1970-01-01 02:00:00
It was the night of April 10, 1972, right after the Academy Awards ceremony. Along the wide avenues of Los Angeles, three limousines crossed the city together, carrying a film director each. Drunk passengers—William Friedkin, Peter Bogdanovich, and Francis Ford Coppola—shouted through the windows that they were the kings of the world.
And rightly so. While Coppola dominated the US box office with the first “The Godfather,” Bogdanovich and Friedkin owned the most Oscar-nominated films that year, with eight nominations each. The latter would still win the main prize that night, for “Operation France”, and two years later he would be back with another great success – “The Exorcist”, from 1973.
This scene, recounted with mythological airs in the great gossip book that is Peter Biskind’s “How the Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood,” accurately defines the status Friedkin achieved early in his career.
At the age of 38, the director who died on Monday (7) consecrated a new generation of filmmakers —dubbed the New Hollywood— for his films, giving the industry a breather due to its form and popularity.
But like many names of that era, Friedkin quickly found himself discarded by the same suits who bankrolled his biggest commercial successes.
A little due to circumstances, especially the rise of blockbusters —which the director witnessed up close. “The Train of Fear”, a thriller made by Friedkin in the wake of the phenomenon that was “The Exorcist”, premiered on the same date as the first “Star Wars”, in June 1977. If today an “Oppenheimer” benefits from the popularity of “Barbie”, at that time the production of George Lucas imploded the opponent.
Friedkin didn’t make his life easy either. Over the years and after two hits, he built a reputation for being tough, constantly fighting with producers and production members, including the cast. His determination was seen as a huge ego, and the impossibility of producing a new “The Exorcist” at the box office cost him space.
The icing on the cake, though, were the movies. Like many of his generation, Friedkin was never one to conform to a formula, and the delicate status around him led to unexpected projects. When not offensive to certain groups, such as “Parceiros da Noite”: released in 1980, with Al Pacino at its height, the police thriller aroused protests from various groups in the gay community, who had been accusing him of being homophobic since filming.
But Friedkin kept fighting, even if it meant hitting the knife point. Over the decades, the director has invested in films that are contradictory to the moment. Like “The Cursed Tree”, from 1990, terror in which a couple was tormented by a nymph who, disguised as a nanny, sought to sacrifice her son to a magical and conscious tree.
Films like “Jade”, from 1995, and “Possuídos”, from 2006, would continue this strange life project of the filmmaker, interspersed with more traditional productions – including a remake of “12 Men and a Sentence” for TV in 1997 , with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott in the cast.
The same can be said of his last two films released in life, great provocations in their own way. “Killer Joe: Hitman for Hire”based on a play, sparked controversy in 2011 when it showed Matthew McConaughey forcing Gina Gershon to suck on a waist-deep KFC chicken, thus simulating oral sex with food.
Already “O Diabo e o Padre Amorth”, from 2017, led to embarrassment. A documentary about the exorcist Gabriele Amorth, the production showed Friedkin accompanying the priest in an effort to prove on camera one of his works with an Italian woman. A feeble attempt to capitalize on the director’s image of “The Exorcist”, which was more reminiscent of a clumsy TV special.
But Friedkin, against all odds, proved ahead of the curve at all times. While “Killer Joe” hit theaters just three years before McConaughey won an Oscar for “Dallas Buyers Club” in 2014, the same Father Amorth he portrayed six years ago became a box office hit this year with “The Exorcist.” of the Pope”, horror based on his experiences and with Russell Crowe in the lead role.
In addition to two children and wife Sherry Lansing, the director also leaves behind “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial”, a courtroom drama with Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Clarke. Selected for the upcoming Venice Film Festival, the feature was yet another chance for Friedkin to find new recognition for the industry he helped build, along with a sequel to “The Exorcist” scheduled for October.
But even in death, he’s gone too soon.
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