A Chicago lad, William Friedkin got a job in television out of high school, and worked his way up to director. After he saw Citizen Kane, he realized he wanted to direct films. In 1967, he got his first shot: Sonny and Cher's Good Times. Three more films followed before his breakthrough picture, The French Connection--which won him a directing Oscar (as well as Best Picture). The famous chase scene, he says, was "all in my mind’s eye" before he shot a single frame.
Friedkin was author William Peter Blatty's choice to direct The Exorcist. He explains in fascinating detail how they filmed the terrifying exorcism scenes. Then hubris moved in. Given carte blanche to remake the classic The Wages of Fear, he spent $1 million to build a bridge over a raging South American river for a key scene--and the river dried up. They took the bridge apart and rebuilt it over another river; that dried up, too. Friedkin chides himself for being callous and self-involved, and his subsequent films became more obsessive, darker, less audience-friendly.
He made 1985's To Live and Die in L.A., with an even more amazing chase scene than The French Connection. As for his most recent film, 2011's Killer Joe, he believes it will be a long time "before anyone makes another film as provocative and controversial."
Filled with insights into the art of film and its practitioners and honest assessments of his work--and the work of others in the film industry--this is terrific stuff. After reading it, you'll be eager to see all the Friedkin movies you've missed. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher