SIFF Interview – William Friedkin/Emile Hirsch – Killer Joe

August 15th, 2012 | POSTED BY Spencer Fornaciari

TF: I do write for a DVD website, so I wanted to ask: you were saying last night at the Q&A that you don’t revisit your films very much.

WF: Not at all.

TF: But I notice you do make sure they get presented well on video, so that’s important to you?

WF: And in theaters.

TF: Because I know you went back, you did the original French Connection Blu-Ray where you tweaked the colors, and recently they put out a new one where you worked with the cinematographer to go back to the original look of the film.

WF: Well, the original Blu-Ray, the master was fine. The master were as good as the one that’s out now. But the prints, the release prints were terrible. In fact, if you rented the Blu-Ray of The French Connection, the original one, there was a warning from 20th Century Fox in the cover, inside cover, that said “This film may not play well on your playback machine. If it doesn’t, go to w-w-w-something, we’ll send you a test disc and you can tune your set.” What a bunch of shit. When we found that out, we were all furious, because the master was perfect. It was in the release prints that they fucked it up. I do care about that. Somebody spends ten bucks or something to see a movie, they should see it the way the filmmakers intended.

SF: I think we’re getting the sign to wrap up.

WF: Oh, that’s all right, go ahead. You must have something.

TF: I have another question, if you don’t mind.

WF: Go ahead.

TF: Last night, you also cited John Frankenheimer as one of your contemporaries on Playhouse 90, and I know you were on the Blu-Ray/DVD of Manchurian Candidate, you did an interview. I just thought it was really fascinating that you considered him a colleague, but you had no interest in seeing the French Connection sequel that he did?

WF: No. I wrote him an eight-page letter. Handwritten, single-spaced, on both sides — this is before we had computers — begging him not to do it, because he was one of my idols, and good friends. And I said, there’s just no way you can come out! People start comparing your film to the original, and the original has already been called a classic and won an Academy Award. There’s no way you can win. It’s seldom that a sequel can top the original. I think perhaps Godfather II is the only exception I can think of. It’s as good to me as the original, anyway. But sequels generally aren’t. Sequels are only made for money. There’s generally nothing new to be said about them.

TF: And I would definitely say that about French Connection II. It’s well made, but I do think it’s funny, that The French Connection is a true story about this guy who couldn’t catch the criminal, and then they make a sequel where he can fly to France get him. It’s like wish-fulfillment.

WF: Well, it was made for money, and I try not to do that.

EH: I didn’t even know they made a French Connection sequel.

WF: Yeah, French Connection II. And they did some other TV spin-offs, and shit like that. The Exorcist, I think there’s three or four.

SF: Yeah, plus the prequel.

WF: Plus rip-offs. I don’t see any of them. I don’t even try. I’m aware of them. That’s about it.

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Citizen Kane, Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple, Killer Joe, Matthew McConaughey, Orson Welles, The French Connection, Thomas Haden Church, Tracy Letts, William Friedkin