One of the greatest American film artists, William Friedkin, has passed away at the age of 87. The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrant parents (who fled their country after the antisemitic pogroms of the early 20th Century), Friedkin was a shitty student and a great basketball player until he discovered cinema in the '60s. He then rose from a Hollywood journeyman doing shitty films for studios until it all came together with The French Connection and the greatest horror film of all time in The Exorcist. Friedkin would evolve from being the most celebrated auteur in America, to a scrappy indie arthouse director who warred with studios with financing, to an even scrappier arthouse auteur adapting transgressive plays in his later life. What. A. Fucking. Career. 

To discuss his entire oeuvre, Adam brings on his friends and former guests: artist Benjamin Kellogg and artist and filmmaker (and director of the Botched Chadification Masculinity Under Threat music video.)

FULL EPISODE HERE

SOUNDTRACK:
National Philharmonic Orchestra "Polymorphia" (from the OST to the Exorcist) Peste Noire "Commune" (accoustic live in Kiev)
David Kilgour "Filter"
Wang Chung "To Live and Die in LA" (from To live and Die in LA OST)
Jugra "Darah and Maruah"
Tangerine Dream "Vengeance" from Sorcerer OST)

LINKS:
Bradford Kessler
Bradford Kessler on Instagram: @bradfordhurstkessler
Benjamin Kellogg on Instagram: @benjamin_kellogg
Botched Chadification Masculinity Under Threat
William Friedkin Obituary, by Adam Lehrer