By Graham Hill
Last Saturday night I attended the L.A. double-feature screening of The French Connection and To Live And Die In L.A hosted by the man himself, legendary director William Friedkin. Presented by American Cinematheque, it was as you might expect, a sold-out event at the four-hundred-seat Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California.
This being the fortieth anniversary of the Academy Award-winning The French Connection, it was nice to see it up on the big screen again, with a newly struck pristine print. After the showing, William Friedkin was introduced to the audience, many members of which were not even born when it first came out in 1971. Still, they were just as mesmorized by the film as the older hard-core fans were. Friedkin was introduced… and right from the start, the seventy five year-old director owned the room, as they say in show business. Never one to be accused of being boring, Friedkin was certainly full of energy talking about his movies, whilst offering up humorous, salty anecdotes of how he made them and what he had learned from the classic masters like Alfred Hitchcock and his close personal friend Billy Wilder. Friedkin, who had started out making documentaries, had by 1965 progressed to television and had been chosen to direct one of the last of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents shows at Universal. He proceeded to tell us that, whilst directing the episode, some studio executives and Mr. Hitchcock himself visited the set, all fully attired with dark suits and ties as was the practice of the day. Friedkin recalled he was clad in jeans and a casual shirt, looking completely under-dressed and unworthy in their eyes. Hitchcock, who was always seen in a dark suit years after all the other Hollywood directors stopped dressing so formally, apparently just shook his head. A few years later, Friedkin was to get his revenge, as it were, when he accepted the Best Director Oscar for The French Connection. Adding to Friedkin’s sense of satisfaction was the fact that Hitch was seated in the auditorium to witness his triumph- though Friedkin admits that the legendary director apparently did not recall ever having met him before.
Friedkin described The French Connection as a great “B†movie and nothing more. Like the chariot race that made William Wyler’s Ben Hur, it was the exciting and realistic car/train chase that elevated the semi- documentary styled The French Connection to its well-deserved iconic status. Friedkin admitted he had added that sequence to the movie purely for commercial reasons. There were only a few questions from the audience, as Friedkin jokingly (or maybe not) kept saying “I don’t want any stupid questionsâ€. He commanded the room and when it came to talking about his favorite movie –To Live and Die In LA- he surprised us by first introducing us to the star William Peterson, who played the sharp young secret service agent on the trail of master counter-fitter Willem Defoe –and then co-star Darlenne Flugel, who played the hooker informant. Peterson, who now sports a head of white hair, remarked how young and eager he was to be playing the lead in a major film, albeit one directed by Friedkin.
It was a big break as well for the slim and still-blonde Flugel, who also echoed Peterson’s respect for their mentor-director. Probably the best and really most profound thing Friedkin said that night was that he never had taken any classes in film making. He said if you want to learn about movies and how to make them, watch the masters like Hitchcock – you’re not going to learn anything in film school! There were plenty of film students in the audience and even some would undoubtedly share his sentiments. You get a sense that Friedkin, who after years of being known as a high maintenance director, has really matured and somewhat mellowed into a kind of favorite old philosopher-uncle type, who seems to have found contentment and meaning with his fourth wife, former Paramount head Sherry Lansing.
It was an hour of pure joy listening to William Friedkin, who could easily go on the road with his own one-man show. The ideal TV reality show, perhaps. He’s both engaging and entertaining. If he did decide to teach film classes, I’m sure the director who also gave us The Exorcist and Sorcerer (which by the way were screened and hosted the next night by Friedkin) would not have to ever worry about his class falling to sleep from boredom.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW YOUTUBE VIDEO OF FRIEDKIN AT THE "SORCERER"/ "EXORCIST" SCREENINGS