William Friedkin: Frayed Connections

At the conclusion of his 2013 memoir, William Friedkin, citing cinema's collaborative nature, dismissively writes that he "[doesn't] give much credibility to the auteur theory." But then he seemingly hesitates: "A director's intelligence can inform a film", he concedes, before citing several of his own influences. This reticence is strange (even comedic) in the final pages of a book that catalogues the endeavors of a director notorious for his willfulness, audacity, and even brinkmanship in the service of having things his own way. Indeed, Friedkin's 1970s work demonstrates several distinctive and developing stylistic features: a mode of distanced observation carried over from his earliest documentary work, use of cryptic cutaways, a willingness to subordinate strict narrative continuity to the emotional force of the events onscreen, and often a focus on strenuous physical action.