Saturday, January 22 · 7:30pm
Double Feature: 40th Anniversary! THE FRENCH CONNECTION, 1971, 20th Century Fox, 104 min. Arguably the greatest American crime film ever made. Gene Hackman stars as Detective Popeye Doyle, who’s muscling minor hoods in NYC (the “You ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?” scene is still a classic) when he catches the trail of a huge shipment of French heroin. With partner Roy Scheider, Hackman dogs drug-kingpin Fernando Rey through the concrete jungle – highlighted by a brain-jangling car chase that still hasn’t been topped (except perhaps in Friedkin’s own TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.). [35mm]
TO LIVE & DIE IN L.A., 1985, MGM Repertory, 116 min. Director William Friedkin’s startling, exhilarating thriller stars William Petersen as a hot-shot Federal agent out to bust ruthless counterfeiter Willem Dafoe (in a revelatory, tour-de-force performance). Along the way, they collide with John Turturro as a drug mule addicted to Pepto Bismol and Dean Stockwell as Dafoe’s morally ambivalent mouthpiece. As dynamic and unnerving as THE FRENCH CONNECTION a decade earlier, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. is Friedkin at his very best – a turbo-charged ride through an imploding, morally-corrupt American landscape. [35mm]
Discussion between films with director William Friedkin.
Buy Tickets: http://www.fandango.com/americancinemathequeattheaerotheatre_aacpd/theaterpage
Double Feature: New 35mm Print! SORCERER, 1977, Paramount, 122 min. Friedkin’s most visually awesome film follows small-time crook Roy Scheider from Brooklyn to the sweltering South American jungles, where he lands a job hauling nitroglycerine with hard-luck losers Bruno Cremer and Francisco Rabal. Rather than simply remake Henri-Georges Clouzot’s famed WAGES OF FEAR, Friedkin re-imagined the story as a cosmic vision of man vs. nature, climaxing in the mind-bending image of Scheider and crew literally pushing a loaded truck across a spindly rope bridge. [35mm]
THE EXORCIST, 1973, Warner Bros., 121 min. Friedkin adapted William Peter Blatty’s bone-chilling best-seller into the classic American horror film in which Catholic priests Jason Miller and Max von Sydow go head-to-head with the unholy one, inhabiting the body of young Linda Blair. “I auditioned 500 girls and went with Linda because I felt she was the most intelligent, most pulled-together youngster I had ever met.” – Friedkin. With Ellen Burstyn. [35mm]
Discussion between films with director William Friedkin moderated by Josh Olson.
Buy Tickets: http://www.fandango.com/americancinemathequeattheaerotheatre_aacpd/theaterpage
Sunday, January 23 · 7:30pm
Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Ave at 14th St
Santa Monica, Ca.
DIRECTIONS TO THE AERO THEATRE
