AFI Top 100: The French Connection (#93 in 2007; #70 in 1998)

This was another film that I hadn't yet seen, which I really enjoyed. Apparently lots of people really enjoyed it when it came out, too (1971); it won Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

It was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Roy Scheider, who was awesome but lost to Ben Johnson in the Last Picture Show), Best Cinematography (French Connection and Last Picture Show lost to Fiddler on the Roof, so that must have been fantastic), and Best Sound Mixing (lost to Fiddler on the Roof again - I guess I'll add it to my list).

So about the French Connection. One thing I'm curious about is why it dropped from #70 to #93 on the list. I could make a guess but it would certainly be wrong. I wish they published a "Reasons Why" essay for these films, but I couldn't find one. As a teacher who had to objectively-subjectively grade large numbers of essays at one time, I could again make a guess, but again, it might be wrong. (I would feel more confident about the reasoning though but I'm still going to hold off on including it.) Moving on, though:

The first term that comes to mind about this film is "fast-paced" and the fast pacing starts at the very beginning, with some very dramatic music played over a minimal number of title cards racing onto a black screen and then off again.

After the title cards, the film opens with us being dropped off in Marseilles, in a very disorienting sequence that introduces us to the actual French Connection, the head of a French syndicate (and his Lincoln Continental). After we see the French detective following him being murdered, we are brought to Brooklyn, where Santa Claus and a street vendor chase down and violently apprehend a bartender involved in a heroin deal.

The entire film is fast-paced, with many of the scenes taking place in moving cars or while walking, windshield wipers and cars moving in background. The cinematography also contributes to this kinetic energy, often switching from close ups to crowd shots. This really makes the scenes of stillness eerie and dramatic.

The film is known for its frenetic car chase scene, and as others have pointed out, the entire film plays like one long chase scene. Someone is always following someone on foot or vehicle (car, train, etc) or at the very least tracking someone down or staking someone out. Several scenes end with a cut to someone watching, which really heightens the tension; I always expected someone to be watching or something coming, even in scenes of stillness and apparent calm (there weren't many of those though).

The detectives who were actually on the case were also actually on set much of the time, and able to give feedback when appropriate. (One of them, Eddie Egan, played their boss in the film!) In the director's commentary, William Friedkin explains that the film is an "impression" of the case that inspired it, in that the facts of the case were not as important as the feelings or sense of the case. The feeling is what the detectives on set were helping recreate, although many facts of the case were changed (such as the number of agencies involved). This was an especially interesting choice because he had experience with documentary filmmaking and copied that style with handheld cameras, real settings, and natural lighting. 

He was inspired by the "documentary realness" of French New Wave cinema, mentioning Godard's Breathless and Costa-Gravas' Z specifically. I saw Breathless years ago during my French New Wave phase. It wasn't my favorite - Alphaville made more of an impression at the time - but I loved it.

I guess I have to add Z to my list of films as well. I'm starting to think I won't finish by my birthday.