Looking at "The French Connection"

"The French Connection" won five Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). In honor of the 1971 classic's Blu-ray release on Tuesday, the Post spoke to director William Friedkin about making the movie on the sly in NYC. The Post included a chart showing some of the locations...(click the image to enlarge)



The bowery boys had some nice observations on this classic when it played during the summer of 2007 at the Film Forum.

Behind the scenes: The Panic in Needle Park

The Panic in Needle Park gets a run at the Film Forum starting Jan. 30. This week's Time Out talks with a few members of the cast and crew about the making of the 1971 smack classic. (No Al Pacino, though. Busy making 89 Minutes?)

Here's the trailer for the film:

Baby it's you

Rosemary's Baby begins a one-week run today at the Film Forum. Will McKinley writes an appreciation of the Roman Polanski classic in this week's issue of The Villager. As for me, I love the intro...

New York Herald Tribune!

Breathless at the Film Forum today and tomorrow. And it's 2-for-1 with Band of Outsiders.

"You see, I have this little problem with my apartment..."

One of my favorites, The Apartment, was on earlier today on TCM. As you know, it's November 1959 in the film. Jack Lemmon's character, C.C. Baxter -- C. for Calvin, C. for Clifford -- lives 0n West 67th Street in a one bedroom place just a half block from Central Park. His take-home pay is $94.70 a week. As he says, "My rent is $84 a month. It used to be $80 until last July when Mrs. Lieberman, the landlady, put in a second-hand air conditioning unit."

Hmm, a quick look at just one West 67th Street price today...

EV etc.: 40 years and 196 cultural works

This week's New York magazine looks at 196 cultural works "that best defined the city since this magazine began." Which was 1968. Haven't had time to dig through it at all, but I did see the list of movies they have. Pretty much what you'd expect.

In any event, the list reminded me again that it has been too long since I've seen The French Connection. I thought about the film last week when Jeremiah was disucussing the history of Ratner's. I remembered that scene where Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Cloudy Russo (Roy Schieder) do a stakeout at the now-defunct Ratner's on Delancey.

The bowery boys had some nice observations on this classic when it played last summer at the Film Forum.