New Hollywood II 2008 / The French Connection / USA 1971
This legendary crime film, awarded with five Oscars, deals with a pair of tough New York cops (Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider) on the trail of a big-time heroin shipment headed from Marseille to U.S. shores. The hit of the year for both audiences and critics, famed for its unforgettable car chase, radically influenced the modern conception of the action thriller.
The mere name of this, one of the grittiest films of the early 1970s, immediately brings to mind the most glorified car chase in the history of cinematography and the outstanding Gene Hackman as the aggressive New York cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle. This realistic, high-energy crime film, which influenced the modern interpretation of the action thriller, was based on a true story that happened in 1962. Using the unscrupulous methods for which narcotics detectives are renowned, Popeye and his partner Buddy Russo (the recently deceased Roy Scheider) pick up the trail of a big-time heroin shipment from France organised by the Marseilles dealer Alain Charnier. Friedkin builds a plot line for a police raid using virtually no dialogue and a semi-documentary style with emphasis on the authenticity of details. Through the frequent use of hand-held cameras, we accompany the do-or-die men with their own idea of the law into dirty Brooklyn niches and the cold corners of Manhattan’s vast city streets. In his legendary film - which generated 50 million dollars for sceptical Fox studios - Friedkin wittingly ties in to the style of the early films of his European colleague Costa-Gavras, The Sleeping Car Murders and Z.
104 min / Color, 35 mm
Director William Friedkin
/ Screenplay Ernest Tidyman podle knihy / based on a book by Robin Moore
/ Dir. of Photography Owen Roizman
/ Music Don Ellis
/ Editor Jerry Greenberg
/ Producer Philip D’Antoni
/ Production Schine-Moore Productions, D’Antoni Productions
/ Cast Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco
/ Contact Hollywood Classics
William Friedkin (b. 1935, Chicago) worked in TV and made documentary films at the beginning of his career, of which The People vs. Paul Crump received awards at film festivals. After a two-year stay in Hollywood he debuted in 1967 with the film Good Times. Four years later, The French Connection received tremendous acclaim among critics and audiences and was awarded five Oscars. Friedkin made cinematic history once again two years later, this time with his cult horror The Exorcist, based on the best-selling novel by W. P. Blatty. During the 1970s, his most successful period, the admirer of French cinema also made a remake of Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear starring Roy Scheider. In the 1980s Friedkin followed up on the success of his early films, particularly with the thriller To Live and Die in LA. His most recent film is the gloomy drama Bug, which came away from Cannes two years ago with the FIPRESCI prize.
Hollywood Classics
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United Kingdom
Phone: +44 207 517 7525
E-mail: [email protected]
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