Country: USA
Year: 1968
Duration: 124'
This film is a collaboration between
Friedkin and the English playwright Harold Pinter. The only guest in Meg
and Petey's tranquil hotel is Stanley, a pianist with an unknown past.
Daily life is upset by the arrival of two very pushy men, McCann and
Goldberg, on Stanley's birthday. The three begin a dialectic duel with
anxiety-inducing results
"This play has re-awoken my every nightmare. I identified with Stanley
Webber a lot. I had the impression that the problems he has to face are
the expression, the way I see it, of our social condition" (W.
Friedkin).
Biography
film director
William Friedkin
William Friedkin was born in Chicago on August 29, 1935, the son of Russian Jews who had emigrated to the United States. After graduating, he began working in television in the midst of the economic boom of the 1950's, a factor which would prove to be fundamental to his professional and artistic development. His first job was as a messenger boy at the local station WGN; then in 1959, he moved to WTTV, only to return to WGN as a director and screenwriter. During that period, he met the journalist Frank Caughlin, a member of Chicago's progressive middleclass who was famous for his civil rights battles. This culture is reflected in his first documentaries, which he made for WGN with his friend Bill Butler (who was to become an important director of photography for films like Jaws, Grease, Rocky II and Rocky III). He also filmed The People versus Paul Crump (1962), a movie which was conceived and made to save a man from the electric chair. This film won him the prize for best documentary at the San Francisco Film Festival. His first full-length film, Good Times, was made in 1967, but true success arrived in 1971 with The French Connection, which won five Oscars (best film, director, screenplay, editing and actor, Gene Hackman), followed in 1973 by The Exorcist, which won Oscars for best screenplay and sound. Sorcerer (1977), a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's film Le Salaire de la Peur (1953), was his unlucky film and weakened the relationship between Friedkin and the Studios. Between the late '70s and early '80s, the director alternated working on commission on a controversial film like Cruising (1980) and directing a milestone in detective films, To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). The 1990's saw him range from horror films like The Guardian (1990) to sports films, Blue Chips (1993), only to return to his favorite genre, noir films with Jade (1995). In Rules of Engagement (2000), Friedkin investigated the effective impossibility of reconstructing facts, on a historical and on a cinematographic level, while his most recent film, The Hunted (2003) takes dueling, a key feature of classic American cinema, to its extreme limit.
FILMOGRAFIA
Beginnings: The Ulveling Interview (cm, doc., 1960), The People versus Paul Crump (mm, doc., 1962), «Home Again» - 77 - Grange of Illinois (cm, doc., 1963), The Bold Men (mm, doc., 1965), Pro Football: Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon (mm, doc., 1965), «The Alfred Hitchcock's Hour» - Off Season (mm, TV, 1965), The Thin Blue Line (mm, doc., 1966), Good Times (1967), The Pickle Brothers (cm, TV, 1967), The Night They Raided Minsky's (Quella notte inventarono lo spogliarello, 1968), The Birthday Party (Festa di compleanno, 1968), The Boys in the Band (Festa per il compleanno del caro amico Harold, 1970), The French Connection (Il braccio violento della legge, 1971), The Exorcist (L'esorcista, 1973), Fritz Lang Interviewed by William Friedkin (1974-2003), Sorcerer (Il salario della paura, 1977), The Brink's Job (Pollice da scasso, 1978), Cruising (id., 1980), Deal of the Century (L'affare del secolo, 1983), To Live and Die in L. A. (Vivere e morire a Los Angeles, 1985), To Live and Die in L. A. (videoclip, 1985), Self-Control (videoclip, 1985), «The Twilight Zone» - Nightcrawlers («Ai confini della realtà» - I serpenti della notte, cm, TV, 1985), Somewhere (videoclip, 1986), The C.A.T. Squad (TV, 1986), Rampage (Assassino senza colpa?, 1987-1992), The C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf (1988), The Guardian (L'albero del male, 1990), «Tales from the Crypt» - On a Dead Man's Chest («I racconti della cripta» - Segno di morte, cm, TV, 1992), Blue Chips (Basta vincere, 1993), Jailbreakers (TV, 1994), Jade (id., 1995), 12 Angry Men (La parola ai giurati, TV, 1997), Rules of Engagement (Regole d'onore, 2000), The Hunted (The Hunted - La preda, 2003).
Cast
& Credits
Regia/Director: William Friedkin
Soggetto, sceneggiatura/
Story, screenplay: Harold Pinter dalla sua piËce teatrale
Fotografia/Director of photography: Denys Coop
Scenografia/Set design: Edward Marshall
Montaggio/Film editor: Anthony Gibbs
Suono/Sound: Norman Bolland
Interpreti e personaggi/Cast and characters: Robert Shaw (Stanley Webber), Sydney Tafler (Nat Goldberg), Patrick Mcgee (McCann), Dandy Nichols (Meg Boles), Moultrie Kelsall (Petey Boles)
Produttore/Producer: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky
Produzione/Production: Edgar J. Sherick Productions
Distribuzione/Distribution: Palomar Pictures International
Soggetto, sceneggiatura/
Story, screenplay: Harold Pinter dalla sua piËce teatrale
Fotografia/Director of photography: Denys Coop
Scenografia/Set design: Edward Marshall
Montaggio/Film editor: Anthony Gibbs
Suono/Sound: Norman Bolland
Interpreti e personaggi/Cast and characters: Robert Shaw (Stanley Webber), Sydney Tafler (Nat Goldberg), Patrick Mcgee (McCann), Dandy Nichols (Meg Boles), Moultrie Kelsall (Petey Boles)
Produttore/Producer: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky
Produzione/Production: Edgar J. Sherick Productions
Distribuzione/Distribution: Palomar Pictures International