June 5th 2014. Pick of the Day.

A throng of the wide-eyed gathered at Bryant Park yesterday to watch something called the NHL. The fools, don't they know this is where we watch movies during the warm weather?

Oh, this is a good thing? There is this thing called hockey and we have a team called the Rangers? And they're in something called the Super Cup? Okay then, good for them! Bully I say! Tell them to vacate Bryant Park by the 16th, Travolta needs the lawn.

Today's lone continuing series is An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA. Let us go then, you and I;

Film Forum

SORCERER (1977) Dir; William Friedkin

MoMA

DIRTY HARRY (1971) Dir; Don Seigel

BowTie Chelsea Cinemas

HAIRSPRAY (1988) Dir; John Waters

Today's Pick? How satisfying the struggle's end for the Cinegeek who champions a work initially and long thereafter regarded as junk, trash, or a film by Brian de Palma, when the day finally arrives that sees the effort rewarded by a widespread critical reevaluation. Among the films I've beaten the drum for over the years include Michael Cimino's HEAVEN'S GATE, Elaine May's ISHTAR, and William Friedkin's follow-up to his first two contributions to New Hollywood cinema; THE FRENCH CONNECTION and THE EXORCIST, both groundbreaking, both iconic, both massive box office. One an Oscar-minter. In a fit of inevitable post-success narcissism the Francophiliac auteur took advantage of a dinner with his hero, Henri-Georges Clouzot, to ask a specific permission of him; "Maestro", Friedkin is said to have asked, "I want to remake your film THE WAGES OF FEAR! But I promise I won't do as good a job as you did! May I have your blessing?" "You have it", was the reported reply, "but why would you want to?"

Friedkin soon found himself asking the very same question. At a mark in his career where he could demand a 20 million dollar budget to film Tony Lo Bianca reading the phone book, he instead decided to venture into the jungle, just as his Director's Company partner Francis Ford Coppola chose to do, at nearly equal consequence to budget and sked but with decidedly differing result. Friedkin initially stalked megastar Steve McQueen for the lead role, but the actor declined, ostensibly out of disdain for the South American location shoot, but some say out of misgivings over leaving wife Ali McGraw, who he'd stolen from ex-hubby Robert Evans, for the duration of the production. Other names like Jack Nicholson and James Caan were touted, but eventually Friedkin "settled" on his FRENCH CONNECTION co-star Roy Scheider, a move he still partially attributes the film's poor reception to, and which is utter bullshit; neither the efforts of the lead actor nor the man calling the shots is as to blame as the shifting cultural tides of popular consumerism, an ebb and flow that can change the game in as short a span as four years, and make a beggar of a king. Friedkin (mostly) wound up with the film he'd wanted to make, it just wound up a film no one wanted to see.

In the end Friedkin had kept his promise, or admission, to his hero; his WAGES remake was not nearly the film Clouzot had given the world in 1953. This, though, is not to suggest that it isn't an amazing work of 70's cinema in its own right. The emphasis on each character's backstory in the first 15 minutes is a slight improvement over Clouzot, as is the neater, more cynical ending, yet what comes in the middle neither delivers on the promise of the former nor satisfyingly sets up the latter. The justly lauded suspense scenes in Friedkin's remake can stand with his idol's, however, and the commentary on 1st world imperialism emerges from subtext to text in the years dividing the films. They are both fatalist works from fatalist men, but whereas Clouzot had actually experienced some of the world's worst horrors firsthand, Friedkin had to put in the extra effort to earn the stripes. It shows. But that ain't neccesariy a bad thing. Friedkin was both born for and made his commercial rep on traversing the cinematic worlds respectable and exploitative. Here is your last chance for the time being to rediscover a film, one of his lost masterworks, that perhaps epitomizes that uniquely 70's aesthetic.

William Friedkin's SORCERER screens its last today all day at Film Forum. Your papers are worthless here, but tix are still available.

For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in June '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview and other audio tomfoolery check out the podcast, and follow me on SoundCloud! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then is this iPhone enough to get me out of the country? Oh you make them here? Oh you eat them here too, they aren't currency. This is what I get for watching CNN religiously.

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

P. S. Even though we're coming into the summer months and therefore not often as mindful of the displaced, some of our fellow NY'ers are yet to be made whole since Hurricane Sandy hit nearly two years ago. Check in with the good folks at Occupy Sandy to see if you can't still volunteer/donate to our neighbors in need. Be a mensch.