Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Simon is a Los Angeles-based journalist who covers film and TV. Nov 11, 2021, 01:00pm EST This article is more than 4 years old.

William Friedkin was one of those legendary Hollywood characters whose career really did begin in the mailroom. It just wasn’t the mailroom of a major studio. Rather, Friedkin started out in the more ...

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once. He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also ...

In a biography of Howard Hawks, author Todd McCarthy writes that when William Friedkin was living with Hawks' daughter Kitty in the early 1970s, Friedkin asked the famed director what he thought of ...

In April 1972, The French Connection took home five Academy Awards, including Best Director for William Friedkin, Actor for Gene Hackman, and Picture for Philip D’Antoni. The film about a relentless ...

Reid Goldberg is a features writer for Collider. Having grown up in the Midwest, he attended the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. While he's begrudingly accepted that a FIlm Studies degree wasn't ...

A thrilling, economical procedural, William Friedkin’s 1971 smash hit “The French Connection” has one thing on its mind: Immediacy. Every single element of this film has the goal of keeping the ...

LOS ANGELES — William Friedkin, the Oscar winning director who became a top filmmaker in his 30s with the gripping "The French Connection" and the horrifying "The Exorcist" and struggled in the ...

Gene Hackman has been out of the film game for almost twenty years now and ostensibly retired, but he was more than happy to take part in a chance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The French ...

French Connection II (1975) is a neo-noir action thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer. Serving as a sequel to the 1971-released French Connection, the movie sees detective Popeye Doyle ...

Fifty years ago this month, William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” set a new benchmark for crime thrillers. The production was budgeted initially at $2 million by Twentieth Century-Fox. This was ...