I’ve always defended William Friedkin as one of the more important auteurs of the ‘70s, so it’s heartening to see the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Wes Anderson Damien Chazelle and Edgar Wright participating in a doc tribute to the filmmaking legend titled “Friedkin Uncut”
Friedkin was always prone to be a cinematic agent provocateur. Of course, he’s had plenty of duds over his career (“The Hunted,” “Rules of Engagement,” “Jade,” “Blue Chips,” “The Guardian,” “Deal of the Century”) but the sheer amount of voluminous cinematic achievements he’s given us cannot be understated — with his three movie classics during the ‘70s (“Sorcerer,” “The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) Friedkin changed Hollywood. He’s also given us a 1985 police procedural flick (“To Live and Die In L.A”) which has aged very well over time. Let us also not forget that Friedkin had a mini-comeback, of sorts, these last few years with 2006’s “Bug” and 2011’s brilliantly deranged “Killer Joe.”
It's been 6 years since "Killer Joe" was released and Friedkin hasn’t given us anything since.
In the meantime, Friedkin has been concentrating more on non-fiction filmmaking. His latest non-fiction venture, "The Devil and Father Amortha," had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2017. The film told the story of Father Gabriele Amortha's and picked up as he was about to perform his ninth exorcism on an Italian woman.
“Friedkin Uncut” was directed by Francesco Zippel and actually world premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. It’s finally being released this coming Friday August 23rd.
“Row K” acquired “Poetic License” out of TIFF last year, but Sony Pictures Classics has now stepped in and picked up the film. According to Variety, SPC is planning a release next year.