OCS CHOC – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 AT 8:40 p.m. – DOCUMENTARY
Released under the original title Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (2019), this documentary film by Alexandre O. Philippe, a Swiss director trained and installed for twenty-eight years in the United States, is broadcast by the OCS channel, as had been Friedkin Uncut (2018), by Francesco Zippel, now available on TCM Cinéma and MyCanal.
Unlike this last documentary, which stirred a large portrait of the director abounded by numerous testimonies, The Exorcist according to William Friedkin focuses on the title that made his fame and fortune, horror film and psychological drama equally, released on North American screens on December 25, 1973, as a sign of cleverly orchestrated provocation.
William Friedkin, famous cinephile, is also a big fan of painting and music
A lover of “sharp” subjects, Alexandre O. Philippe had previously focused his gaze on Alfred Hitchcock by examining the scene of the shower with a magnifying glass and a scalpel. Psychosis (1959) in 78/52: the last secrets of Psychosis (2017). Here, during six days of filming at Friedkin’s home, he lets the inexhaustible storyteller decipher and contextualize The Exorcist. And this with only extracts from films or musical works as well as reproductions of paintings.
For William Friedkin, a famous cinephile but also a great lover of painting and music – he has directed operas, including Wozzeck, by Alban Berg, the first, in 1996, at the suggestion of his friend the conductor Zubin Mehta -, very often refers to these components and influences.
“Cursed” shoot
Friedkin looks back at the story of the thunderous success that was The Exorcist, about which the filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, aged 10 at the time of the film’s release, recalls, in Friedkin Uncut, than “People lined up for the session, for the next session but also for the one after! “ The “secrets” of this eventful filming, even ” damn “ according to some, are evoked – but not all: the documentary prefers to evacuate the anecdote in favor of the structure and the manufacture of the film.
It should be noted that William Friedkin is deeply interested in the role of music and sound in The Exorcist and in the work of other filmmakers. He returns to the rather spicy choice of a voice “Neither masculine nor feminine” to embody demonic remarks, on scholarly electroacoustic elaborations or even the influence of the multiphonic sounds of John Coltrane …
William Friedkin returns to the rather spicy choice of a voice “neither masculine nor feminine” to embody the demonic remarks
He narrates through the menu his volcanic encounter with Bernard Herrmann, his refusal of the score ordered from his friend Lalo Schifrin (from which we hear an extract) as well as the decision to arrange the soundtrack himself. Before Lynch, Scorsese, Kubrick and many others, Friedkin used the works of the avant-garde Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020), often mistakenly presented as the author of the original music of The Exorcist.
Without forgetting the introductory title of the album Tubular Bells, by Mike Oldfield, with his irregular and repetitive builds influenced by the minimalism of Philip Glass. The song, first release and first “hit” from the Virgin label, in May 1973, will become the emblematic signature theme of a film of delightfully horrific visual and ear delights.
The Exorcist according to William Friedkin, documentary by Alexandre O. Philippe (EU, 2019, 99 min). Available on demand on OCS and MyCanal. The film The Exorcist (1973) is then released at 10:25 p.m.