The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir

by William Friedkin

The long-awaited memoir from the Academy Award-winning director of such legendary films as The French Connection, The Exorcist, and To Live and Die in LA, The Friedkin Connection takes readers from the streets of Chicago to the suites of Hollywood and from the sixties to today, with autobiographical storytelling as fast-paced and intense as any of the auteur's films.

William Friedkin, maverick of American cinema, offers a candid look at Hollywood, when traditional storytelling gave way to the rebellious and alternative; when filmmakers like him captured the paranoia and fear of a nation undergoing a cultural nervous breakdown.

The Friedkin Connection includes 16 pages of black-and-white photographs.

Genres: Film, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Media Tie In, Audiobook, Autobiography

498 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

William Friedkin was 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.

Reviews

[Anthony McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best film autobiographies I have read.

Mr. Friedkin must have taken copious notes during the production of his films as his memory of even the smallest of details is remarkable.

I haven't seen many of his later films but have seen all the earlier ones -and enjoyed revisiting them many times as they are all great entertainment- movies such as "The Night They Raided Minsky's"/ "The Birthday Party"/ "The Boys in the Band"/ "The Exorcist"/ even the much maligned "Cruising" and "Sorcerer" - and of course his Oscar winning stint as director of the 1971 Best Picture winner: "The French Connection."

If you enjoy reading first-hand and intelligent books about the filmmaking process this is a must.
Friedkin comes across as a very interesting man and unlike many film autobiographies, avoids gossip and cheap-shots and self-praise, instead painting a highly readable and informative book.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only seen two Friedkin films, Blue Chips which was entertaining enough and the French Connection that I found a bit slow moving for a action thriller. Luckily I heard an interview with Friedkin last year that made me read this. I'm glad I did because it's among the better Hollywood memoirs I have read. First, Friedkin doesn't dwell on his private life, his girlfriends, and his wives. He spends the pages telling us about his career in TV and movies mostly going chronologically relating his education as he went along. He has a rare ability to look back on his earlier work and not only see the faults in it, but understand how his youthful exuberance would sometimes lead him to the wrong conclusions.

He's honest. Rather than defend decisions that were poor he admits his mistakes. He admits he risked his life and the lives of others to get a certain shot. He admits that he spent some of the counterfeit money from the movie TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA. He admits that his first documentary designed to free a man from death row was probably a mistake. The man he thought innocent was probably guilty after all. He should have cast Ali McGraw in the Sorcerer so that Steve McQueen would have taken the lead role. He paid off a NYC civil servant for permission to shoot the L-Train chase scene in French Connection.

Best of all, the book flows easily and stories are told well. I zoomed through the thing and I wasn't even expecting to finish when I began.

Update 2021: I saw the Exorcist (1973) and time has made me so desensitized, I kept waiting for the scary part that never came. A beautifully made movie though with good performances. The characters seemed like real people unlike the archetypes of the genre.

update 2023: I finally saw The Sorcerer (1977) - It would have benefitted from McQueen certainly, but it lacked the spark of the original in my opinion.

[Houstonion · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I remember the night Sherry brought home a script that was in turnaround from every studio for nine years. She was crying as she read it. 'What's it called?' I asked. 'Forrest Gump.' 'Lousy title,' I said, making my only contribution to this classic film."

Super engaging, goes into depth on basically every film Friedkin has directed except one of my favorites, the Guardian, and Deal of the Century. I'm very surprised he didn't go into those two as I would expect Friedkin to have some very strong things to say about Chevy Chase and Sam Raimi. It's very interesting how Friedkin talks about subjects like Al Pacino in this. He says in one of the later chapters that he failed during Cruising to allow Pacino to act freely and retrospectively can appreciate the quality of his performance, but years later he gave an interview fully deriding him for being an annoying spoiled brat or something along those lines. Anyway, this is a fantastic memoir, it was definitely worth watching every Friedkin movie in tandem. Gone much too soon.

[Dean Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As of this posting the Goodreads information about the number of pages in this book is incorrect by a couple of hundred pages. The real count is 512 pages.

Do Two Great Films Make a Life?

One hand, holding a pair of glasses, covers the bottom half of his face. William Friedkin lets us with the picture that he won't reveal his whole self in this memoir. That’s okay. He can keep all the gossip on his failed marriages and his other non-cinematic to himself. The important thing is that he shares great stories about his film making career.
The cover also blurbs, “Legendary Director of The French Connection and The Exorcist”. Really, those are the two films that people will always associate with the director, his hugely commercial and critically acclaimed hits. And there are great stories about those. Friedkin admits he wasn’t thrilled with the selection of Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle for “The French Connection” and that even through production he wasn’t sure if the performance that eventually won an Oscar would be adequate. He cops to breaking laws and endangering lives to film the famous car/train chase in the day before CGI. He recounts his battles and feuds with “Exorcist” William Blatty over the horror film’s content and with voice actress Mercedes McCambridge over the film’s credits. (There are also wonderful anecdotes about what the actress went through to achieve her demonic tone; after years in AA, and with council from clergy, she glutted on cigarettes, Jack Daniels and raw eggs.)
But Friedkin’s less successful films provide good stories as well; his encounters with basketball legends in the making of “Blue Chips”, the production shut down over Al Pacino’s too short haircut for “Cruising”, Friedkin’s passing of counterfeit bills that were props for “To Live and Die in L.A.”, and many other fun tales from even lesser films. I also enjoyed his stories about his second career directing opera.
Friedkin admits to his arrogance, temper and other personal failings. He gives some details about his struggles with health and even faith. He never gives his whole self, but refreshingly doesn’t claim to.
Discussing near death experiences, he wonders whether he his life had meaning. In my mind, he isn’t one of the great directors. Film makers such as Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and contemporaries like Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and the Coen Brothers have made a number of masterpieces over decades of work. Friedkin has two masterpieces made over a couple of years in the early seventies. But that ain’t too shabby. (Though he is also responsible for the awful travesty entitled “Deal of the Century” with Chevy Chase and Gregory Hines, one of the films I most regretted paying to see. He does not discuss the making of this film.)

[Kit Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hyperbolic and self-congratulatory? Sure. Immensely readable with great insights into the making of some of the best films of the 1970s? All the way. Not sure why, but I'm kinda inclined to believe Friedkin was telling the whole truth whenever he owned up to some illegal activity. Doing 90 through crowded city streets without permits? Strong-arming an adult bookshop that was screening illegal dupes of his films? Using real heroin for the sake of veracity? I believe all of that and more. Also loved the idea of him being invited to meet a tribe of Kurdish devil-worshipers while filming in Iraq for >The Exorcist. Amazing stuff all around, especially his understandably philosophical musings on the ethos of what makes for a good cinematic chase sequence. Not for nothing, Friedkin quotes—and boasts a career that epitomizes—legendary producer Dan Brown's aphorism, "Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make successful in show business."

[Pedro Lombarda · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 estrelas. Acompanhar a carreira deste homem sentado no banco do passageiro é um prazer. Agora é altura de passar à filmografia de cabo a rabo. O que ainda não vi e rever os que já vi.

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the first page Friedkin quotes himself on his list of epigraphs, putting himself above Samuel Beckett, cause modesty.

On the very next page he's throwing original Basquits in the trash.

Things continue in this vein.

[Brian J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting and introspective memoir written with conviction from one of the most underrated of the New Hollywood filmmakers. William Friedkin--in a candid yet thoughtful tone--examines his early endeavors as a camera operator with WGN in Chicago to his wide successes and failures in Hollywood. While a lot of these types of memoirs only serve as a podium for an actor or director to argue their side of a controversy associated with his or her personal life, Friedkin takes the high road and truly delivers something special for the film fan--carefully detailed memories and anecdotes of his many inspiring and masterful films. He skips over a couple of flops--namely Deal of the Century and The Guardian--but otherwise regales the reader with a treasure trove of insightful information. He writes very little about his personal life, but that's not the kind of stuff I want to hear about. The recent Alec Baldwin memoir was nothing but filler surrounding the shocking incidents he's come to be known for; there were no stories about Glengarry Glen Ross, or Beetlejuice, or any of the films he's done that would make someone want to read a book about his career. This tome does not suffer that pitfall, and serves as both a fascinating memoir and a manual for the craft. Highly recommended.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable memoir by the director - light, breezy, conversational. Economically edited and getting to the very essentials of his life and career, though he says almost nothing about his personal life until the final section (in which he meets and marries Sherry Lansing, to whom he stays married).

Largest chapters are on 'The French Connection' and 'The Exorcist' and it's those films we get the most info on, though enough attention is paid to such films as 'Rules of Engagement' and 'Killer Joe'. He mentions in the brief section on it that he remains proud of 'Boys in the Band'.

I was unaware that he has had a considerable and personally satisfying side-career in staging operas internationally.

[Paul Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A self-made, scrappy professional reaches the top only to be brought down by conflicting desires and his own hubris. Amid the wreckage, he reconsiders what's important to him and begins anew, success attainable once again but not at all certain.

That sounds like the outline of a movie directed by William Friedkin, the Oscar winner behind "The French Connection" (1971), "The Exorcist" (1973) and more than a dozen other films plus plays and even operas. It's also the theme of a page-turning memoir, "The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir" (Harper), in which Friedkin revisits his victories and defeats while taking the blame for dropping the brass ring.

If measured by ticket sales alone, Friedkin's filmmaking career peaked in the early 1970s. His first nondocumentary, the Sonny and Cher oddity "Good Times," was released in 1967. His most recent movie was 2011's love-it-or-hate-it shocker "Killer Joe." That's four years to reach the heights and nearly 40 years to ponder the fall from box-office grace.

"I embody arrogance, insecurity and ambition that spur me on as they hold me back," he writes. He later observes: "Every one of my films, plays and operas has been marked by conflict, sometime vindictive. The common denominator is me, so what does that tell you?"

Friedkin's memoir shows just how much talent and instinct need a boost from serendipity. The director turned to Gene Hackman to play the lead cop in "The French Connection" only after the studio refused to consider Jackie Gleason and when newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin proved to be out of his element. Yet Friedkin's instincts also led him to sign up the relatively unknown Roy Scheider as Hackman's partner and to put novice cinematographer Owen Roizman in charge of making the movie feel like a documentary.

Getting the best-selling novel "The Exorcist" on the screen had similar moments of brilliance and good fortune. Friedkin signed and then paid off actor Stacy Keach so he could hire Jason Miller to play the faith-challenged priest. Audrey Hepburn would have played the mother had Friedkin been willing to shoot the film in Rome. Anne Bancroft would have come aboard had she not been pregnant. That allowed Ellen Burstyn a chance to persuade Friedkin to cast her in a career-defining role.

Back-to-back hits made Friedkin wealthy and in demand — and fueled his worst instincts. They were at the fore when he ran wildly over budget on "Sorcerer" (1977), a $20 million flop back then but a movie that deserves a reappraisal today. (Friedkin turned down Steve McQueen because the star wanted to film in the U.S. instead of a jungle somewhere. That was a mistake, Friedkin acknowledges.)

A huge question mark hovers over "Cruising," a 1980 detective film set in New York's gay bar scene. A controversial subject, no doubt, but what made Friedkin think that moviegoers wanted to enter that world? Mainly that he was leading them, a sign of the arrogance that helped sink him in Hollywood.

Relatively few films followed. One of his best, "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985), didn't get the box office it deserved but showed that Friedkin could still make `em like he used to. In the years that followed, the director enjoyed an artistic challenge staging operas around the world. But getting a film off the ground never got any easier.

Only Friedkin knows whether reliving the past can help exorcize any lingering demons. (One place he doesn't go: the romantic life that led to four marriages.) Movie fans will celebrate the natural storyteller at work in the pages of "The Friedkin Connection," a welcome reminder that it takes so much more than talent to make a movie — and to keep making them.

[J.r. Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Maybe next time I’ll fail better”

William Friedkin is an interesting figure in Hollywood history. He made two of the most successful films of the 70s and really didn’t leave as much of an impact outside of that. He never became a horror icon like West Craven or John Carpenter but The Exorcist really invented modern horror for a lot of film fans. His chase scene in the French connection is still referenced to this day. He is both insecure and confident. Open and private. Self deprecating and self aggrandizing. A lot of this book is slow he spent over half this book about his life before Hollywood, and I think that’s pretty cool. He didn’t let his success or failures define him.

[Colin Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the amount of detail when discussing the early films. There’s very little about Friedkin’s personal life, and what’s included seems significant to his work. I just wish the later films were discussed in as much detail. I’ve heard people say that Friedkin could have been a standup comic, and I agree. The anecdotes are as funny as they are crazy; they read like a Hollywood movie, though I don’t doubt they happened. Friedkin was a little wild, but also brilliant, a once-in-a-lifetime filmmaker.

[Rui Alves de Sousa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A história de vida de William Friedkin dava um filme tão interessante como alguns dos seus melhores trabalhos. "The Friedkin Connection" é, de longe, o melhor livro de cinema que já li, sem deixar de ser o relato íntimo e surpreendente de uma das carreiras mais singulares de Hollywood, e que poderá captar o interesse não só de realizadores ou ratos de cinemateca, mas também de todos os que queiram perceber como é que um outsider conseguiu chegar ao topo do sistema - e cair nas suas sucessivas artimanhas. Um percurso cheio de sucessivos altos e baixos que é também uma metáfora para a indústria, o poder, a ganância e a procura pela redenção.

[Ștefan Cârpanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've come to discover Friedkin properly after his passing and after watching hours of interviews and catching up on his movies, I would say this is the definitive companion to explore this cinematic universe.

A lot of information, insights into the filmmaking process and some all around good storytelling make this an excellent read for anyone interested in movies and the historical insights that comes with their creation.

[Justin Gerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t worry. CITIZEN KANE is mentioned.

[Miguel Ravelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friedkin es generosísimo compartiendo su conocimiento sobre sus películas, el mundo del cine y sobre todo, de la vida. Eso es una de las cosas que más me gustaron de The Friedkin Connection. Por supuesto uno se va a enterar a fondo de cómo fue la producción de The French Connection, The Exorcist o Sorcerer, pero esto va más en la línea de qué fueron, qué significaron las películas en el todo que es la vida de Friedkin. A través de su trabajo, Friedkin nos cuenta su vida, sus ilusiones y especialmente sus fracasos, los que después del Exorcista, parecieron llegar a chorros, al menos en lo económico. Uno tras otro. Y es ahí cuando el que creo yo que es el verdadero punto de este libro va formándose. La historia de un hombre que alcanzó rápidamente y sin esperarlo la cima del éxito y a cómo lo llevo a actuar esto. En qué persona lo convirtió. Y luego, cómo tuvo que afrontar los resultados de lo hecho en ese periodo. Una visión sobre la vida, sobre qué es valioso, sobre qué es lo que queda al final. Ya no es el éxito, los Oscares, es el entender qué fue lo que salió mal, aceptar cuando uno tuvo la culpa, reconocer cuando por más que el dinero o los productores digan lo contrario, si uno está feliz con el resultado final, nada más importa. Pero especialmente, disfrutar el camino por más espantoso que se ponga, o por más que las cosas parece que van a tardar en llegar. Y vaya que para Friedkin la cosa se pone difícil.

Y que una persona como él sea capaz de escribir, luego de una enfermedad espantosa: "I considered the possibility that I might die without having accomplished anything of lasting value", lo deja a un pensando muchas cosas.

Amé el libro y terminé encariñadísimo con don Friedkin. Quiero volver a ver todas sus películas. Lo leí en Kindle y terminó subrayadísimo, y por supuesto lo voy a comprar en físico. Esto hay que tenerlo siempre a la mano.

[Rob Neyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love movies (although I'm sorry to admit I've never seen The Exorcist) and reading about how they're made. Friedkin made two or three (or four?) great movies, a few good ones, and at least a few clinkers (at least if you believe the critics, and sometimes he does).

My only real critiques are a) I would like to have heard a bit more about his personal struggles outside of filmmaking, and b) while he goes into huge detail about not only the hits, but also about some of his smaller (budget- and box-office-wise) movies, he literally doesn't mention two pretty big projects from the eighties, DEAL OF THE CENTURY and the oddly wrought THE GUARDIAN. Literally not a single word about either. Not saying they needed their own chapters, but at least a couple of lines acknowledging their existence, however fraught.

Minor quibbles. And I recommend the audio version, as Friedkin's a fine narrator of his own story.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writer. And Honest.

Exorcist is the scariest movie I ever saw. The French Connection one of the best crime movies ever. Live and die in LA one of the most under rated. Friedman directed all of them. His autobiography, very well, and not ghost , written tells how he made these films. Fascinating stuff and highly reccommended.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous memoir covering Friedkin's entire film career beginning with low-budget documentaries, going on through his huge successes (The French Connection, The Exorcist), the superb but woefully neglected Sorcerer, the misfires, and even Friedkin directing opera. A must-read for fans of cinema.

[Curtis Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some wonderful tales of Hollywood and the author's (mis)adventures. Friedkin seems humble and humbled by many of his experiences but his reputation was even more extreme than this self-portrayal.

[Lee Behlman]

A talented, difficult, and rather amoral figure. His memoir is quite a lot of fun. 4.5 stars.

[David Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that he calls movies "pictures."

[Will Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute slam dunk memoir of one of my favorite figures in Hollywood history. Entertaining from page one but Friedkin's self-reflection (mixed with his biting edge) make this all the more bittersweet now that he has passed. One of the best to ever do it.

[Cody Winfrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

really can't recommend enough the audiobook he reads himself

[Paul Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good autobiography. I would have preferred more insights to "Sorcerer" and "Cruising," but "The Exorcist" is his most famous movie, so it makes sense that most of his film career would cover it more in-depth.

[Jack Herbert Christal Gattanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing stuff by a director who has had (unfortunately due to his intelligence and skills but also anger and temperament) a mixed career - part of what's so good about Friedkins memoir is that he knows it (there's even two bombs, Deal of the Century and The Guardian that he doesn't even write about).

A man who started out as just an average kid, some of the class clown in him (and a small but memorable anecdote where he stands up to a bully), he went by chance onto a career in TV in Chicago (no real drive, just an ad in the paper looking for folks for the mailroom) and made his first film about a man awaiting the death penalty (and years before Morris used a film to save a life).

If you're looking for a ton of personal dirt, ie relationships, it's not really there - he just skims past three (!) failed marriages and two kids to talk about his current happy fourth with ex paramount head Sherry Lansing (also a supporting character in Sleepless in Hollywood) - this is more about the professional dirt, and its here we get the great and the bad, the glorious and the terrible, ambitious, small scale, the bombs and the personal triumphs.

There may be a bit of repetition and the sense once or twice Friedkin forgets what he wrote earlier in the book - he says the trucks over the bridge sequence in Sorcerer was the most difficult sequence he's ever filmed, and then later says it was the Yemen stand off in rules of engagement, which is it Billy?! - and on a personal preference the stuff about the opera was only mildly interesting, mostly cause of Woyzeck being the main one he writes and that's a good story.

What elevates it from a four star to a four and a half, maybe five, is the detail he goes into on All the film's. The process is always something I love in a filmmaker bio, and he doesn't skimp on anything. naturally if you're looking for equal attention to all periods of his life and work you'll be disappointed. But he writes with candor, scathing wit looking back at some of the lunacy and tough times dealing with, say, Gene Hackman, the crew of Sorcerer, or just that film in general, and some of the unique situations and criminal elements he dealt with along the way (including getting permission from a mob boss to shoot the gay club scenes in Cruising!) and its from 1970 to 1980 where much of the meat of the book is at, with 75 pages dedicated to the Exorcist alone.

fun times, movie making salad.

[Robby D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dug deep into this tome, and I tell you, it was a helluva read. William Friedkin, that cinematic maestro, lays bare the secrets of his craft. He peels back the curtain on how those crucial films of his came to life - the casting, the directing, the whole shebang. It always struck me odd how, sometimes, the very works I hold dear in high regard, like 'Sorcerer' and 'To Live and Die in L.A.,' sank like a stone in the financial sea. Yet, on the flip side, 'The French Connection' and 'The Exorcist' soared to critical and commercial heights.

Friedkin had a mind that worked faster than a speeding bullet train, and a memory that caught all the details in a steel trap. He's a scholar of the studio system, a man who knows the ins and outs of Hollywood's enigmatic character. Sure, there's a dash of personal anecdotes, a glimpse into his life and kin, but this book is a masterclass in moviemaking. The prose? It's like sittin' across from the man himself, a casual chinwag with an occasional dose of self-deprecation. And after this read, I couldn't help but hit the rewind button on his films, rummaging my on-demand libraries for more. I gotta give it to him; Respect.

Now, I surely would have wanted to share a smoke or drink with this guy, unpredictable types tend to put my nerves on edge, in a good way. I gotta hand it to him, he was upfront about his warts and all. He ain't shy about it, admits to being a hard-nosed, short-fused, and a tad too cocky. His Chicago beginnings, though, that's where I found myself nodding along; I grew up on those same streets. There's something special 'bout reading 'bout folks and places you know, names that ring a bell. Red Quinlan's daughter, well, I walked the same schoolyard. But what gripped me tight was the whole deal with his first doc, 'Crump.' Friedkin lays it all bare, and he pulls no punches, shedding light on some dark Chicago police habits back in the '60s. Now, I ain't here to spark no fire, but those tales still send shivers down my spine, and as far as I reckon, they might not have stopped since. Kudos to Friedkin for laying it all out there. RIP

[Dan Lalande · Rating 3 out of 5]

William Friedkin recounts, in acute detail, the professional stages of his improbable life: Chicago-based documentarian, A-list Hollywood director, middling indie-film talent, and, redemptively, international overseer of operas. It's straight ahead, has long, exciting episodes (especially the inside scoops on his one-two punch, The French Connection and The Exorcist)but on the whole, is bigger than its britches - a lot like a William Friedkin film.

[Roseann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of best film autobiographies I have read. Friedkin tells not only the story of his life but how he directed great films like The French Connection, The Exorcist and Sorcerer, among many others. I was able to get copies of all his films from my local library. I even tracked down Nightcrawlers which was a Twilight Zone episode. It was absolutely terrifying! Run don’t walk to pick this book up! All the stories are so well told. He was a giant of cinema.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

In desperation I called a friend in Queens, New York, known as "Marvin the Torch." Marvin wasn't his real name but a nom de plume bestowed on him by Jimmy Breslin. But he was "a torch" He blew up failing businesses for insurance money, "turning grocery stores into parking lots," as he put it.



A great read about the crazy life and movie-making career of one of my absolute favorite directors.