Cinema: William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," has died

2023-08-08T02:34:18.038Z

Highlights: William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, died Monday, August 7 in Los Angeles at the age of 87. He was one of those artists of New Hollywood in the 1970s with dark, urban films, sometimes shot as documentaries. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Gene Hackman. His remake of The Wages of Fear, his thriller Federal Police, Los Angeles in 1985 or Killer Joe, with Matthew McConaughey ten years ago, do not mark the crowds.

A great American filmmaker has passed away. William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, Oscar winner for The French Connection, died Monday, August 7 in Los Angeles at the age of 87. He was one of those...

Cinema: William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," has died

A great American filmmaker has passed away. William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, Oscar winner for The French Connection, died Monday, August 7 in Los Angeles at the age of 87. He was one of those artists of New Hollywood in the 1970s with dark, urban films, sometimes shot as documentaries.

American director William Friedkin died on August 7, 2023 at the age of 87. REUTERS - Eric Gaillard

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This is one of the most impressive chases seen on the big screen: a car chasing the New York subway at 100 km/h in The French Connection. William Friedkin did not have permission from the town hall to shoot this scene. He did it anyway, with a disregard for security, as he confided in the WTF podcast:

« I am not proud. It was dangerous for a lot of people, including me. But actually, I didn't think about it. And neither did those who worked with me. Today, I wouldn't do it like that. »

The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Gene Hackman. The latter was not comfortable at first with the character of Popeye Doyle, a tough cop and racist, but a realistic cop, insisted Friedkin.

See alsoA film lesson with William "The Exorcist" Friedkin

Two years later in 1973, the director broke box office records. After the detective film, he sublimates another genre: horror. After the drug dealers, he studies another version of evil, the Devil himself. The Exorcist traumatizes generations of spectators.

Friedkin's career was at its peak. His remake of The Wages of Fear, his thriller Federal Police, Los Angeles in 1985 or Killer Joe, with Matthew McConaughey ten years ago, do not mark the crowds as much, as successful as they are.

But the poor kid from Chicago, who went through television, documentaries and even opera, once married to the French artist Jeanne Moreau, never stopped filming the dark, violent and disturbing side of the human being.

Cinema: William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," has died

Cinema: William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," has died

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