For sheer cinematic punch, it’s hard to equal the films of director William Friedkin - THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, SORCERER and TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. are such great yet hard-hitting pleasures to watch, so downright addictive, that it’s easy to forget what a meticulous craftsman Friedkin is on every level.

A veteran of live television in the 1950s, Friedkin trained in documentary filmmaking in the mid-1960s - training that led to the unnerving, you-are-there realism of THE FRENCH CONNECTION and the terrible beauty of THE EXORCIST and SORCERER. "What I try to do before each film is immerse myself totally in many tangential phases of that subject before I make it - so I’m literally swimming in it before I expose a frame of film," Friedkin has observed.

Within the last two decades, Friedkin has returned to his early roots in television drama with the highly acclaimed "12 Angry Men," and has directed episodes of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." He has also directed such searing action films as RULES OF ENGAGEMENT and THE HUNTED and is currently shooting KILLER JOE starring Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch.

We’re thrilled to welcome director William Friedkin to the Aero Theatre for a retrospective of his work.

Saturday, January 22 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature: 40th Anniversary! THE FRENCH CONNECTION, 1971, 20th Century Fox, 104 min. Arguably the greatest American crime film ever made. Gene Hackman stars as Detective Popeye Doyle, who’s muscling minor hoods in NYC (the "You ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?" scene is still a classic) when he catches the trail of a huge shipment of French heroin. With partner Roy Scheider, Hackman dogs drug-kingpin Fernando Rey through the concrete jungle - highlighted by a brain-jangling car chase that still hasn’t been topped (except perhaps in Friedkin’s own TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.). [35mm] Trailer

TO LIVE & DIE IN L.A., 1985, MGM Repertory, 116 min. Director William Friedkin's startling, exhilarating thriller stars William Petersen as a hot-shot Federal agent out to bust ruthless counterfeiter Willem Dafoe (in a revelatory, tour-de-force performance). Along the way, they collide with John Turturro as a drug mule addicted to Pepto Bismol and Dean Stockwell as Dafoe's morally ambivalent mouthpiece. As dynamic and unnerving as THE FRENCH CONNECTION a decade earlier, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. is Friedkin at his very best - a turbo-charged ride through an imploding, morally-corrupt American landscape. [35mm] Discussion between films with director William Friedkin.Trailer | Buy Tickets

Sunday, January 23 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature: New 35mm Print! SORCERER, 1977, Paramount, 122 min. Friedkin’s most visually awesome film follows small-time crook Roy Scheider from Brooklyn to the sweltering South American jungles, where he lands a job hauling nitroglycerine with hard-luck losers Bruno Cremer and Francisco Rabal. Rather than simply remake Henri-Georges Clouzot’s famed WAGES OF FEAR, Friedkin re-imagined the story as a cosmic vision of man vs. nature, climaxing in the mind-bending image of Scheider and crew literally pushing a loaded truck across a spindly rope bridge. [35mm] Trailer