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William Friedkin
Birthday:
29 August 1935
Height:
183 cm
Biography
[About the favorite movies he made] I'm very happy with Jade (1995), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011), Bug (2006), The Exorcist (1973)... I would have to say Sorcerer (1977) and The French Connection (1971). Those come immediately to mind. And To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). And it's not that I achieved them, or realized them perfectly, but I di...
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[About the favorite movies he made] I'm very happy with Jade (1995), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011), Bug (2006), The Exorcist (1973)... I would have to say Sorcerer (1977) and The French Connection (1971). Those come immediately to mind. And To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). And it's not that I achieved them, or realized them perfectly, but I did come very close to my vision of them in the execution.
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I was at Technicolor and a guy said 'We just finished a print of Exorcist II, do you wanna have a look at it?' And I looked at half an hour of it and I thought it was as bad as seeing a traffic accident in the street. It was horrible. It's just a stupid mess made by a dumb guy - John Boorman by name, somebody who should be nameless but in this case should be...
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I was at Technicolor and a guy said 'We just finished a print of Exorcist II, do you wanna have a look at it?' And I looked at half an hour of it and I thought it was as bad as seeing a traffic accident in the street. It was horrible. It's just a stupid mess made by a dumb guy - John Boorman by name, somebody who should be nameless but in this case should be named. Scurrilous. A horrible picture.
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[on cinematographer Robby Müller] I'd seen and admired his work, especially in Paris, Texas (1984) and that was the look I wanted. He had this great foreigner's eye for the [United] States, particularly the West Coast, and it was so fresh. He wasn't shooting cliches. He captured all those details usually overlooked in American films, and I wanted to do somet...
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[on cinematographer Robby Müller] I'd seen and admired his work, especially in Paris, Texas (1984) and that was the look I wanted. He had this great foreigner's eye for the [United] States, particularly the West Coast, and it was so fresh. He wasn't shooting cliches. He captured all those details usually overlooked in American films, and I wanted to do something that was very different from The French Connection (1971), which was mainly shot on gray days and with a hand-held look. (...) He loved backlighting with the sun, and using very little coverage, and it suited the film perfectly. (...) His work's timeless. He taught me all about composition, and in the end I adopted his style - that's how big an influence he was.[2013, Variety]
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I've never seen a more terrifying film than The Babadook (2014). It will scare the hell out of you as it did me. Psycho (1960), Alien (1979), Les diaboliques (1955), and now The Babadook (2014).
I've never seen a more terrifying film than The Babadook (2014). It will scare the hell out of you as it did me. Psycho (1960), Alien (1979), Les diaboliques (1955), and now The Babadook (2014).
It's only in recent years that people have elevated a film like Psycho (1960) to the status of a classic. When it came out in 1960 it was pretty much roundly denounced as a scary film but not of much value. Because in those days the horror genre was really sort of a rock bottom, you know, fringe thing. And Hitchcock himself had never made a film as violent o...
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It's only in recent years that people have elevated a film like Psycho (1960) to the status of a classic. When it came out in 1960 it was pretty much roundly denounced as a scary film but not of much value. Because in those days the horror genre was really sort of a rock bottom, you know, fringe thing. And Hitchcock himself had never made a film as violent or terrifying as that. He's the master of suspense but not violence, certainly not horror. Most of his films you'd have to say are not horror films, they're suspense films and thrillers.
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There are not a lot of films that frighten me. There are a lot of films that I've seen that I know intend to frighten me, but not a lot that do. And the horror genre has certainly not really been elevated over the years. They're mostly repetitive, sort of copies of something else. All the exorcism films, all the vampire films, you know, there's very little o...
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There are not a lot of films that frighten me. There are a lot of films that I've seen that I know intend to frighten me, but not a lot that do. And the horror genre has certainly not really been elevated over the years. They're mostly repetitive, sort of copies of something else. All the exorcism films, all the vampire films, you know, there's very little original stuff out there. There are a few. There was a great one a few years ago called Låt den rätte komma in (2008) (Let the Right One In), which I thought was marvelous. I also really liked The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007). I thought these were very unique films that delivered. But I think that for the most part they're not of that caliber. They're mostly repetitive; imitators.
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Sorcerer (1977) is the only film I've made that I wouldn't change a frame of.
Sorcerer (1977) is the only film I've made that I wouldn't change a frame of.
There are just things over which we have no control, and that's one of the themes of Sorcerer (1977). It's the main theme - that no matter how difficult your struggle is, there's no guarantee of a successful outcome.
There are just things over which we have no control, and that's one of the themes of Sorcerer (1977). It's the main theme - that no matter how difficult your struggle is, there's no guarantee of a successful outcome.
[on adapting Le salaire de la peur (1953) into Sorcerer (1977)] I believed that the story was timeless because it involved four guys who are basically enemies but who had to work together or blow up. It seemed to me that that was a metaphor for the world, and still is. You have all these countries that either have to find a way to come together and cooperate...
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[on adapting Le salaire de la peur (1953) into Sorcerer (1977)] I believed that the story was timeless because it involved four guys who are basically enemies but who had to work together or blow up. It seemed to me that that was a metaphor for the world, and still is. You have all these countries that either have to find a way to come together and cooperate or the world will be destroyed.
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[on doing Sorcerer (1977) after The Exorcist (1973)] I was looking for a grittier subject that was more in line with the films that I felt the closest kinship to: action-adventure films that were really offbeat but very profound.
[on doing Sorcerer (1977) after The Exorcist (1973)] I was looking for a grittier subject that was more in line with the films that I felt the closest kinship to: action-adventure films that were really offbeat but very profound.
Most of my films, when I see them again, I would do everything over and in some cases, would just shitcan the entire thing. Not so with Sorcerer (1977). I can still watch it with some enjoyment. I still get pleasure out of it.
Most of my films, when I see them again, I would do everything over and in some cases, would just shitcan the entire thing. Not so with Sorcerer (1977). I can still watch it with some enjoyment. I still get pleasure out of it.
I don't know, for example, if some other actor than Matthew McConaughey had done Dallas Buyers Club (2013), he would've won an Academy Award for that. If it was an actor who didn't have to lose forty pounds, who knows? But McConaughey was a on a trajectory. It's a matter of timing and choices and the grace of God. Success in this business has a lot more to d...
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I don't know, for example, if some other actor than Matthew McConaughey had done Dallas Buyers Club (2013), he would've won an Academy Award for that. If it was an actor who didn't have to lose forty pounds, who knows? But McConaughey was a on a trajectory. It's a matter of timing and choices and the grace of God. Success in this business has a lot more to do with luck than anything else, being in the right place at the right time.
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[on Matthew McConaughey] He could charm the mustard off a hot dog.
[on Matthew McConaughey] He could charm the mustard off a hot dog.
[I was] a punk teenager in Chicago and didn't know a damn thing about anything.
[I was] a punk teenager in Chicago and didn't know a damn thing about anything.
I'd rather work with tree stumps than actors.
I'd rather work with tree stumps than actors.
The day after I won the Oscar was the only time I ever went to see a psychiatrist. I was profoundly unhappy, I told him I won an Oscar and I didn't think I deserved it.
The day after I won the Oscar was the only time I ever went to see a psychiatrist. I was profoundly unhappy, I told him I won an Oscar and I didn't think I deserved it.
I rehearsed The Exorcist (1973) for a month and the best performances I ever saw of it were left in the rehearsal room. When we finally got to the shooting, it wasn't as fresh.
I rehearsed The Exorcist (1973) for a month and the best performances I ever saw of it were left in the rehearsal room. When we finally got to the shooting, it wasn't as fresh.
The most beautiful location in the world doesn't mean sh*t next to Steve McQueen's face.
The most beautiful location in the world doesn't mean sh*t next to Steve McQueen's face.
Today, movies are as visual as they've ever been, but they don't make any sense! They've got no heart, very little story. The dialogue is very often a little bit above a grunt...now, for the most part, people just stare at the screen for two hours and it's like opium for the eyes and you're not moved at all...it's an escape from reality. So there it is.
Today, movies are as visual as they've ever been, but they don't make any sense! They've got no heart, very little story. The dialogue is very often a little bit above a grunt...now, for the most part, people just stare at the screen for two hours and it's like opium for the eyes and you're not moved at all...it's an escape from reality. So there it is.
[on his first movie, Good Times (1967), a vehicle for Sonny Bono and Cher] If I had made that film in Romania under the [Nicolae Ceausescu] regime, I would've been assassinated!
[on his first movie, Good Times (1967), a vehicle for Sonny Bono and Cher] If I had made that film in Romania under the [Nicolae Ceausescu] regime, I would've been assassinated!
[on Citizen Kane (1941)] It's kind of a quarry for filmmakers, like James Joyce's "Ulysses" is a quarry for writers. It seemed to me, on reflection, to synthesize all of the art forms: photography, lighting, acting, music, editing, and writing. And I realized, soon after, that film could really transcend the other arts and synthesize them.
[on Citizen Kane (1941)] It's kind of a quarry for filmmakers, like James Joyce's "Ulysses" is a quarry for writers. It seemed to me, on reflection, to synthesize all of the art forms: photography, lighting, acting, music, editing, and writing. And I realized, soon after, that film could really transcend the other arts and synthesize them.
The Charnier character in The French Connection (1971) is a much more admirable human being than Popeye Doyle. That's the thin line between the policeman and the criminal, and between good and evil.
The Charnier character in The French Connection (1971) is a much more admirable human being than Popeye Doyle. That's the thin line between the policeman and the criminal, and between good and evil.
[on the restoration of Cruising (1980)] When we got the negative from Warners, it was almost totally out of synch. There were sound tracks missing, the picture was out of synch with the sound. The negative looked like they'd held the six-day bike races on it, and it was awful. But because of the digital process, we were able to go in and time every single fr...
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[on the restoration of Cruising (1980)] When we got the negative from Warners, it was almost totally out of synch. There were sound tracks missing, the picture was out of synch with the sound. The negative looked like they'd held the six-day bike races on it, and it was awful. But because of the digital process, we were able to go in and time every single frame again from the start and sonically clean the picture, so it had no scratches, no splices, no anything. Then we remixed the soundtrack into a 5.1 mix. The sound is now perfect. If there's anything about the film that now achieves perfection, it's the soundtrack. It took months to do it.
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[on Cruising (1980)] It's just a murder mystery, with the gay leather scene as a backdrop. On another level it's about identity: do any of us really know who it is sitting next to us, or looking back at us in the mirror? But the vitriol that the film was greeted with still confounds me.
[on Cruising (1980)] It's just a murder mystery, with the gay leather scene as a backdrop. On another level it's about identity: do any of us really know who it is sitting next to us, or looking back at us in the mirror? But the vitriol that the film was greeted with still confounds me.
[on Easy Rider (1969)] It was made for very little money by people who were complete unknowns and it was a great success. It was about the American drug culture. The studios in Hollywood were looking for other young filmmakers to make other such films.
[on Easy Rider (1969)] It was made for very little money by people who were complete unknowns and it was a great success. It was about the American drug culture. The studios in Hollywood were looking for other young filmmakers to make other such films.
[on the 1960s and 1970s] America was going through a national nervous breakdown. It started with the assassination of John F. Kennedy and then the assassination of Martin Luther King, then Robert F. Kennedy, then the onset of the Vietnam War in which America stumbled very badly and has never really recovered. The 1960s ended with the Charles Manson murders -...
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[on the 1960s and 1970s] America was going through a national nervous breakdown. It started with the assassination of John F. Kennedy and then the assassination of Martin Luther King, then Robert F. Kennedy, then the onset of the Vietnam War in which America stumbled very badly and has never really recovered. The 1960s ended with the Charles Manson murders - the murder of Sharon Tate and a bunch of people for no apparent reason at all by a bunch of drug-infested people who were aimless and sort of adrift from the American culture. We [film directors] were reflecting what we could perceive, which was paranoia everywhere and irrational fear. Certainly, my films of the 1970s reflected just that.
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There's a kind of desperation to the characters I'm interested in. They're all in extremely heightened states in a heightened situation. And in the course of my films, we're exploring all of their fears -- the rational and the irrational.
There's a kind of desperation to the characters I'm interested in. They're all in extremely heightened states in a heightened situation. And in the course of my films, we're exploring all of their fears -- the rational and the irrational.
The first thing I look for in an actor is intelligence. I don't really care what they have or haven't done before, so long as they're physically right for the part, or can be, and they have the intelligence to dig in and find out who the character is.
The first thing I look for in an actor is intelligence. I don't really care what they have or haven't done before, so long as they're physically right for the part, or can be, and they have the intelligence to dig in and find out who the character is.
I frankly am not on the same page with most of the films that are being made by the studios now. I certainly can't think of any that I wish I had directed. This is not to degrade these pictures they're making today, like Spider-Man 3 (2007). I'm just not seeking them out, nor are they seeking me out.
I frankly am not on the same page with most of the films that are being made by the studios now. I certainly can't think of any that I wish I had directed. This is not to degrade these pictures they're making today, like Spider-Man 3 (2007). I'm just not seeking them out, nor are they seeking me out.
Directing is the provenance of younger guys. When I broke into film, I had no specific genius. I was just young. That's how I did it. The studios feel that movies are all about a youth movement, and they always have. That's why Orson Welles got to make Citizen Kane (1941) at 25. It's also why Billy Wilder at the end of his career, when he was smarter, wittie...
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Directing is the provenance of younger guys. When I broke into film, I had no specific genius. I was just young. That's how I did it. The studios feel that movies are all about a youth movement, and they always have. That's why Orson Welles got to make Citizen Kane (1941) at 25. It's also why Billy Wilder at the end of his career, when he was smarter, wittier and more energetic than most directors half his age, couldn't even get a meeting.
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I consider myself just another member of the crew, the highest paid member of the crew.
I consider myself just another member of the crew, the highest paid member of the crew.
[after directing The French Connection (1971)] Each picture I've done so far has been for different reasons. The Birthday Party (1968), for instance, was purely a labor of love. I wanted to do [Harold Pinter]. Others were to advance my career, to get better assignments. I have no regard for and no knowledge of the value of money, I'm not saying that's a virt...
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[after directing The French Connection (1971)] Each picture I've done so far has been for different reasons. The Birthday Party (1968), for instance, was purely a labor of love. I wanted to do [Harold Pinter]. Others were to advance my career, to get better assignments. I have no regard for and no knowledge of the value of money, I'm not saying that's a virtue, just a fact. For me, the greatest thrill in the world, the only thrill, is getting 20 seconds on the screen that really gases you.
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The French Connection (1971) was really made in the editing room. One of the easiest sequences to do was the chase scene. It was relatively easy to do because everything was worked out minutely, carefully planned and checked in advance. Of course, there were some human errors and we did wreck a couple of cars before we were through.
The French Connection (1971) was really made in the editing room. One of the easiest sequences to do was the chase scene. It was relatively easy to do because everything was worked out minutely, carefully planned and checked in advance. Of course, there were some human errors and we did wreck a couple of cars before we were through.
By the time a film of mine makes it into the theaters, I have a love-hate relationship with it. There is always something I could have done to make it better.
By the time a film of mine makes it into the theaters, I have a love-hate relationship with it. There is always something I could have done to make it better.
William Friedkin
Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with Orson Welles after seeing Citizen Kane (1941). He went to work for WGN TV immediately after graduating from high school where he started making documentaries, one of which won the Golden Gate Award at the 1962 San Francisco film festival. In 1965, he moved to Hollywood and immediately started directing TV shows, including an episode of the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962); Hitchcock infamously chastised him for not wearing a tie.
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