LYCOS RETRIEVER 
William Friedkin: French Connection
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Friedkin has made a specialty of this theme, from the conflicted cops of The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A. to the demon-fighting priests of The Exorcist, and his newest movie – like his previous film, 2000's Rules of Engagement – applies this matrix to soldiers in war, a timely subject to be sure. "All war is, of course, destructive to the human psyche," Friedkin states, "no matter what the cause. World War II was undoubtedly justified; perhaps this [current] war [on terrorism] is justified. But ... it's a failure of democracy and the parliamentary system and negotiation and diplomacy – it's really the last straw. Mostly because of what it does to soldiers, and to the psyche of the country that experiences it."
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Friedkin missed again with "Deal of the Century" (1983), a satire about international weapons merchants starring Chevy Chase. Increasingly in need of a hit, Friedkin attempted to fashion a California-set saga equivalent of "The French Connection." The result was the neo-noir crime thriller, "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985). Based on a novel by former secret service agent Gerald Petievich, the film boasted a solid cast - headlined by a pre-"CSI" William Petersen - and some truly spectacular car chases; but its intense vulgarity, amoral characters and stylistic overkill doomed the film with mainstream audiences.
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Friedkin uses a long prologue to establish the drug operation in Marseilles. This sequence, filmed with little dialogue and great attention to detail, not only serves to introduce the drug operation but ... to contrast the lifestyles of French narcotics dealer Alain Charnier and New York City cops Doyle and Russo. This very long sequence is followed by another that establishes the cops' personalities and beat. Consequently, it takes quite some time before the actual narrative begins.
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Friedkin uses his sources simply as a springboard for his own unerringly bleak world-view; he sees life as a grim mystery that can never be solved and refuses to offer pat solutions. Human identity is wavering, unstable, violent; ... even in a Joe Esterzhaus-scripted potboiler like Jade (1995) a respected psychologist has a double life as a whore; in Cruising a respected cop may be a closet case and gay-killer; in The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) the so-called bad guys appear as intelligent and refined businessmen, while the cops are slobbering psychos so out of control they kill their own comrades. Sometimes this refusal to clarify the characters and their activities backfires; much has been made of the opaque plot of Cruising, and Friedkin himself fueled that fire with comments like "I myself was not sure whether there was one killer or more than one. It's ambiguous."
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Friedkin has two sons: Jack (with actress Lesley-Anne Down) and Cedric, whose mother is Australian dancer Jennifer Nairn-Smith. He has been married four times, including a short marriage to French actress Jeanne Moreau. He is currently married to former film executive Sherry Lansing.
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That steered Friedkin toward Hollywood and what turned out to be a roller coaster of a career. You can ride the titles up and down: "Good Times" (with Sonny and Cher), "The Boys in the Band," "The French Connection," "The Exorcist," "The Brink's Job," "Cruising," "Deal of the Century," "To Live and Die in L.A.," "Rampage," "Blue Chips," "Jade." Lots of dark, masculine pictures with characters living in the smudgy area between good and evil. The Bartok opera fits the profile. The Puccini, not so much.
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French Connection