Friedkin Uncut | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Francesco Zippel |
Written by | Francesco Zippel |
Produced by |
|
Starring | William Friedkin |
Cinematography | Marco Tomaselli |
Edited by | Mariaromana Casiraghi |
Music by | Costanza Francavilla |
Production company | Quoiat Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | Italy |
Language | English |
Friedkin Uncut is a 2018 Italian documentary film written and directed by Francesco Zippel. It tells the life and career of the film director William Friedkin. [1] The film had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 31 August 2018. [2] [3] It was released in Italy on 5 November 2018. [4]
William Friedkin opens the film explaining he believes Jesus and Adolf Hitler are the most interesting people in world history as they represent two extremes of good and evil. The film then presents a series of interviews, including Ellen Burstyn, Francis Ford Coppola, Wes Anderson, and Quentin Tarantino, discussing the production and cultural impact of The Exorcist (1973).
Friedkin discusses his childhood in Chicago, Illinois and his foray into working in television. As a young man, he watched Citizen Kane (1941) and decides to become a filmmaker. For his first film project, Friedkin directs the documentary The People vs. Paul Crump (1962), which contributed to Crump's death sentence being commuted. The film transitions to The French Connection (1971). Friedkin used a cinéma vérité approach and followed actual New York police officers for research into the narcotics trade.
The film jumps to Friedkin's work on Killer Joe (2011), in which Matthew McConaughey and Gina Gershon discuss their performances and Friedkin's approach with actors. Friedkin discusses his preference for one-takes and his selection of actors, including one story in Stacy Keach was initially cast as Father Karras in The Exorcist before Friedkin hired Jason Miller. It next transitions to Sorcerer (1977) and its financial failure at the box office.
Friedkin discusses his cinematic influences, most notably Buster Keaton. He reflects on interviewing Fritz Lang for the 1975 documentary Conversation with Fritz Lang. By 1980, the New Hollywood era was waning; that same year, the controversial film Cruising was released and met with criticism for its portrayal of the gay community. In 1985, Friedkin returns to the crime thriller genre with To Live and Die in L.A.
After multiple decades of directing films, Friedkin turns to directing stage productions, helming several operas including Wozzeck and Aida . At the 74th Venice International Film Festival, Friedkin screens his then-latest film The Devil and Father Amorth (2017), his return to supernatural horror. He concludes the film heavily criticizing film award competitions, calling them a "dirty joke".
The film had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 31 August 2018. [2] [3] It was released in Italy on 5 November 2018. [4] In the United States, it was released in limited theaters on 23 August 2019. [5] [6]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. [7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [8]
Michael Nordine of IndieWire gave the film a grade of B, commenting that "There's nothing particularly new or inspired about Zippel's decision to simply train a camera on Friedkin and let him riff, but the man is such a captivating speaker that it ultimately doesn't matter much." [9] Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing, "Even viewers of a certain age who grew up on Friedkin's movies and watched the major ones over and over will come away from this movie feeling as if they understand him in a new, deeper way." [10] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "this enjoyable doc records a Hollywood master looking back at his career with lucid hindsight and irony." [11]
The film won the 2019 Nastro d'Argento award for Best Documentary About Cinema. [12] It was nominated for the 2019 David di Donatello award for Best Documentary. [13]
Ellen Burstyn is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making her one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting". She has also received a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award.
William David Friedkin was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he is best known for his crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
Sorcerer is a 1977 American action-thriller film produced and directed by William Friedkin and starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou. The second adaptation of Georges Arnaud's 1950 French novel Le Salaire de la peur, it is often considered a remake of the 1953 film The Wages of Fear, although Friedkin disagreed with this assessment. The film depicts four outcasts from varied backgrounds living in a South American village assigned to transport two trucks loaded with aged, poorly kept dynamite that is "sweating" its dangerous basic ingredient, nitroglycerin.
The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, and Linda Blair, and follows the demonic possession of a young girl and the attempt to rescue her through an exorcism by two Catholic priests.
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter, with Ellen E. Jones, of the BBC Radio 4 programme Screenshot and co-presenter of the film-review podcast Kermode & Mayo's Take, alongside long-time collaborator Simon Mayo. Kermode is a regular contributor to The Observer, for which he was chief film critic between September 2013 and September 2023.
Ettore Scola was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He received a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1978 for his film A Special Day and over the course of his film career was nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood is a book by Peter Biskind, published by Simon & Schuster in 1998, about ostensibly the 1960s and 1970s Hollywood, a period of American film known for the production of such films such as The Godfather,The Godfather Part II,The French Connection,Chinatown,Taxi Driver,Jaws,Star Wars,The Exorcist, and The Last Picture Show. The title is taken from films which bookend the era: Easy Rider (1969) and Raging Bull (1980).
Jeffrey Friedman is an American filmmaker. In 2021, he and Rob Epstein won a Grammy Award for their work on the documentary film Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
Killer Joe is a 2011 American Southern Gothic crime film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay by Tracy Letts is based on his 1993 play of the same name. The film stars Matthew McConaughey in the title role, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, and Thomas Haden Church.
The 70th annual Venice International Film Festival took place in Venice, Italy from 28 August to 7 September 2013. American film director William Friedkin was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci was the president of the jury. He was previously the president of the jury at the 40th edition in 1983. Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, was the opening film of the festival. Italian actress Eva Riccobono hosted the opening and closing nights of the festival.
The Exorcist is an American horror media franchise that originated with William Peter Blatty's 1971 horror novel of the same name and most prominently featured in a 1973 film adaptation of the novel, and many subsequent prequels and sequels. All of these installments focus on fictional accounts of people possessed by Pazuzu, the main antagonist of the series, and the efforts of religious authorities to counter this possession.
Alexandre O. Philippe is a Swiss American film director whose films include the documentaries Doc of the Dead, The People vs. George Lucas, and 78/52. Philippe is Creative Director and co-owner of Denver-based Cinema Vertige and his most recent commissioned work for the City of Denver garnered four Heartland Emmy Awards.
The Devil and Father Amorth is a 2017 American pseudo-documentary horror film directed by William Friedkin showing the ninth exorcism of an Italian woman in the village of Alatri referred to as "Cristina", this time performed by Father Gabriele Amorth.
The Exorcist: Believer is a 2023 American supernatural horror film directed by David Gordon Green, who co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Sattler from a story by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and Green. The sixth installment in The Exorcist franchise, it serves as a direct sequel to The Exorcist (1973). The film stars Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia O‘Neill in her film debut, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, and Ann Dowd. Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair reprise their roles from the original film. Its plot follows a photographer who must confront the nadir of evil when his daughter and her best friend are possessed.
Ellen Burstyn is an American actress of film, television and stage.
Jay Sebring....Cutting to the Truth is a 2020 American documentary film that studies Jay Sebring's life as the first international pioneer in the industry of men's style and hair. Cited as the inspiration for Warren Beatty's character in the 1975 film Shampoo, Jay Sebring's life ended at age 35 when he and four others were killed by the Manson family in what would become known as the Tate murders.
Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America is a 2022 Italian documentary film written and directed by Francesco Zippel. A portrait of the art and the legacy of Sergio Leone through archive footage and interviews with collaborators and artists who were influenced by his style, it premiered in the Venice Classics section at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a 2023 American legal drama film written and directed by William Friedkin. It is based on Herman Wouk's 1953 play of the same name, itself based on Wouk's 1952 novel The Caine Mutiny. It stars Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, Monica Raymund, and Lance Reddick. The film marks a posthumous release for Reddick and Friedkin, who both died in 2023 on March 17 and August 7, respectively, and is Friedkin's final work.
Duccio Chiarini is an Italian film director, documentarist, screenwriter and producer.
Valia Santella is an Italian screenwriter and film director.