Movie Fans: Excellent interview with a largely underrated director

[TVC15]

William Friedkin, yes, will always be famous for The French Collection and The Exorcist, two movies at the top of their respective genres coming on 35 years after their releases, but that's generally as much as they know about the dude.  He's had his ups and downs, and while he's never really made a movie as good as the two named above, can you really blame him for that?

Anyway, the AV Club continues to be the source for great interviews these days.  This past week, they've had good ones with Slash, Uwe Boll, and Friedkin.  And they are all legitimately good interviews, especially the Friedkin, one.  The Boll and Slash ones are entertaining (Slash impresses me in interviews.  Dude is no meathead), but the Friedkin one is a great interview with someone who doesn't get the credit he deserves very often (though the lead in makes it sound like he's getting something of a renaissance thanks to DVD).

Check it out.  Tell me you don't come away interested in duder.

http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/william_friedkin

[Ichirou]

Funnily enough, when I think of Friedkin, I think of To Live and Die in L.A., which is an awesome, awesome movie.  The type of movie Michael Mann would make if he had the talent for it.

He also did that Wages of Fear remake, Sorcerer, which was a massive bomb, but which I desperately want to see.

[TVC15]

Yeah, the article mentions that movie specifically has seen a resurgence, but the only DVD copy available appears to be pan and scan, which sucks.

A lot of it focuses on Cruising because I guess that was just recently reissued on DVD.  I kind of want to see that.  Even if it's pretty lousy as a movie, it has to be pretty interesting as a dated relic from a different time.

[Smooth Groove]

William Friedkin, yes, will always be famous for The French Collection and The Exorcist,

French Collection or French Connection?  I've only heard of the latter but I'm not an avid film student. 

[Ichirou]

I had honestly never even heard of Cruising until a few weeks ago when it was announced as coming out on DVD and they had the trailer up on YouTube or someplace.  It sounds bizarre that that kind of movie got made at that specific point in time, with a major actor like Pacino.

[TVC15]

William Friedkin, yes, will always be famous for The French Collection and The Exorcist,

French Collection or French Connection?  I've only heard of the latter but I'm not an avid film student. 

Connection, my bad.  I'M SICK.

Also, Cruising was recently covered in the excellent My Year of Flops column, by the same dude that did this interview:

http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/my_year_of_flops_case_file_63

[Phoenix Dark]

I had honestly never even heard of Cruising until a few weeks ago when it was announced as coming out on DVD and they had the trailer up on YouTube or someplace.  It sounds bizarre that that kind of movie got made at that specific point in time, with a major actor like Pacino.

How can you not love anal fisting?

[youtube=425,350]k44x5uFjZXA[/youtube]

[Ichirou]

You gonna rent this flick, PeeDee?

[TVC15]

I refuse to believe that Cruising isn't awesome.  Al Pacino looking like Lou Reed.  Leather bars.  Lots of guys that look like Freddie Mercury.  Indiana Jones' bitch from the first movie.  Serial killers.  Pre-AIDS.  Gotta be decadent and awesome.

[Smooth Groove]

Sounds interesting.  Both movies brought many innovative ides to filmmaking, IMO.   Both films were also enjoyable for critics and casual watchers alike.    A quick search on Wiki shows that The French Connection actually won Friedkin an Academy Award for Best Director.  I"m surprised indeed that Friedkin is not more well known.  

[TVC15]

And The Exorcist might be even more well known.  Two of the best movies ever, and his name is generally not remembered, as if they were flukes or something.  I think French Connection may have won best picture, too, not sure.  The Exorcist was largely snubbed, likely because it came out just a year or two later.

[Smooth Groove]

And The Exorcist might be even more well known.  Two of the best movies ever, and his name is generally not remembered, as if they were flukes or something.

What happened to "The Deer Hunter" director?  He might have been the biggest fluke of all time. 

[TVC15]

And The Exorcist might be even more well known.  Two of the best movies ever, and his name is generally not remembered, as if they were flukes or something.

What happened to "The Deer Hunter" director?  He might have been the biggest fluke of all time. 

He directed Heaven's Gate, which isn't very well known today, but it was a gigantic bomb that single-handedly ended the era of giving director's free reign.  I don't think he's done anything else noteworthy.

For what it's worth, I don't think The Deer Hunter is really that great.  I can get it's an important movie, and it was worth watching, and it has some great scenes, but the very intentional pacing did not jive for me.  I think it's more of a movie with great parts than a great movie.

Anyway, Cruising also has the film debut of Phoenix Dark's dad:

[youtube=425,350]OgWvLkTkTBY[/youtube]

[Ichirou]

Michael Cimino.  Heaven's Gate wasn't just a box office bomb - its production was an absolute disaster.  The movie went incredibly over budget, and killed United Artists.

Its reputation is pretty legendary amongst film critics for being one of the worst films of all time, even though it's now being "reevaluated" by younger folks after the director's cut was released on DVD.  I hear Heaven's Gate is pure torture to sit through, so I've sort of avoided seeing it, though I'm tempted. 

[Phoenix Dark]

I want that entire scene in gif form, his res

[Phoenix Dark]

Michael Cimino.  Heaven's Gate wasn't just a box office bomb - its production was an absolute disaster.  The movie went incredibly over budget, and killed United Artists.

Its reputation is pretty legendary amongst film critics for being one of the worst films of all time, even though it's now being "reevaluated" by younger folks after the director's cut was released on DVD.  I hear Heaven's Gate is pure torture to sit through, so I've sort of avoided seeing it, though I'm tempted. 

people never appreciate REAL AMBITION in filmmaking... this movie was rated poorly because of its political slant not because it was 'too long'...Cimino boldly took the 'revisionist' aspect of 70s westerns beyond what the mass public was willing to except (the truth!). IMO there was a conspiracy by the industry to take this movie AND more specifically Cimino down.


 

[Ichirou]

Man, I bet that was Cimino himself who posted that comment.

As for that sequence...I guess it looks nice, but it seems pointless!  No wonder the original version was over five hours long, if that's the type of stuff it featured.

[T234]

The French Connection was excellent. Gene Hackman