THE FRENCH CONNECTION
(1971; d. William Friedkin, w. Ernest Tidyman)

MARSEILLES (cf Friedkin Exorcist NORTHERN IRAQ: far-off – archetypal – otherland-unconscious, where germinate local [conscious] issues) romantic location undermined by criminal activity ("hero" Popeye Doyle’s only erotic interlude marked by S&M kink), where minimal dialogue (in unsubtitled French: barely intelligible language of dreams; again, à la Exorcist) extraneous to images of cop observing suspects (mind singling out material for "apprehension"/analysis) + getting executed by backalley gunman (extinguishing consciousness, assassin annihilating Unconscious à la narcotics obsessing Doyle).

BROOKLYN (à la Exorcist GEORGETOWN, FC getting there too in strange detour: hardboiled "reality" similarly thrown off-kilter by characters’ ambivalent behavior) suburb (rest of film taking place in reconfigured opening alley) where Santa Popeye (ironic benevolent "To Serve + Protect" cop almost immediately disputed) sim’y observing suspects before taking chase (filmlong pursuit picking up investigation barely hinted at in opener: analysis following cryptic dream) w/ partner Buddy Russo, busting up Black bar (place of inebriation returned to later: firebrand director shaking up establishment, and sub/conscious agent delving "foreign" – à la earlier French – unconscious) + hounding junkie out to field (interrogating debilitated unconsc; later replay in basement of 2nd bar w/ snitch descent into identifying w/ "dark" material, yielding stronger lead), where harassed w/ nonsense "Ever pick your toes in Poughkeepsie?" (ambiguous un/consc agent in film providing social "connection" btwn early img of cop as do-gooder + complex modern profile).

While kingpin Alain Charnier describes outfitting cargo ship (not eventual drug vessel: France also sunny real world "supplying" narcotized dream w/ its material) + gifting beautiful girlfriend w/ camera (he "director" bringing similar "rush" to audience, she cameraman Owen Roizman bestowing him w/ swanky overcoat/film-look) at lush villa, Popeye + Buddy leave grungy precinct house (poverty of imagination in lawkeeping consciousness [ambiguity in Popeye’s behavior as btwn conscious states]) for nightclub (similar place of uninhibited revelry as black bar, where unconscious elements reveal selves un-selfconsciously; performance by soul trio 3 Degrees hts of black culture to compensate for junkie depths), where he spies hi-roller Sal Boca (sleazy counterpart to Charnier revealing his true nature, he similar "French Connection" providing link to dreamy otherworld), whom he tails (on hunch: psyche recognizing own in orgiastic unconscious melting-pot, straw hat in back of car uncapped mind open to discovery) at dawn (coming illumination) to Little Italy diner (Sal + Angela’s, she wife in constant attendance cfg round-the-clock P+B duo, his + Charnier’s hetero proficiency [cf previous Friedkin gay-themed Boys in the Band + 2nd-next Cruising] true object of observation) where they pack suspicious items in newspapers (film’s gritty realism packing own narcotic buzz).

At castle, Charnier mts opening hitman (another French "connection," btwn drugs+death/thrills+consequence [film’s innovation portraying questionable heroes + their often grisly mistakes]) + strapped-for-$ TV star/drug-transport cover Devereaux (television similar brain-frying narcotic); in US, Popeye + Buddy tail Sal to ritzy hotel (not-the-castle [cf also Popeye’s lo-rent apartment, à la contrast btwn earlier villa + precinct and later posh dining + cops’ pizza in doorway], where resides both former star Don Ameche [à la Dev] + American kingpin Joel Weinstock) then bust up another black bar (film’s only "users": American history of funding overclass wealth on black/underclass misery) for word from snitch (no-one holding, big shipment due: evil arriving from east à la Exorcist’s demonic OldWorld wind) + ask boss Simonson (real-life Popeye Eddie Egan: originating Self pulling strings + making things happen) to bug + wire Boca’s (focusing analysis).

At US impound auction, "Frogs" (transcontinental amphibious psychic material traversing mental states) buy car (to substitute for imported auto containing junk: mind translating material into dream-terms; girlfriend shooting scene also à la former documentarian Friedkin, whole film satire on Hollywood [drug-]"deal" making – as Exorcist comment on "politics" of filmmaking – auto graveyard prop dept, precinct house studio from which on-location operatives receive orders they dis/obey at will) while Popeye + Buddy hole out in Boca apartment janitor-room (lucid dreaming: consciousness delving unconscious to observe + change course of dream; cops, for all their technology, still bungling one-on-one legwork tailing suspects + getting "made" almost instantly); Charnier mts Boca in Washington, DC (corruption at control-center à la Georgetown Exorcist possession [location also of WF/Joe Eszterhas Jade: cops’ own exploitative, illegal + ultimately homicidal means [power their drug]) to discuss Sal’s overcautiousness (Yank criminal arrogance not yet match for entrenched Euro) + in back of plane (doubly isolated unconscious) talks w/ hitman about icing Popeye (latter’s own self-destructive streak) + keeping to timetable (ltd lifespan o/t dream-consciousness).

Yanked off assignment by Simonson (dream-censor shutting down discovery of too-sensitive material, ironically making way for just that [director’s fantasy, also, of being taken off film for own ruthless methods]), Popeye beset by sniper (world ganging up on him breakdown of own defenses against Self) + gives chase (long action scenes devoid of significant dialog "speeding," impulsive mind + primitive instinct cutting thru artifice to address primal issue/imperative; film’s "mvmts" + de/crescendos shitty city symphony), hitman taking elevated train (earlier subway on which Popeye thwarted by Charnier brought to surface/consciousness + replayed so as to resolve) while Popeye abducts car (beneath: Yank vs Euro corruption again – not so much matter of extremity as level on which it operates); train screeches to halt when engineer has coronary (un/consciousness signing off before final stage of dream/waking life) + Popeye kills assassin on stairs (à la Exorcist deaths-on-steps [hitman demon shadow-self Popeye taken off-line in order to eliminate, violent instinct whose place is to protect flow of dream à la chief who also tried to take Popeye/psychic investigator out], purging only 1/2 complete here).

Next Popeye + Buddy (w/ Buddy’s reassigned FBI partner Mulderig backseat driving: hectoring not-Popeye egging self on, his mostly-offscreen partner Klein [other 1/2 of real-life Egan/Sonny Grosso pair, similarly sidelined] doubling of Popeye-psyche on temporary expulsion from Self/consciousness) tail Boca + impound-car (lot # on front windshield à la straw hat still in back of cop-car: categorizing, numerical consciousness vs uncapped unconscious, former covertly containing illicit drugs, latter calculating agents of law + order) to final backstreet stakeout + arrest (at 4:10 a.m. – deepest, dreamless sleep, recapture of "own" car bringing of dream material back to consc’ss) of apparent car strippers (retrieving material 2B analyzed – "broken down" – by consciousness itself before agents of unconscious + forgetting get chance); back at precinct shop, cop-mechanics fruitlessly deconstruct vehicle ("driven" Popeye [car = self, as film "vehicle" = director, second-banana Buddy scrw Tidyman à la Exorcist Friedkin/Blatty dynamic] asserting "This car is dirty" [à la Exorcist possession] Self’s awareness of own impurity + imperative to reach source via analysis) till last-ditch discovery of junk in rocker panel (in what? audience reaction discovery of material in "foreign"/least-likely location: w/i substrate of Self [audience’s approbation of Popeye’s rogue methods + questionability of rush provided by studio vehicle]).

Under pressure from star Devereaux (exotic-narcotic unconscious), cops return car intact (not-the-car switcheroo: now-conscious film allowing last action to play out to logical conclusion [invisible "reconstruction" editing of actual film]) + severs self from scheme (actor separated from vehicle artifice departing drama à la heroin/car [cf also train-engineer death]), Charnier taking car to Sal-brother’s chop-shop himself (real "driver" now in seat, tho taking to not-the-cop-shop: film still on some un-conscious level) where dope xchgd for $ (film now in theater, where appreciated by uninquisitive audience/execs) + crooks mt cops across bridge (back to consciousness – return of ego "authorities"), precipitating tear-gas raid on shop (flushing out unconscious elements as wakefulness returns) as Popeye chases Charnier into desiccated former factory (not-the-studio: gloves off, film eschewing "mechanics" to reach bare-bones primitive essence of drama) where he mistakenly shoots Mulderig (eliminating not-the-self to encounter true, core, Minotaur-Self/nemesis in crude labyrinth) + proceeds to offscreen backroom (indeterminate center of Self, à la what’s-that? rocker panel), where unidentified shot brings total darkness (violence itself begetting/returning to originating void, agent exterminating other/self à la Exorcist priest recalling demon into self before defenestration).

Z-style still-frame character wrap-ups have Charnier escaping unscathed + surviving crooks doing minimal time (Vietnam-era futility, entering French-originated miasma for naught), gunshot in offscreen Unknown mind blowing self into scattered i.d.’s (ultimate goal of drama to itemize conflicting parts of self in order to pass judgment separately), real justice finally neither man’s nor God’s, but Self’s.

Based on book by Robin Cook.