Click here to read interview with William Friedkin in The New York Sun

Click here to read interview with William Friedkin in The Reeler

“IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING THIS WEEK, SEE THE FRENCH CONNECTION!” – Time Out New York

“A multifaceted period piece and a newfangled genre flick, fraught with urban decay and racial tension,
William Friedkin's bang-bang procedural created a paradigm for the tell-it-like-it-is cop drama.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice. Click here for entire review

“THE IDEAL SELECTION TO CLOSE THE THEATER'S FIVE WEEK ‘NYC NOIR’ SERIES.
An extravagant feat of guerilla filmmaking... the sort of thriller that rarely gets in: a smart one.”
– Eric Kohn, New York Press. Click here to read review

“Friedkin's symphony of long, sharp shocks is memorable for any number of sequences: the cat-and-mouse subway game,
the ballbusting bar shakedown, a breakneck chase scene that still seems leagues ahead of greatest-ever competitors.”
– David Fear, Time Out New York

“THE PINNACLE FOR WHOLESOME HEROIN-BUST ENTERTAINMENT!
The sharply edited thriller pulled off a street-level peek at ball-busting cops amid urban grit —
a style that's became as much of a staple as film noir's long shadows and doomed men of the 1940s.”
– Nicolas Rapold, The New York Sun. Click here to read review

“The quintessential portrait of New York at its Nixon-era grittiest!” – Gene Seymour, Newsday

(1971) “Ever picked your feet in Poughkeepsie?” That’s a question Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle (based on super-cop Eddie Egan) often asks; but then he also asks why cheap crook/candy store owner Tony LoBianco is suddenly throwing around that money. And we’re off on the proverbial roller-coaster ride — but this time for real — from a mortal purchase of baguettes on the Riviera; to a classic subway door jamming that schnookers police tails during a crosstown shadowing; to legendary traffic problems in Brooklyn, as Hackman car-chases an out-of-control B train carrying sniper Marcel Bozzufi (who had already killed Yves Montand in Z). Friedkin’s high-octane re-creation of an actual drug bust — the biggest in NYC history — set new standards for screen chases (and violence) and nabbed 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing (Jerry Greenberg), Best Screenplay, and Best Actor — Hackman’s first, despite his being third or fourth choice for the role, after Steve McQueen, Peter Boyle, Jackie Gleason, and even columnist Jimmy Breslin. With Buñuel regular Fernando Rey as “Frog One,” Roy Scheider, in Oscar-nominated role as Doyle’s partner Buddy Rosso (based on the actual Sonny Grosso), and cameos by the real-life Egan and Grosso.
A CRITERION PICTURES RELEASE OF A 20TH CENTURY FOX FILM.
1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50

“A slam-bang thriller! Zaps the audience with noise, speed and brutality! It’s like an aggravated case of New York!”
– Pauline Kael