Cruising (1980)

WHO: William Friedkin directed this, and Al Pacino stars in it, although the latter was very dissatisfied with the completed picture and has never spoken about it in public since.

WHAT: I wasn't old enough to experience the controversies around the filming of Gerald Walker's novel and its initial release, nor was I in town when its 1995 revival at the Roxie (recounted by programmer Elliot Lavine in the SF Bay Guardian and The Evening Class) opened the gates for re-evaluation. But I did finally see it at the Castro in 2007, and found it an interesting if often unsuccessful film that didn't really match the reductive readings of it by its harshest critics, even if it ultimately lacked anything of the forceful impact of Friedkin's best films such as Sorcerer. A concise, fairly-balanced history of the Cruising controversy has been written by Michael D. Klemm.

When the PFA screened both films with Friedkin an attendance as part of a mini-retrospective last month, I missed the Cruising q&a but wasn't surprised that the first audience question after Sorcerer screened was actually about the more controversial later film. The question was about the recent James Franco picture Interior. Leather Bar. which imagines and re-enacts the "lost" footage from Cruising, more than a half hour of sex club shots that Friedkin says in his recent page-turner of a memoir that he put in the movie with the expectation it would be cut out so he could slide the rest of his film past the censors with an R rating. As you can see on youtube, Friedkin gives an entertaining answer about his relationship to Franco's piece, but also uses the question as an opportunity to talk about the making of Cruising as he remembers it- there is some crossover from his account in his memoir but in fact both accounts compliment each other.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens today only at 3:45 and 8:45 at the Castro Theatre.

WHY: Today's screening of Cruising along with Interior. Leather Bar. dovetails nicely with the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts upcoming X: The History of a Film Rating program which collects many of the more high-profile, non-pornographic movies that have at one point or another been saddled with the MPAA's most restrictive rating. There are at least a few other titles on the Castro's just-released November calendar that also make a nice compliment to this series: John Waters's Female Trouble, which screens at the Castro November 7th along with the new documentary on its star I Am Divine, and David Cronenberg's Crash, which screens November 13th along with Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend. 

HOW: Both Cruising and Interior. Leather Bar. screen via DCP.

To Live And Die In L.A. (1985)

WHO: William Friedkin directed and co-wrote this film.

WHAT: Most people I know cite The Exorcist and/or The French Connection as their favorite Friedkin films, but I prefer a couple of films he made slightly later in his career, including this 1985 thriller featuring terrific performances from William Peterson, John Pankow and Willem Dafoe, and one of the impactful finishes to a Hollywood film of its era, if not ever. And an incredible chase sequence. As Michael Crowley wrote on the film,

It may seem at first that Friedkin is merely trying to outdo the chase sequence in The French Connection. But the car chase in To Live and Die in L.A. is utterly unique and superior in many respects to its predecessor.

The sequence that opens with the arrival of "Thomas Ling" at Union station and transforms gradually into the chase is the bedrock of the film. Everything that comes before leads towards it, and all that follows is the inevitable consequence. Many of the film's ambitions are realized in this sequence—its themes are crystallized and conveyed visually, intellectually and emotionally. The geographic and narrative incoherence that may confuse or annoy viewers the first time they see it, over time, become its defining feature.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens tonight only at the Pacific Film Archive at 7:00 PM.

WHY: With the publication of yesterday's SF Chronicle article on the PFA's 6-film Friedkin series, tickets are starting to go fast, especially for the in-person appearances on Thursday, Sep. 19 & 21. I purchased my ticket to the screening of Sorcerer yesterday, but who knows how much longer they'll be available? Friedkin is well-known as an entertaining raconteur with an edge, and pent-up demand to see that particular film on the big screen is pretty large, as it's never been available on DVD and has screened in cinemas very infrequently since it's original, poorly-recieved release (though there was a special San Jose screening I was unable to attend this past Spring).

To Live And Die In L.A. was a hit on first release, however, and has actually already screened in San Francisco twice in the past year. The San Francisco International Film Festival screened it digitally earlier this year and Elliot Lavine included a 35mm print of it in his third annual Not Necessarily Noir series last October. (No sign of a fourth edition of this series on the latest Roxie calendar, I'm sad to note.) But I find it's always good to view great films in context with other films by the same director, so seeing my favorite Friedkin films Sorcerer and To Live and Die In L.A. in such close succession, possibly along with other films he made (I'm thinking of checking out the one title in the series I've never seen before, The Boys In The Band, this coming Sunday), should make their resonance build upon each other.

Interestingly, Friedkin's opinion on another famous car chase movie was part of yesterday's Chronicle article: 

"Bullitt is the best cop film I've ever seen," Friedkin said. "I probably watch it five times a year. But not the chase. I like it, but I don't think it's great. What they did was clear the streets and send the cars over the hills. No people in danger."

Bullitt will screen next Friday at the Paramount in Oakland, kicking off a three-film fall season. It's a great opportunity for East Bay audiences to see multiple contenders for "greatest chase scene of all time" on the big screen in a short period of time. If only Friedkin's San Francisco-set Jade, which has what the director has called "the best chase scene I’ve ever shot" was part of the PFA series.

HOW: To Live And Die In L.A. screens via a 35mm print.

The French Connection (1971)

WHO: William Friedkin directed this.

WHAT: I finally recently watched, on DVD, ten years after it was first released, Richard LaGravenese & Ted Demme's documentary on 1970s Hollywood filmmaking A Decade Under the Influence. It's a slick doc filled with interviews with many of the more famous directors and some other figures who had their careers made in that turbulent cinematic era. Its reverence for the landmark films made during the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations goes down smoothly, except for in a rare critical moment when Julie Christie notes the paucity of juicy female roles when compared to male ones- I could have done with more exploration of this angle and more moments like it. (The film also elides mention of Elaine May, Joan Micklin Silver, Barbara Loden and any of the decade's other women directors I may be failing to think of right now- which seems a worse omission than that of any other single director like John Carpenter or Stanley Kubrick.) 

What A Decade Under the Influence is best for is getting the viewer excited about watching or revisiting the (mostly) famous films excerpted in clips during its 3-hour run time, and for hearing figures like Francis Ford Coppola, Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Peter Bogdanovich, etc. speak about their work and their peers' work in their own voices. But of all the directors speaking about both topics, the most eloquent and illuminating in the film must be William Friedkin. Here's a sample of his  commentary on his Oscar-winning film The French Connection, which I haven't seen in about twenty years and definitely need to revisit.

I could see that I could induce the documentary style into this story. I would talk to the lighting cameraman, Owen Roizman, and give him a general area of where the action was gonna take place. I would talk separately to the operating cameraman, who was a guy named Ricky Bravo, who was a Cuban exile, who actually photographed the Cuban revolution at Castro's side. I'd set up a scene with the actors but I wouldn't show it. I then put Ricky in the room with the camera, and it was up to him to find rhe action. I'd say, "A guy's gonna be running down the street over there", and Ricky would say in his broken English, "Okay, I use the wheelchair?" "Yeah." We'll put him in a wheelchair and wheel him along. We never laid dolly tracks down. A lot of the stuff in the chase was an accident; was never planned! There weren't supposed to be any crashes in that chase. They were all supposed to be near-misses. There was no optical effects or anything. It was all done the way you saw it, and the camera captured it as best it could on the run.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens at the Empire and other Cinemark Theatres around the Bay Area today at 2:00, at the Kabuki on Wednesday, September 4th at 2:10 and 7:00, and at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive on September 14th at 8:30.

WHY: Today and Wednesday's digital screenings of The French Connection can be an appetite-whetter for the six-film William Friedkin tribute coming to the PFA in a couple weeks, at which The French Connection will screen in 35mm. Friedkin was just honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival where he also debuted a new digital version of what I agree with him to be his greatest film, Sorcerer. The September 19 Berkeley screening of this DCP in the United States, after a long battle between director and studio to get it back on the market. Film purists may wish this event had been set up before the DCP version was ready, as the last time a 35mm print of Sorcerer screened in the Bay Area was 2007 at the Castro (I was there, thankfully). But I'm glad it'll be screening at all, and that Friedkin will be interviewed in person by my friend and fellow film-blogger Michael Guillén, who interviewed the director for Mubi last year. 

Friedkin will also be on hand for a book signing of his memoir, and screenings of Crusing and Killer Joe on September 21st. Both of these will also be shown digitally, but the first three films in the series (To Live and Die in L.A. and The Boys in the Band along with The French Connection) will be in 35mm, though not with the director present.

HOW: As noted above, The French Connection screens via DCP at the Cinemark & Kabuki, and via 35mm at the PFA.