ArnoldWilliam Friedkin given high honor in France
Director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) has been given an extreemly prestigous award from the French government. He has been named Officer, Order of ARts and Letters. Friedkin said that this award is an incredible honor, "because of the profound influence French cinema has had on all the filmmakers of my generation." Previous American filmmakers to recieve the award include Mel Brooks, Clint Eastwood, Gordon Parks and Robert Redford. Though Friedkin may be an odd choice because of his marginal success outside of his two major films he has directed countless films and been producing movies for many years. His latest film Bug has recieved decent reviews and hasn't tanked at the box office.
IMDB Blurb on Friedkin's honor
IMDB Blurb on Friedkin's honor
It's nice to see someone in the film industry who deserves an award get one for a change.
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Love the site and I'm a big Friedkin fan. I just did a review of To live and Die in LA to honour the man.
keep up the good work.
That's a good point. He has done loads of movies, a lot of them were terrible, but he has done some teriffic that are so well done that any iffy films can't tarnish a reputation like that.
He's a good director.
I didn't say it in the article but my one complaint about all of the recent talk on Friedkin (NPR did an article and IFC dedicated a podcast, among other articles-n-things) is that I don't believe he's an auteur. Which he doesn't have to be, but he lacks consistency in his films, and lacks an overarching themes throughout his career. I'm not a scholar on his career, but I don't ebelieve you can make a case for auteurism. But, again, that should not blemish the career of a fine director who has contributed greatly to American cinema, (whatever state it may be in).
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