Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 5.0
Classic
The absolute brillance of French Connection is not the story, a pretty straightforward one about an obseesed cop and a drug dealer. The absolutle brillance is in the story telling.From the word go, we do not follow the story as much as feel it. Detectives Doyle and Grasso start their tail of a drug dealer on a hunch late at night and this extends-unexpectedly-to morning. Both detectives are cold and tired, told by the slow walks and rubbing of worn eyes. "Its eight in the morning." Grasso jabs at Doyle, and you hear the break in his voice.The pursit continues as "the frog" comes from France. In probably one of the most viceral scenes ever filmed, the drug smuggler takes his connection to lunch in a gourmet resturant and the detectvies wait outside. They eat cold pizza and drink watery coffee. Doyle has to move his feat to avoid numbness. He blows into his gloves and rubs his hands together. Suddenly, we as viewers start to feel cold.All this materfully conveyed viceral detial is not a flash of technique. Undercover is exausting, frustratining work, and this is told by Friendkins use of micropoints. He shows us how cops burn out.Friendkin may be our best director not because of what he shows us but how he makes us feel what he shows. He is the only filmaker I know that can make me feel tactile sensations the way most great autaurs make me feel emotions. Scorcesee may be more consistent and yes, I have never seen Martin shoot a frame that did not have perfect composition and more texture in one shot than most commercial features pack in one film. He is by far our America's most consistent film genius. But if I want to feel cold during a summer heatwave, I go to Freidkin.French Connection takes paitiance, especially by today's quickie cut MTV editing standards. But with Friendkin, the message is in the medium, and if younger viewers can adapt to the slower pace of this 1971 film and wait with Doyle and Grasso, their effort will be 100 fold rewarded