
Friedkin himself has acknowledged the latter conundrum.
Now its reevaluated as a film.
Its probably the movie Kael wanted.
(She didnt review it.)
And unlike Doyle, who got to star in a sequel, Chance reaps what he sows.
Most of the shots in the film are the first or second take.
Friedkin was willing to mislead his actors or crew if it got him what he wanted.
Fifty members of the crew suffered gangrene and other serious illnesses and had to be sent home.
Friedkin sometimes said he worked this way because he prized spontaneity above almost everything else.
(Friedkin returned to documentaries periodically, as both filmmaker and subject, up until his final years.)
Freidkin was, as they say, a complicated person.
Films used to be rooted in gravity,he saidat the Champs-Elyseesfilm festival.
They were about real people doing real things.
He was a character and not the role-model sort.
He knew a lot of shady or even criminal people and didnt apologize for it.
In a 2018New YorkMagazine profile,Burstyn told meshe suffered permanent damage from the scene.
Later on, I thought, Why didnt I say something?
So it was a pretty severe injury …
But the arrangement is, the director always wins the unspoken arrangement.
(Burstyn is co-starring in a forthcoming sequel toThe Exorcist, which Friedkin had nothing to do with.)
Youd have better luck throwing rocks at a battleship.
Friedkin generally hated happy endings, though hed do one if he believed it was the necessary choice.
Friedkins life ended at the age of 87.
Friedkin beat his viewers up and left a mark.
