William Friedkin - The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir

T HIS BOOK IS FOR MY SONS J ACK AND C EDRIC,
AND FOR S HERRY, WHOSE LOVE HAS GIVEN ME THE
INSPIRATION TO WRITE IT.

O Fortune , Like the moon You are changeable Ever waxing and waning ...... Fatemonstrous And empty , You whirling wheel , You are malevolent , Well-being is in vain And always fades to nothing .C ARL O RFF, Carmina Burana Arrogance, however disguised, is the essence of every artist. What could be more arrogant than saying, Pay attention to what Ive done, its of great worth and importance. The energy to paint, compose, sculpt, be an architect, comes from a belief that is without qualification at least during the hour of creation. When someone calls you arrogant, dont deny it. Smile and gently say, Yes, I suppose I am.E LIA K AZAN, Kazan on Directing Camera Logic. The instinctive choice a director makes on where to place the camera to best tell the story. The cameras not jiggling or wandering around or being seduced by something else in the frame. Its exactly where it should be. Hitchcock, John Ford, Sidney Lumet, and others achieved this. Would that Camera Logic applied to Life. Everything would be framed just right. Not only whats in the frame but who .W ILLIAM F RIEDKIN No matter.Try again.Fail again.Fail better.S AMUEL B ECKETT

CONTENTS

An oversize manila envelope lay on my desk when I arrived at the production office of Cruising , the film I was directing in New York. I opened the envelope and pulled out acrylic and spray-painted works on paper, collages of faces and bodies with scrawled words and splashes of color in the style of graffiti. I found them amusing but not to my taste. A handwritten note accompanied them telling me how much the young artist Jean-Michel Basquiat admired my films and how pleased he would be if I would accept these early works as a gift. I threw them in the wastebasket and never acknowledged his note. A few years ago a Basquiat painting from that period sold at auction for fourteen million dollars.

At about the same time a demo recording was sent to me that contained rhythmic soul-disco tracks behind a high falsetto voice. The music was original but not something I appreciated. There was a handwritten note from the young recording artist, Prince, wondering if Id consider doing a music video of one of his songs for the fledgling network called MTV. I didnt respond.

I passed up an ownership stake in Mike Tyson when he was first discovered by Cus DAmato. I declined one third ownership of the Boston Celtics and the opportunity to be one of the producers of Star Wars .

There were films I directed that I shouldnt have and others I passed on that were successful. Ive burned bridges and relationships to the point that I consider myself lucky to still be around. I never played by the rules, often to my own detriment. Ive been rude, exercised bad judgment, squandered most of the gifts God gave me, and treated the love and friendship of others as I did Basquiats art and Princes music. When you are immune to the feelings of others, can you be a good father, a good husband, a good friend? Do I have regrets? You bet.

Not long ago I was interviewed by two foreign journalists at a restaurant near Beverly Hills about my new film Killer Joe , which had just been shown at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. We were talking about filmmakers who changed the course of cinema forever: D. W. Griffith with Birth of a Nation , Orson Welles with Citizen Kane , and Jean-Luc Godard with Breathless . Their work had a lasting impact on all filmmaking that followed, including my own. The interviewers asked me how I felt about the films being made today.

At that point, two young women came to our table. It was four oclock in the afternoon, and they were the only other customers in the restaurant. They apologized for interrupting, but theyd overheard our conversation and just wanted to tell us why they go to the movies. They dont want to wallow in depravity or violence; they want to come away feeling joyful and happy. Fair enough. I asked them what films they had recently seen that qualified.

Bridesmaids , they agreed. Also The Help . I had seen neither, but I knew they were popular.

Have you ever heard of Jean-Luc Godard? I asked. They seemed puzzled.

What about Federico Fellini?

Yes, theyd heard of him.

Can you name a film he made?

They couldnt.

What about Orson Welles?

Of course theyd heard of Orson Welles.

Can you name a film of his that youve seen?

Oh, um... Rosebud , the blonde said proudly.

What do you remember about it? I asked.

A sled.

Have you ever seen The Exorcist ?

Of course, they blurted out.

Did you enjoy it? Did it leave you with a feeling of joy and happiness?

Yes, the brunette said emphatically.

Why?

Because it made me think, the brunette said.

So a film that makes you think is important too? I suggested.

Well, yes, said the blonde.

I was curious: What did The Exorcist make you think about ?

The devil, said the brunette. It made me think theres a devil, she continued.

Not precisely what I had in mind when I made the film.

The journalists were eating it up. They had it all on tape; it would provide great color for their pieces. More than likely, these women wouldnt see Killer Joe , an edgy black comedy with full frontal nudity and violence. Not the kind of movie that has you leaving the theater filled with joy or happiness.

It takes talent, imagination, and a feeling for the zeitgeist to find a subject that touches a nerve. What I still want from a filmor a play, a painting, a novel, a piece of musicis exhilaration. I want to be moved and surprised at some revelation about the human condition.

I think about the love affair Ive had with Cinema. Images or fragments pop into my consciousness like fireflies. When Im able to capture their brief flash, they illuminate a dark corner of memory.

In forty-five years Ive directed only nineteen films, though Ive developed or tried to make far more; Ive also directed hundreds of television shows live and on film. Ive directed a handful of plays and a dozen operas so far. Some of my films are well known; others are forgotten, lost on the roller coaster that is Hollywood, where dizzying heights are followed by gut-wrenching depths.

After I finish a film, deliver the prints to the distributor, and do interviews in several countries, the parades gone by, and its back to real life. The spotlights go off, there are no more autograph seekers, and all thats left is exhaustion and the thought of whats next. Or could this be it? The idea of quitting never occurred to me, but there were times when I sensed the man was at the door ready to collect the furniture and the keys to the house.

From their beginning, the movies developed as an entertainment medium, and its objective has remained profit. A director gets to make a film only because a studio executive or a financier thinks it could make money. Its almost impossible to choose a project with no eye to the marketplace. Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Godard, and Akira Kurosawa had to sell tickets, and when their films stopped working at the box office, they couldnt get them made.

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