The French Connection
Directed by	William Friedkin
Produced by	Philip D'Antoni
Written by	Robin Moore (Novel) Ernest Tidyman (Screenplay)
Starring	Gene Hackman Fernando Rey Roy Scheider Tony Lo Bianco
Music by	{{{music}}}
Cinematography	{{{cinematography}}}
Editing by	{{{editing}}}
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Released	{{{released}}}
Running time	104 min
Language	English
Budget	$1,800,000 (est.)
Preceded by	{{{preceded_by}}}
Followed by	{{{followed_by}}}
IMDb profile

The French Connection is a 1971 Hollywood film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted by Ernest Tidyman from the novel by Robin Moore. Image File history File links Original movie poster from The French Connection, 1971. ... William Friedkin (born August 29, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is a movie and television director, producer, and writer best known for directing The Exorcist and The French Connection in the early 1970s. ... Robin Moore (born October 31, 1925) is a U.S. writer who authored the lyrics of Ballad of the Green Berets, and the books The Green Berets, The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy and, with Xaviera Hollander and Yvonne Dunleavy, The Happy Hooker: My... Ernest Tidyman (January 1, 1928 - July 14, 1984) is an American author and Academy Award winning screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. ... Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (born 30 January 1930) is an Oscar winning American actor. ... Fernando Rey Fernando Casado DArambillet, known as Fernando Rey, (September 20, 1917 - March 9, 1994) was born in A Coruña, Spain, then known as La Coruña, the son of Colonel Casado Veiga. ... Roy Scheider Roy Scheider (born November 10, 1932) is an American actor. ... 20th Century Fox logo Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... See also: 1970 in film 1971 1972 in film 1970s in film years in film film // Events February 8 - Bob Dylans hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New Yorks Academy of Music. ... ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Look up film in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... William Friedkin (born August 29, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is a movie and television director, producer, and writer best known for directing The Exorcist and The French Connection in the early 1970s. ... Ernest Tidyman (January 1, 1928 - July 14, 1984) is an American author and Academy Award winning screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. ... Robin Moore (born October 31, 1925) is a U.S. writer who authored the lyrics of Ballad of the Green Berets, and the books The Green Berets, The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy and, with Xaviera Hollander and Yvonne Dunleavy, The Happy Hooker: My...

The film tells the story of two New York City policemen who are trying to intercept a heroin shipment coming in from France and is based on the actual, infamous "French Connection" trafficking scheme. It stars Gene Hackman as New York City police detective "Popeye Doyle", Roy Scheider as his partner, Sonny, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco and Eddie Egan, the real-life police detective on whom Hackman's character was based. His real life partner, Sonny "Cloudy" Grosso appears in the film, as well, as a FBI agent on the case (his "big" scenes are at the airport and in Washington, D.C., tailing Sal Boca (Lo Bianco) and Charnier ("Frog # 1").) The Empire State Building (right) and the Chrysler Building (left) are easily recognized symbols of New York City to the world. ... Heroin or diacetylmorphine (INN) is a semi-synthetic opioid. ... The French Connection was an infamous scheme through which the illegal drug heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States, culminating in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it provided the vast majority of the heroin consumed in the United States. ... Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (born 30 January 1930) is an Oscar winning American actor. ... Roy Scheider Roy Scheider (born November 10, 1932) is an American actor. ... Fernando Rey Fernando Casado DArambillet, known as Fernando Rey, (September 20, 1917 - March 9, 1994) was born in A Coruña, Spain, then known as La Coruña, the son of Colonel Casado Veiga. ...

It was the first R-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (Midnight Cowboy had won in 1969, but it was X-rated at the time). It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role, (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Roy Scheider), Best Cinematography and Best Sound. The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 film written by Waldo Salt based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, and directed by John Schlesinger. ... See also: 1968 in film 1969 1970 in film 1960s in film years in film film Events Cannes Film Festival opens, but closes in support of a French general strike without awarding any prizes. ... X-rated, X certificate, X classification or similar terms are labels for movies implying strong adult content, typically pornography or violence. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Emil Jannings posses with the very first Best Actor Oscar The Academy Award for Best Actor is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... The Academy Award for Film Editing was first given for films issued in 1934. ... The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. ... Janet Gaynor getting the first Best Actress Oscar from Douglas Fairbanks Sr. ... The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is awarded each year to a cinematographer for his work in one particular motion picture. ... This is a list of films that have received an Oscar for best sound. ...

In 2005 the film was added to the list of films preserved in the United States National Film Registry. This is a list of film-related events in 2005. ... The United States National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ...

Casting challenges

Though the cast ultimately proved to be one of the film's greatest strengths, Friedkin had problems with casting choices from the start. He was strongly opposed to the choice of Hackman for the lead, and actually first considered Jackie Gleason and a New York columnist, Jimmy Breslin, who had never acted before. However, Gleason at the time was considered box office poison by the studio after Gigot had flopped, and Breslin refused to get behind the wheel of a car, which was required of Popeye's character for an integral car chase scene. Steve McQueen was also considered but did not want to do another cop film. Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows in a staged publicity shot for The Honeymooners. ... Jimmy Breslin (born October 17, 1930 in Jamaica, New York) is an Irish American columnist and author who has written numerous novels and appeared regularly in various newspapers in New York City, where he lives. ... This article is about the actor Steve McQueen. ...

The casting of Rey as the main French heroin smuggler, Alain Charnier (irreverently referred to throughout the film as "Frog One"), resulted from mistaken identity. Friedkin had asked his casting director to get a Spanish actor he had seen in the French film, Belle de Jour, who was actually Francisco Rabal, but Friedkin did not know his name. Rey was instead contacted but did not speak a word of French. However, after Rabal was finally reached, they discovered he spoke neither French nor English, and Rey was kept in the film. Belle de jour film poster Belle de jour is a 1967 French film starring Catherine Deneuve. ... Francisco Rabal ( March 8, 1926 - August 29, 2001) was born in Águilas, a small town in Murcia ( Spain). ...

Additional details

The film is often cited as containing one of the greatest car chase sequences in movie history, and car chases, with elaborate stunt work, became de rigueur afterward. The chase involved Popeye securing a civilian's car and then obsessively chasing an out-of-control elevated train, on which a hitman was trying to escape. Many of the shots in the scene were "real", in that Hackman actually drove the car at high speeds through uncontrolled traffic and red lights, with Friedkin running a camera from the backseat while wrapped in a carpet for protection. The production team of course received no prior permission from the city for such a dangerous stunt, and the only precaution taken was to place a "gumdrop" police siren on the car's roof and blare the horn. Other shots involved stunt drivers who were supposed to barely miss hitting the speeding car, but due to errors in timing accidental collisions occurred and were left in the final film. This car chase was parodied in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. In movies and television a car chase is a scene involving one or more automobiles being pursued by other vehicles. ... This page refers to urban rail mass transit systems. ... In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. ... See also: 1979 in film 1980 1981 in film 1970s in film 1980s in film years in film film // Events April 30 - The Roger Daltrey film, McVicar, opens in London. ... The Blues Brothers: Dan Aykroyd (left) and John Belushi. ...

The movie established the careers of both Friedkin and Hackman, and was instrumental in ushering in an era of neo-realist directors in Hollywood during the early 1970s.

It was followed in 1975 by a less-acclaimed sequel, French Connection II. In 1986, a television movie, Popeye Doyle, appeared. See also: 1974 in film 1975 1976 in film 1970s in film years in film film // Events January 28 - George Lucas creates the second draft of what would eventually become Star Wars. ... French Connection II DVD cover French Connection II is a 1975 movie sequel to The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman directed by John Frankenheimer. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Freidkin later attempted to outdo the "Connection" chase scene with the infamous backwards car chase on a freeway in To Live and Die in L.A.. William Friedkin (born August 29, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is a movie and television director, producer, and writer best known for directing The Exorcist and The French Connection in the early 1970s. ... To Live and Die in L.A. is an action/thriller movie released in 1985. ...

The French Connection was also the nickname of a line of hockey players for the Buffalo Sabres in the 1970s consisting of Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, and Rene Robert. Ice hockey, known simply as hockey in areas where it is more common than field hockey, is a team sport played on ice. ... The Buffalo Sabres are a National Hockey League (NHL) team based in Buffalo, New York. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Gilbert Perreault (born November 13, 1950) was a Canadian ice hockey player. ... Rick Martin (born 26 July 1951 in LaSalle, Quebec, Canada) is a retired professional ice hockey winger who played in the NHL for 11 seasons between 1971 and 1982. ... Rene Robert (born 31 December 1948 in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, Canada) is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played 12 seasons in the NHL between 1970 and 1982. ...

External links

• The French Connection at the Internet Movie Database
• Under the Influence: William Friedkin and The French Connection, DGA Magazine.