Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (2019): You might be forgiven for complaining that this documentary is just a glorified director’s commentary – you would not be completely wrong, particularly in its first part. But it’s also the best packaged documentary I’ve seen, not only on the film, but on its director as well: it features the big stories, dwells on the details and fleshes out personality. “A lyrical and spiritual cinematic essay” says the box and the box is not wrong, because Alexandre Philippe’s composition stands out in subtle, yet meaningful ways. The Exorcist is, of course, a movie about faith and spiritual subsistence more than demonic horrors and the way it came together was, to Friedkin, a proof of fate – so many unlikely things aligned, that its story only makes sense in retrospect. Leap of Faith does well to capture this…this ambiguity of life and ends on a beautiful grace note, a communion of sort with Friedkin, a fitting and melancholy montage that’s ironically peaceful, especially featuring a man known to have often been kinetic energy incarnate. Beautiful stuff. 8
Conversation with Fritz Lang (1975): A crisp forty years before sitting on “the other seat” with Refn, Friedkin interviewed legendary director Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, and other movies I have not seen) – a conversation readily available online. Lang needed some persuading to accept the invitation, not being much of a fan of interviews and the need of filmmakers to “explain” their work. Friedkin’s successes of the early 70s made him an interesting draw. The two discuss matters of film, from the basics of “how did you get into it” to particulars about “the meaning” of certain details. The academic question of what the author “meant” gets a knock on the head from Lang, who says he had few ulterior motives, in particular few political motives, until after Metropolis. Of course, staying apolitical in fascist Germany was not in the cards, especially not once Lang was on the radar of the Ministry for Propaganda, which culminated as he met Goebbels in 1933, just before fleeing the country. The cadence of 80+ year old Lang’s storytelling is theatrical but rather slow and I didn’t find this to be a riveting conversation; at the same time, I felt like I would have listened to the two talk for longer, if I had the possibility to do so. Strange thing, the aura o legends. 7
Friedkin Uncut (2018): If you want a quick overview of essential Friedkin, alongside some insights from the likes of Tarantino, Wes Anderson or Matthew McConaughey, as well as Friedkin himself, this is a good place to start. It covers the key periods in his life, his most important movies, and delves into how his works have influenced so many of his peers. As you would maybe expect, Sorcerer is one the movies that gets a lot of love, particularly from Tarantino, who calls it “one of the greatest movies ever made” – and then says lead Roy Scheider was miscast. There isn’t as much depth and probing to go with everything, but Friedkin is a captivating speaker and it’s easy to be drawn into his stories and philosophy of film and life. 7
The Birthday Party (1968): We learn(ed) about the theater of the absurd in school, with several plays of Eugen Ionescu that the curriculum gravitates towards. I can’t say I understood much at the time, but later came across some Beckett shorts I didn’t all hate (well, I did rate Footfalls with a glowing 1, for whatever reason). Ironically, writing this I realized that the short I liked, the David Mamet directed Catastrophe, starred…Harold Pinter! Yes, Pinter wrote The Birthday Party, among others, and was to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, three years before his passing. This movie adaptation starts off as a mischievous comedy before descending into paranoia and primarily stars Robert Shaw, Patrick Magee, Sydney Tafler and Dandy Nichols. It tells of Stanley, a tenant at a minor boarding house, who finds himself the interest of two distinctively upscale gentlemen – for reasons unknown and undisclosed. It’s a very well acted story, even if its intentional ambiguities and inconsistencies don’t always stand out in as riveting a fashion as I imagine they could have. Nonetheless, I survived it with my mind intact and curiosity appeased, though this will always be a particular cinematic fancy. 7
Sorcerers: A Conversation with William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn (2015): This minor documentary which is readily available online pits Friedkin with Refn (Drive, Bronson, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon), the latter a self-confessed Friedkinite and “younger Friedkin”. As mentioned, it’s basically a reverse of the conversation that took place almost half a century before between Friedkin and Fritz Lang. The two discuss Friedkin’s movie Sorcerers to some detail, with a lot of emphasis on how/why it failed and what its creator felt about it. Parallels to Only God Forgives, a similarly flawed movie, come in handy, but I’ve found their talk adds little to the information that Friedkin reveals in his biography. Refn usually refers to it directly or indirectly, without ever really eliciting something truly revealing from his discussion partner. That’s only to say the “documentary” serves little to those with some knowledge on the backstory of Sorcerer, with the exception of some tasty tidbit comments that Friedkin makes along the way. 6
tributary stu 