William Friedkin, Exorcist director and car-chase maestro, dies at 87

William Friedkin passed away on Monday. He leaves behind an impressive legacy of being one of the most accomplished filmmakers in his generation. Friedkin’s career veered through a variety of genres, and there may be no better three-film run for a director than his 1971 through 1977 stretch of The French Connection, The ExorcistThen, Sorcerer.This is his final film. The Caine Mutiny Court of Martial The film, starring Kiefer Soutar, will be premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on September. Friedking, who was 87 years old, died on September 28.

Friedkin is also known for his outstanding body of work. famously catty, even with other filmmakersI had an. larger-than-life personalityYou can also find out more about the following: energyThis was a work that had a singularity of its own. Friedkin’s car chase was one of his greatest contributions.

Peter Yates’ Bullitt Steve McQueen, starring in the 1968 movie The Fast and Furious, is often considered to be responsible for creating modern Hollywood’s car chase. Friedkin reinvented this genre a couple of years later. The French ConnectionThe greatest ever crime thriller.

In the movie’s legendary chase scene, Gene Hackman’s asshole cop Popeye Doyle steals a civilian’s car and goes racing frantically through the New York streets, chasing a hitman on the train tracks above. It turns out that the stunt was as dangerous as it appears onscreen. Friedkin claimed that the scene had been shot without a proper permit and illegally. bribed a New York transit authority employeeIt is possible.

Owen Roizman said they did this to make it seem like the car is really going fast. They lowered the frames-per-second to 18 for the chase. And it really works: The driving feels much rougher and faster than you’d see in many modern chases — Doyle slides around as the brakes scream, colliding with the curb and other cars (some of these collisions were accidents they kept in the final film) — which adds a sense of urgency, desperation, and gritty realism to the chase. It’s a great choice (and has become iconic) to place a camera in front of the bumper. This further immerses the viewer into the fast-paced chase.

Friedkin set the bar high again nearly twenty years later. To Live and Die in L.A.This time the chase begins by a beautiful tracking shotSet up the scene and you’ll see two cards careening along the wrong side of an interstate. Friedkin’s idea came to him after he woke up on the wrong side while driving home from a marriage. Six weeks were needed to film his vision.

It is the bumper camera that returns to the scene, bringing back the excitement of near collisions. Friedkin’s latest addition is a camera that hangs from the back window of the car. William Peterson, the star of the film, drove the majority of it. This added to the immersiveness of the scene.

They’re both terrific car chases that clearly come from the same visionary but have their own unique spin on vehicular action. Friedkin is missed but his legacy lives on.

The French ConnectionRent or buy digitally on AmazonApple TV as well as Vudu. To Live and Die in L.A.Unfortunately it’s not legal to stream, but you could rent SYou can also find out more aboutcerer or The Exorcist You can also watch Friedkin on Apple TV and Amazon.