William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director. Some of his other films include Sorcerer, Cruising, To Live and Die in L.A., Jade, Rules of Engagement, The Hunted, Bug, and Killer Joe...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth29 August 1935
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
running thinking media
Every time you run a 35mm print, it picks up scratches. It picks up dirt. Sometimes it breaks, and you have to re-splice it. You lose frames. This doesn't happen with digital or Blu-ray. I think that's great. Because I love the new media.
believe thinking wind
I don't believe that Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind, or any damn picture that you can name, would be better off in 3D. I think it's a gimmick. I find 3D distracting.
thinking views people
I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely.
sex thinking looks
I really think that sex always looks kind of funny in a movie.
fate thinking lines
There is a thin line between the policeman and the criminal. The best cops are always crossed. The best cops are the ones who are able to think like criminals. But for a quirk of fate, they might have been criminals.
thinking action computer
Even with some of the best action films like The Bourne Ultimatum, which is a great action film with a great chase sequence, so much of it is computer-generated. But that doesn't bother me. I think it works. It's fantastic.
determine dice high money next number people plaything roll rollers sleeping today
To me, film right now is dormant. It's a sleeping giant. It's the plaything of corporations. The people who determine what American film is today are no different from high rollers who go to Las Vegas. They just want to take all the money and put it on one big number and roll the dice on that number and if it craps out, next number. Next case.
audience cop court hands hold law ready type
The audience was ready for that type of character, a cop who would take the law into his own hands and hold court in the street,
almost american-director life pressed share tense
I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel pressed and tense almost every day of my life about something or other. And I think it's the one thing, as I look into people's eyes, that I think I share with almost everybody.
angeles cardinals catholic chicago church depiction drive embraced endorsed exists exorcism exorcist faith leaders literal los power promoted represents ritual roman virtually york
The leaders of the Catholic Church endorsed The Exorcist ; virtually promoted it as much as they could. The Cardinals of New York and Los Angeles and Chicago and the other big cities, all over the world, they endorsed it because it represents a literal depiction of the Roman ritual of exorcism which still exists in the Catholic faith. It's still there. The power of faith to drive out demons. And this film showed that and they embraced it.
sweet superhero way
I can't sit through the superhero films. But I watched Draft Day, and it was kind of sweet in an old-fashioned way.
hero believe evil
The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.
giving want digital
The digital process gives me total control over how I want the film to look. The films look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder.
believe gimmicks film
I don't like 3D. I don't believe there is any film that I have seen and loved that would have been improved by a scintilla in 3D. To me, it's just a gimmick.