In 1971, William Friedkin (who notably made The Exorcist) directed French Connection, an American detective movie that introduced collectively stars of the time: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey and Roy Scheider. The function movie, broadcast Monday July 8, 2024 at 8:55 p.m. on Arte, is an adaptation of the guide The French Connection by Robin Moore, printed in 1969. The writer recounts the exhaustive investigation of detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso (who additionally has a job within the movie) within the early Sixties, to uncover an enormous drug trafficking community. From surveillance, they handle to determine members of the community and hint it again to France, the place the supply is. A loopy story, informed in a guide, then within the cinema in an eponymous movie. However is it even a real story?
This uncle who impressed William Friedkin in writing the characters of his movie
Winner of 5 Oscars, French Connection follows cops who’re being adopted. The movie begins in Marseille, the place Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), suspected of being on the head of an enormous world heroin trafficking ring, operates. On the opposite aspect of the Atlantic, brokers Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider) attempt to observe down this group. The previous is aggressive and relentless, not hesitating to make use of his fists or draw his gun to make suspects discuss. Positive of his intuitions and decided to get his palms on the instigators of this trafficking ring that’s plaguing the streets of New York, he’s proven in lengthy chase scenes (not at all times discreet or efficient) and muscular avenue interrogations. Is his character impressed by an actual police officer? In reality, plainly along with the detectives within the guide that William Friedkin used to put in writing his guide, he additionally drew inspiration from his environment. In 2017, he informed Paris Match : “My uncle was a ‘unhealthy cop’, however he had an enormous affect on me. He was an enormous man, who turned out to be very violent, however I by no means knew it, he was very sort to me. He had two large police canine, Doberman Pinschers. […] He lived like a prince, within the largest condo I had ever seen, with an enormous wood radio that gave the impression of a symphony orchestra. […] I believed all cops had been that wealthy! I realized a lot later that he had handled the Italian mob. […] He seemed lots like Popeye within the French Connection.”
These actual traffickers who impressed the characters within the movie French Connection
Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider nonetheless relied on the cops from the guide, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, to play their roles. In reality, the director had the thought of following them on the bottom to higher absorb the environment. “I wasn’t snug, as a result of we noticed individuals in determined conditions. They’d taken us to what had been known as ‘taking pictures galleries’, the place there have been complete households, from grandparents to infants, mendacity on the bottom, needles of their arms. All African-American. At the moment, the police arrested the sellers, but additionally the shoppers, these determined individuals. It was on the finish of the Sixties, and it seemed like slavery,” he recalled to our colleagues. Very involved by social points, William Friedkin recounted them in his movies and documentaries. It is no shock then that he seized on the true French Connection. For 40 years, from the Thirties to the tip of the Seventies, an enormous heroin trafficking community operated between the south of France and the USA. A number of large names of French gangsters had been concerned: Paul Carbone, François Spirito, Antoine Guérini, Joseph Cesari, Paul Mondoloni and a sure Jean Jehan. It’s mentioned that the latter is the one who impressed one of many passages within the guide The French Connection and the character of Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle on display. The character of Salvatore “Sal” Boca is alleged to be impressed by Pasquale “Patsy” Fuca, and that of Henri Devereaux by Jacques Angelvin (tv host arrested in 1962 for heroin trafficking and inspiration behind Le Corniaud by Gérard Oury).
