American filmmaker William Friedkin died on Monday August 7 in Los Angeles, his wife, Sherry Lansing, told the American media. The Hollywood Reporter. Famous for its horror film The Exorcist (1973), he was 87 years old. This admirer of Orson Welles, Antonioni and the New Wave almost took the path of auteur cinema, before switching to action films.
Two huge hits made him the king of the 1970s. First French Connection (1971), which received a shower of Oscars (film, screenplay, direction, interpretation for Gene Hackman), where the spectacular car chase will influence the way of directing detective films.
Then The Exorcist (1973), which attracted more people to theaters than The Godfather, by Coppola, and where he does not skimp on special effects (levitation, poltergeists, jets of bile) which, there again, will constitute a turning point in horror cinema. Non-believer, Friedkin says this classic, with a soundtrack as chilling as a cold hand on the back of someone’s neck, is based on a case ” authentic “ of demonic possession.
A fan of first takes and action scenes shot with a handheld camera, William Friedkin is also renowned for his difficult character and his stormy shoots. In The Exorcist, he does not hesitate to shoot blanks near the actors or to slap them to obtain the desired reaction. The pinnacle is reached with the catastrophic filming of the convoy of fear (Sorcerer): withdrawal of actors, cases of gangrene, dangerous scenes. Released in 1977, this remake of the wages of fear, of Henri-Georges Clouzot, is a commercial failure because eclipsed by the first film of Star Warsbut experienced an unexpected comeback when it was released in a restored version in 2015.
Jeanne Moreau and Marcel Proust
Born on August 29, 1935 in Chicago into a modest family, he is an admirer of Citizen Kane, by Orson Welles. He prepared his first weapons in a Chicago television station: courier, program producer then author of a first documentary, The People vs. Paul Crump (1962), which successfully rescued a convict from the electric chair. “That day I became aware of the power of cinema”he says.
Arriving in Hollywood in 1965, he shot series episodes, including one for Suspicionwhere a certain Alfred Hitchcock rebuffs him for not wearing a tie. “I think that in each of us there is a good side and a dark side, and that it is a constant struggle for the good to triumph”considers William Friedkin, convinced that “The most interesting characters in world history are Jesus and Hitler”.
To bear witness to this, the director scratches the unhealthy inclinations of his peers: an immoral thriller (Federal Police, Los Angeles1985), investigation by a police officer (Al Pacino) into the sadomasochistic homosexual world of New York (Cruising1980), black and bloody comedy with Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe2011).
A connoisseur of French cinema, he fell in love with one of its greatest actresses, Jeanne Moreau. First marriage for him, second for the heroine of Jules and Jim : their wedding celebrated in Paris in 1977 ended two years later. Before their divorce, Jeanne Moreau instilled in him the passion of Proust. Friedkin devours In Search of Lost Time and becomes a fan, traveling through the capital and Illiers-Combray in the footsteps of the writer.
A father of two sons, William Friedkin was married three more times and lived with producer Sherry Lansing. Decked out in his eternal aviator glasses – and still without a tie – he had received, at 78, a special Golden Lion for his entire career at the 70e Venice Film Festival in 2013.