![]() ![]() I became an inveterate Friedkinophil and searched for every interview and information I could find about the filmmaker and his work. Sometimes I was confused, provoked or upset. Every single one of them shocked and delighted me and shattered my expectations. The Exorcist And cruise And Live and die in LA and finally wizard itself (it was involved in a lawsuit, it was unavailable for years). ![]() But at the time, I was simply overwhelmed by the power of his images. I later admired the film for its brilliant acting and deft handling of social class. I loved it because it so vividly and truthfully captured the danger and soul of the city. The film felt cold yet combustible, and there was this crazy car chase.Īnd what did it say about New York, the city I grew up in, the city that meant everything and nothing to me? It was a vision from hell, envisioning the Big Apple as a giant garbage dump-violent and ruthless and hopeless. Should I work towards this? him? I did it anyway. He said things that made no sense (“Did you ever poke your feet in Poughkeepsie?”) and lived in a pigsty. The cop came across as a bastard, a gross racist who enjoyed the worst of the job and screwed up a lot. The picture looked like one of those raw documentaries you see on PBS. Nothing about it resembled what I had seen before. ![]() The movie was called The French Connection, and it hit me like a slap. I soon learned that the same director had made a film that was showing at the Hollywood Twin, a Times Square porn theater that was recently converted into a revival house. What a mysterious and wonderful work of art! I bought it ($10, everything I had on me) and hung it on my wall. It just said: “a William Friedkin film, WIZARD.” The image hit me like a slap in the face: a truck in the pouring rain, impossibly tilted to the right on a rickety suspension bridge about to collapse. One Saturday I walked into one such place – in this case a movie memorabilia store on Bleecker Street – and saw a huge poster that was going to be displayed in subway stations. I loved bookstores and hobby shops, and most of all I loved dingy shops that sold weird collectibles. I was 12 years old.īack then, I wandered a lot through Manhattan alone. ![]() I still remember the first time I was aware of the name William Friedkin. ![]()
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