I'd like to think this was planned, because nothing could enhance a rare screening of
The French Connection better than subway trains rumbling underneath your feet. It's like the N train knew when the most tense moments were happening onscreen, and it came by to add its own funky baseline.
The Museum of Modern Art (or "MoMA" if you're the kind of person who actually says shit like "El-Oh-El") was the spot, and the occasion was the release of the Blu-Ray DVD edition of William Friedkin's classic crime thriller. Friedkin himself was in attendance, but more on him in a second.
If you've never seen
The French Connection and still want to call yourself a well-rounded man, then you know what you have to do in the next 24 to 48 hours.
The French Connection is gritty, slow-burning, and features one of the all-time greatest car chases in movie history—an undisputed classic that, when someone invites you to actually catch on the big screen, you only respond with, "What time should I be there?"
Friedkin gave a brief introduction, then the film played. Maybe it was the clean new transfer or the big screen, but I noticed details I'd never noticed before. Like, in the background of one shot you can see a still-under-construction World Trade Center (they shot in 1971, before it had been completed)—it has the same kind of off-putting effect as seeing the half-built Death Star in
Return of the Jedi.
When the movie ended, Friedkin—looking spry for a man in his 70s—returned to the stage and answered some questions about the history of the movie (well, before taking a moment to point out that the audience was unexpectedly filled with GILFs Candice Bergen, Ellen Burstyn, Sherry Lansing, and, um, Barbara Walters).
After revealing that he first heard about the true story behind the movie in the steam room at Paramount studios, Friedkin proceeded to drop gem after gem. Like how the studio wanted to change the title to either "Doyle" or, I shit you not, "Popeye," despite the obvious legal considerations and inevitable audience confusion, or how Friedkin was fired or threatened with firing at least four or five times, or even how the guy who helps Doyle and Russo tear apart the drug smuggler's car in the film was the guy who actually performed that duty on the real-life French Connection case…
But the highlight was the description of how, exactly, they managed to stage the car-versus-elevated train chase (which, it turns out, wasn't even in the original script) that became the stuff of movie legend:
"We went to the transit authority to get permission to do this," said Friedkin, "and the guy said, 'If I give you guys permission to do this, I'm going to lose my job.' But we said, 'But don't you think it's a great idea?' And he said, 'It's a wonderful idea, but nothing like that ever happened on the elevated system. We never had anyone commandeer a train, or two trains crashing, or anything like that. That's impossible.' So we thanked him and started to leave. Then he said, 'Wait a minute. I told you that if I gave you permission to do this, I would lose my job.' We said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'Well, how much is that worth to you?' And we said, 'Well, how much is it worth
to you?' He said, 'Forty thousand dollars, and a one-way ticket to Jamaica.' And I said, 'Why one way?' And he said, 'If you guys make this film the way you're telling me, I will be fired and I won't be able to come back here.' And that was the case! That forty thousand dollars came out of our budget. I think he lived happily ever after in Jamaica."
For more on the DVD, click here, Frenchie.
