 |
|
William Friedkin © Pat York |
American director William Friedkin will give the Cinema Masterclass of the 69th Festival de Cannes. Following in the footsteps of Martin Scorsese, Nanni Moretti, Wong Kar-wai, Quentin Tarantino, Marco Bellocchio, Philip Kaufman and Jacques Audiard, he will take to the stage at the Buñuel Theatre in the Palais des Festivals to talk with the audience. The Masterclass will be hosted by film critic Michel Ciment.
William Friedkin is one of the leading figures of American cinema and the author of the recent work "The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir" in which offers a passionate and sincere account of his life story. He played a leading role in the renewal of American cinema at the beginning of the Seventies with the huge box-office hits The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). He picked up an Oscar for Best Director in 1972 and went on to garner multiple awards around the world.
“It's an honour to share my thoughts and ideas with an audience at Cannes, the home of world cinema”, he declared on accepting the invitation. “This is the most challenging time I can recall for the future of world cinema. There are massive changes coming for production and exhibition, more than I've experienced in over fifty years.”
Friedkin was born in Chicago in 1935. A radio and opera fan as a young man, he decided to become a film director after emerging dazzled from watchingCitizen Kane by Orson Welles. His studies at television and reporting school made a deep and lasting impression on his style, with its mixture of narration and sharp realism. A man of culture and a film buff, he directed a long documentary interview with Fritz Lang in 1974, before directing Sorcerer in 1977 — an adaptation of The Wages of Fear by Henri-Georges Clouzot — and a film he sees as his masterpiece.
He directed two outstanding landmark 80s films: Cruising (1980) and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), which explore detective and underworld themes, before making a return to horror with Rampage (1987) and The Guardian (1990).
Despite his active involvement in staging operas, William Friedkin has continued to direct films, with Bug (2006) and Killer Joe (2011) being his latest releases.
William Friedkin’s Masterclass will take place on Wednesday, May, 18th, at Buñuel Theatre, Palais des Festivals.
