Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Editor’S Note: William Friedkin’s passing is a gutting experience for anyone lucky enough to have sat as he reminisced over his classic movies, with measures of regret for the recklessness, humor, and keen observations of why Hollywood’s Auteur Era gave way to the global blockbuster, and whatever it is we have today as two guilds strike seeking transparency, and residuals for writers and actors. This interview was originally published August 6, 2015 under the title ’70s Maverick Revisits A Golden Era With Tales Of Glory And Reckless Abandon. I am feeling a bit gutted by Friedkin’s passing. I looked forward to a long interview with him for his Venice-bound Showtime remake of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. After spending time with Billy and his elegant wife Sherry Lansing at Peter Bart’s 90th birthday where the back and forth between them proved the highlight of the evening, I wanted...
- 8/8/2023
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s not a movie chase scene so much as the movie chase scene: a breakneck race against time between a criminal on an elevated subway and a cop in a commandeered car, careening through the streets of Brooklyn at ridiculous speeds.
Related William Friedkin, Oscar-Winning Director of 'The French Connection' and 'The Exorcist,' Dead at 87 Flashback: 'The Exorcist' Gets a Face Full of Pea Soup Vomit No Sympathy for the Devil: 'The Exorcist' Director William Friedkin Looks Back
The bad guy...
Related William Friedkin, Oscar-Winning Director of 'The French Connection' and 'The Exorcist,' Dead at 87 Flashback: 'The Exorcist' Gets a Face Full of Pea Soup Vomit No Sympathy for the Devil: 'The Exorcist' Director William Friedkin Looks Back
The bad guy...
- 8/7/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
The car chase was one of many innovations of the New Hollywood era, where on-location authenticity supplanted studio backlot fakery. Yes, there were car chases in movies before Peter Yates' "Bullitt," but they tended to be laden with process shots featuring actors at the wheel while the image projected behind them veered out of control. Even an A-plus production like Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" settled for soundstage-bound sequences that manufactured the sensation of high-speed vehicular mayhem.
Perhaps they were thrilling to people at the time because they had nothing quite so thrilling as a comparison. In any event, once Yates unleashed his 11-minute, practically shot pursuit through the perilously hilly streets of San Francisco in 1968's "Bullitt," there was no going back. If you weren't filming real cars barrelling at unsafe speeds through city streets or country roads, you were wasting everyone's time.
And it is only right...
Perhaps they were thrilling to people at the time because they had nothing quite so thrilling as a comparison. In any event, once Yates unleashed his 11-minute, practically shot pursuit through the perilously hilly streets of San Francisco in 1968's "Bullitt," there was no going back. If you weren't filming real cars barrelling at unsafe speeds through city streets or country roads, you were wasting everyone's time.
And it is only right...
- 10/23/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Cinema Retro's Todd Garbarini with Sonny Grosso at a screening of The French Connection in 2010.
By Todd Garbarini
Salvatore Anthony Grosso, known affectionately as Sonny Grosso, passed away on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at the age of 89. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, his work most assuredly did. Mr. Grosso was originally a New York City police detective who was the partner of Detective Eddie Egan. These two gentlemen both, on a hunch, broke up an organized crime ring which resulted in the seizure of 112 pounds of heroin. This then-unprecedented bust in 1961 provided the basis for the 1969 Robin Moore chronicle of their exploits, The French Connection, and was made into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name two years later, resulting in a Best Picture win for producer Philip D’Antoni, Best Director for William Friedkin, Best Actor for Gene Hackman (he personified Eddie Egan’s Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle...
By Todd Garbarini
Salvatore Anthony Grosso, known affectionately as Sonny Grosso, passed away on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at the age of 89. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, his work most assuredly did. Mr. Grosso was originally a New York City police detective who was the partner of Detective Eddie Egan. These two gentlemen both, on a hunch, broke up an organized crime ring which resulted in the seizure of 112 pounds of heroin. This then-unprecedented bust in 1961 provided the basis for the 1969 Robin Moore chronicle of their exploits, The French Connection, and was made into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name two years later, resulting in a Best Picture win for producer Philip D’Antoni, Best Director for William Friedkin, Best Actor for Gene Hackman (he personified Eddie Egan’s Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle...
- 1/26/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Philip D'Antoni, who won an Academy Award for his work on The French Connection and produced two other crime thrillers also renowned for their amazing car-chase sequences, has died. He was 89.
D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told The Hollywood Reporter.
D'Antoni also produced the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt (1968), famous for its 11-minute car chase in and around San Francisco, and he produced — and directed — The Seven-Ups (1973), which featured a NYPD cop (French Connection actor Roy Scheider) in hot pursuit of...
D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told The Hollywood Reporter.
D'Antoni also produced the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt (1968), famous for its 11-minute car chase in and around San Francisco, and he produced — and directed — The Seven-Ups (1973), which featured a NYPD cop (French Connection actor Roy Scheider) in hot pursuit of...
- 4/23/2018
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Philip D'Antoni, who won an Academy Award for his work on <em>The French Connection</em> and produced two other crime thrillers also renowned for their amazing car-chase sequences, has died. He was 89.
D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em>.
D'Antoni also produced the Steve McQueen classic <em>Bullitt</em> (1968), famous for its 11-minute car chase in and around San Francisco, and he produced — and directed — <em>The Seven-Ups</em> (1973), which featured a NYPD cop (<em>French Connection</em> actor Roy Scheider) in hot pursuit of a bad ...
D'Antoni died April 15 of complications from kidney failure at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, his son-in-law Mark Rathaus told <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em>.
D'Antoni also produced the Steve McQueen classic <em>Bullitt</em> (1968), famous for its 11-minute car chase in and around San Francisco, and he produced — and directed — <em>The Seven-Ups</em> (1973), which featured a NYPD cop (<em>French Connection</em> actor Roy Scheider) in hot pursuit of a bad ...
- 4/23/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
'Nicholas and Alexandra': Movie starred Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman 'Nicholas and Alexandra' movie review: Opulent 1971 spectacle lacks emotional core Nicholas and Alexandra is surely one of the most sumptuous film productions ever made. The elaborate sets and costumes, Richard Rodney Bennett's lush musical score, and frequent David Lean collaborator Freddie Young's richly textured cinematography provide the perfect period atmosphere for this historical epic. Missing, however, is a screenplay that offers dialogue instead of speeches, and a directorial hand that brings out emotional truth instead of soapy melodrama. Nicholas and Alexandra begins when, after several unsuccessful attempts, Tsar Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) finally becomes the father of a boy. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife, the German-born Empress Alexandra (Janet Suzman), have their happiness crushed when they discover that their infant son is a hemophiliac. In addition to his familial turmoil, the Tsar must also deal with popular...
- 5/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We examine the real story behind The French Connection, and look at how police procedural flicks were never the same afterward.
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The French Connection is a seminal work in cop movies. It was that first sniff that hooked the moviegoing public on Hollywood’s war on drugs. It changed the look and the dynamic of law enforcement on film by focusing on the worn heels and tires of street-level surveillance. The movie should be boring with all that waiting around and stealthy shadowing, but the pacing and the performances keep it moving at a breakneck pace comparable to chasing a subway. The French Connection is probably the closest Hollywood has come to a true on-the-street crime procedural in a blockbuster. Things that are cliché in cop movies now were invented here.
The French Connection screeched into theaters in 1971. It was directed by William Friedkin, produced by Philip D'Antoni,...
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The French Connection is a seminal work in cop movies. It was that first sniff that hooked the moviegoing public on Hollywood’s war on drugs. It changed the look and the dynamic of law enforcement on film by focusing on the worn heels and tires of street-level surveillance. The movie should be boring with all that waiting around and stealthy shadowing, but the pacing and the performances keep it moving at a breakneck pace comparable to chasing a subway. The French Connection is probably the closest Hollywood has come to a true on-the-street crime procedural in a blockbuster. Things that are cliché in cop movies now were invented here.
The French Connection screeched into theaters in 1971. It was directed by William Friedkin, produced by Philip D'Antoni,...
- 2/15/2015
- Den of Geek
We examine the real story behind The French Connection, and look at how police procedural flicks were never the same afterwards...
Culture
The French Connection is a seminal work in cop movies. It was that first sniff that hooked the moviegoing public on Hollywood’s war on drugs. It changed the look and the dynamic of law enforcement on film by focusing on the worn heels and tires of street-level surveillance. The movie should be boring with all that waiting around and stealthy shadowing, but the pacing and the performances keep it moving at a breakneck pace comparable to chasing a subway. The French Connection is probably the closest Hollywood has come to a true on-the-street crime procedural in a blockbuster. Things that are clichés in cop movies now were invented here.
The French Connection screeched into theaters in 1971. It was directed by William Friedkin, produced by Philip D'Antoni and...
Culture
The French Connection is a seminal work in cop movies. It was that first sniff that hooked the moviegoing public on Hollywood’s war on drugs. It changed the look and the dynamic of law enforcement on film by focusing on the worn heels and tires of street-level surveillance. The movie should be boring with all that waiting around and stealthy shadowing, but the pacing and the performances keep it moving at a breakneck pace comparable to chasing a subway. The French Connection is probably the closest Hollywood has come to a true on-the-street crime procedural in a blockbuster. Things that are clichés in cop movies now were invented here.
The French Connection screeched into theaters in 1971. It was directed by William Friedkin, produced by Philip D'Antoni and...
- 2/15/2015
- Den of Geek
After seeing Courtney Solomon's Getaway at an advance screening -- more on that later -- I began feeling nostalgic for the gas-guzzling car chase movies of my youth. As a kid growing up in 1970s California, that meant the Holy Trinity of Bullitt (made in 1968, but in heavy rotation on TV a few years later), The French Connection and The Seven Ups, which I wrote about for Twitch back in 2006. All three were produced by Philip D'Antoni -- he directed the latter -- and set a gold standard for my impressionable mind. But there is place for all kinds of gas-guzzling, car-chasing, road-tripping movies in the gallery below. The first pick comes courtesy of Twitch's Todd Brown; the next 11 picks are my...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/29/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Ryan Gosling shines as the man behind the wheel in Nicolas Winding Refn's gripping and lyrical take on Hollywood noir
Thirty years ago Colin Welland brandished his Chariots of Fire Oscar aloft at the Academy awards ceremony. Echoing the legendary words of Paul Revere to his fellow Bostonian colonials, he shouted: "The British are coming!" Similar hubris, one trusts, will not possess the current wave of Scandinavian filmmakers, though they might be forgiven for chanting: "The Vikings are coming!", that admonitory cry that once had the frightened denizens of our east coast lighting warning beacons and locking up their daughters. These past couple of weeks we've seen the Dane Lone Scherfig follow her British debut, An Education, with One Day, and Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of Let the Right One In, cross the North Sea to make his excellent version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Now another Dane,...
Thirty years ago Colin Welland brandished his Chariots of Fire Oscar aloft at the Academy awards ceremony. Echoing the legendary words of Paul Revere to his fellow Bostonian colonials, he shouted: "The British are coming!" Similar hubris, one trusts, will not possess the current wave of Scandinavian filmmakers, though they might be forgiven for chanting: "The Vikings are coming!", that admonitory cry that once had the frightened denizens of our east coast lighting warning beacons and locking up their daughters. These past couple of weeks we've seen the Dane Lone Scherfig follow her British debut, An Education, with One Day, and Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of Let the Right One In, cross the North Sea to make his excellent version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Now another Dane,...
- 9/24/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
(1973, 12, Optimum)
The New York film-maker Philip D'Antoni spent most of his career in television, but his reputation depends on the three seminal big-screen movies he produced 40 years ago: gritty police procedural thrillers about maverick cops, shot entirely on location and featuring extended, spectacular car chases staged in city streets.
They're Peter Yates's Bullitt (1968), William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups, which D'Antoni both produced and directed. Roy Scheider, a key actor of the 1970s, is promoted from the sidekick role in The French Connection to lead a special group of New York cops using unconventional methods to nail major crooks, sending them to jail for seven years and up, hence the jokey title.
His current investigations draw him via a devious informer into a battle between the mafia and a gang of freelance villains making a fortune snatching mob leaders for ransom. The chase in this film starts in the Bronx,...
The New York film-maker Philip D'Antoni spent most of his career in television, but his reputation depends on the three seminal big-screen movies he produced 40 years ago: gritty police procedural thrillers about maverick cops, shot entirely on location and featuring extended, spectacular car chases staged in city streets.
They're Peter Yates's Bullitt (1968), William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups, which D'Antoni both produced and directed. Roy Scheider, a key actor of the 1970s, is promoted from the sidekick role in The French Connection to lead a special group of New York cops using unconventional methods to nail major crooks, sending them to jail for seven years and up, hence the jokey title.
His current investigations draw him via a devious informer into a battle between the mafia and a gang of freelance villains making a fortune snatching mob leaders for ransom. The chase in this film starts in the Bronx,...
- 11/7/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Oscar-winning director William Friedkin.
In July of 1997, I conducted the first of two lengthy interviews with director William Friedkin, regarded by many as the "enfant terrible" of the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" generation of filmmakers who, for one brief, shining moment, seemed to reinvent American cinema in the late '60s thru the late '70s. Meeting Friedkin was something of a milestone for me at the time: I was still in my 20s, had been writing for Venice Magazine less than a year, and "Billy," as he likes people to call him, was the first person I interviewed who was one of my childhood heroes--a filmmaker whose one-sheets hung on my bedroom walls when I was growing up.
Below are the two interviews, conducted a decade apart from one another, and posted in reverse chronology. In both, Billy reveals a cunning intellect, a sometimes abrasive personal style,...
In July of 1997, I conducted the first of two lengthy interviews with director William Friedkin, regarded by many as the "enfant terrible" of the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" generation of filmmakers who, for one brief, shining moment, seemed to reinvent American cinema in the late '60s thru the late '70s. Meeting Friedkin was something of a milestone for me at the time: I was still in my 20s, had been writing for Venice Magazine less than a year, and "Billy," as he likes people to call him, was the first person I interviewed who was one of my childhood heroes--a filmmaker whose one-sheets hung on my bedroom walls when I was growing up.
Below are the two interviews, conducted a decade apart from one another, and posted in reverse chronology. In both, Billy reveals a cunning intellect, a sometimes abrasive personal style,...
- 2/24/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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