Tag: The French Connection
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‘Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ Sneak Peek – Lance Reddick Dresses Down Jason Clarke
Earlier this year, the film world was struck by the tragic loss of Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin. Best known for his work on beloved films like The Exorcist and The French Connection, Friedkin still had one more project up his sleeve with the legal drama adaptation The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial based on the Pulitzer…
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10 Posthumously Released Movies by Acclaimed Directors
Legendary director William Friedkin’s contemporary version of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial has come in the wake of his recent passing from heart failure and pneumonia. At the age of 87, Friedkin left behind a significant body of work—ranging from documentaries to crime thrillers to an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. In the film community,…
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Gene Hackman Almost Directed and Starred in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’
Gene Hackman is one of those actors who feels like they’ve lived nine lives (or careers). He was one of the most employed and accomplished actors of the ’70s and ’80s. In particular, Hackman was known for his work in the Best Picture winner The French Connection (for which he won the Best Actor Oscar),…
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William Friedkin Wanted To Make These Projects, but Never Did
There should be no doubt that William Friedkin was one of the best filmmakers who ever lived. He crafted an all-time horror classic with The Exorcist, a crime caper for the ages with The French Connection, and used his cult classic Sorcerer as a metaphor for his thoughts about the Vietnam War. Truly, he was…
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William Friedkin Broke Laws To Film ’The French Connection’s Car Chase
As movie lovers mourn the passing of William Friedkin, now is as good a time as any to revisit one of the legendary filmmaker’s ultimate stamps on cinematic history. Starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider as New York City narcotics officers eyeing a drug bust, The French Connection was a major hit with audiences and…
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William Friedkin’s Grimiest Movie Changed Film and TV Forever
The New Hollywood movement opened up doors for bleaker storytelling in American cinema. Specifically, it allowed, in the wake of the Hays Code dissolving, for authority figures like cops to finally be depicted as out-and-out baddies on film. The darker complexities of reality, where authority figures often become evildoers, could be brought to life on…
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William Friedkin’s Many Unrealized Projects, from ‘Exorcist’ Sequels to a ‘Killer Joe’ TV Series
William Friedkin, one of the great directors of the New Hollywood movement, died August 7 at the age of 87. The news launched an outpouring of love for the director, whose ’70s and ’80s film work proved some of the most enduring and beloved of that cinema-redefining period.The son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants, Friedkin was…
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William Friedkin, director of ‘The French Connection,’ dies at 87
The director’s latest film is set to premiere at the Venice festival.William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning American director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, has died aged 87.According to the New York Times, Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing, the former head of Paramount Pictures, said the filmmaker died of heart failure and pneumonia at his home…
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How William Friedkin’s The French Connection Defined The Modern Movie Car Chase
There were car chases in movies before Peter Yates’ “Bullitt,” but the notion of the car chase as a showstopping set piece did not really exist before Steve McQueen hopped in a Highland Green Ford Mustang Gt fastback and tore ass all over the hilly streets of San Francisco. Suddenly, vehicular mayhem was an obligatory…
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William Friedkin dies at 87
The director’s latest film is set to premiere at the Venice festival.William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning American director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, has died aged 87.According to the New York Times, Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing, the former head of Paramount Pictures, said the filmmaker died of heart failure and pneumonia at his home…