Cinema Retro columnist Todd Garbarini was invited by the Film Forum to an advance screening of a remastered print of The French Connection. Here is his report:
NYPD is the name of
the festival of New York-based films currently screening at Manhattan’s repertoire
theater, the Film Forum. Originally
mounted at the same time in 2001, the festival was interrupted by the terrorist
attacks on that fateful Tuesday morning.
Among the screenings is a
nine-day engagement of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning The French Connection from 1971 which runs from September 14 –
22. Nominated for eight Academy Awards
and scoring golden statues for Best Picture, Best Director (Friedkin), Best
Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Screenplay (Ernest Tidyman’s adaptation of Robin
Moore’s book), and Best Editing (Jerry Greenberg), The French Connection is a masterpiece of visual storytelling
loosely based upon the real-life exploits of Edward Walter "Eddie"
Egan and his partner Salvatore "Sonny" Grosso in their quest to bust
what was, up to that point in 1962, the largest heroin deal in the United
States valued at $32M at the time (roughly $231M today). With Hackman standing in for Egan as Jimmy “Popeyeâ€
Doyle and Oscar-nominated co-star Roy Scheider in Grosso’s role as Buddy “Cloudyâ€
Russo, the film is a gripping thriller from start to finish highlighted by
several set pieces: a foot chase between Doyle and Frog One (Fernando Rey), the
code name given to the Frenchman providing the American counterparts with the
heroin; the much-celebrated chase between a commandeered 1971 Pontiac Le Mans
and an elevated subway train through Brooklyn in a sequence almost too gripping
to be believed; and the search for the heroin in question in a 1971 Lincoln Mk
III by completely tearing it apart and putting it back together.
Don Ellis, the late great
jazz musician who sadly passed away in 1978, provides a superb film score that
he wrote in five weeks and recorded in four days. Film Score Monthly issued a soundtrack album
on CD for the film in 2005.
The French Connection is a film unlike any other: bolstered by a
unique and gritty look, Owen Roizman’s camera provides an authenticated record
of Manhattan and Brooklyn rarely seen in the cinema. In addition to acting as technical advisors, Egan
and Grosso both appear in the film, the former as Simonson and the latter as
Klein, one of the officers assigned to the case. Egan passed away in 1995; Grosso became a
technical advisor on many projects, including The Godfather (he’s in the scene with Sterling Hayden outside the
hospital) and television’s Kojak.
The film is being shown in a
new 35mm print that is gorgeous and free of debris that generally plagues
prints that have been run through the projector many times over.
If you haven’t seen this film
in a theater, you really haven’t seen it. Click here for
more information.