“I let the camera crew go and find the action, as if it’s real,” he notes. The operator would have to keep up and capture whatever he could on film to the best of his abilities. As part of the documentary feel of the film, Friedkin would not go through what action was about to take place with the camera operator, Enrique Bravo.The director had a history with making documentaries, and this was his first chance at using some of those techniques in a narrative film. Friedkin notes the unique way they handled the editing in The French Connection and how everything is shot on real locales, not sets, giving the film a documentary feel. The director was heavily influenced by two films, both French, while making his movie: Godard’s Breathless and Costa Govras’ Z.We can understand the similarities, though. Friedkin points out that the prologue in The French Connection sets very nearly the same tone as the prologue in another of his films, The Exorcist, which is about Satan, not French drug dealers.Grosso appears as Klein, one of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics agents assigned to the case. Egan also appears in the film as Doyle and Russo’s Lieutenant. The director also notes that Egan and Grosso were on set every day shooting took place to ensure it came off as genuine.“This was the kind of thing that occurred daily in their lives as narcotics detectives,” says Friedkin. The tactics Doyle and Russo use in the film are very much like tactics used by Egan and Grosso, who would go into bars and cause panic until their suspect revealed himself. Friedkin calls the film an “impression of that case,” but the main characters of Popeye Doyle and Buddy Russo are based on real-life detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. The French Connection is based on a real case that took place in New York in the 1970s.The French Connection (1971)Ĭommentators: William Friedkin (director) So strap in and check out all the wonderful things we learned listening to this commentary for The French Connection. Needless to say, we’re expecting a lot here, and Friedkin rarely ever disappoints. Friedkin is known for giving great commentary, able to hold his own on a track with ample amounts of information, personal insight, and views on the art of filmmaking and the business of movies as a whole. That latter part, The French Connection, is what we’re looking at this week, as it’s time to go back and listen to what the Killer Joe director had to say over one of his greatest films, a true classic with one of the greatest actors ever giving what is arguably - not very arguably, though - his finest performance.īut we’re more interested in what the director of that film has to say about that actor, that greatest performance, and that damn car chase. He used to direct movies about little girls getting taken over by the Devil and edgy cops who crack down on drug rings. William Friedkin hasn’t always made odd films about strange characters who end up doing horrible things. In this edition, Kate Erbland recklessly chases a train through Brooklyn for William Friedkin’s The French Connection commentary track. Welcome to Commentary Commentary, where we sit and listen to filmmakers talk about their work, then share the most interesting parts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |