
The Friedkin Connection
A Memoir
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $35.09
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
William Friedkin
-
By:
-
William Friedkin
About this listen
""[This book] captures the gut-wrenching shifts of a filmmaker’s life—the bizarre whipsaw from success to disaster.”—Variety
An acclaimed memoir from William Friedkin, a maverick of American cinema and Academy Award–winning director of such legendary films as The French Connection, The Exorcist, and To Live and Die in LA. The Friedkin Connection takes listeners from the streets of Chicago to the suites of Hollywood and from the sixties to today, with autobiographical storytelling as fast-paced and intense as any of the auteur's films.
In this book, William Friedkin, offers a candid look at a thrilling era of Hollywood cinema, when traditional storytelling gave way to the rebellious and alternative; when filmmakers like him captured the paranoia and fear of a nation undergoing a cultural nervous breakdown.
©2013 William Friedkin (P)2024 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg
- The Whole Equation
- By: Kenneth Turan
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One was a tough junkman's son, the other a cosseted mama's boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899-1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry.
-
-
Lives of two Hollywood Giants
- By rumdok on 03-08-25
By: Kenneth Turan
-
The World Is Yours
- The Story of Scarface
- By: Glenn Kenny
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino’s masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic “Say hello to my little friend,” Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema.
-
-
Definitive
- By Andrew H. on 05-08-24
By: Glenn Kenny
-
Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
-
-
Classic in the field stands up
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-01-24
By: William Goldman
-
Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time
- True Stories from a Career in Hollywood
- By: Barry Sonnenfeld
- Narrated by: Barry Sonnenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time delivers a cavalcade of sometimes baffling, often enlightening, and always funny stories about Sonnenfeld’s many films and television shows. From battling with studio executives and producers to bad-script-solving on set to coaxing actors into finding the right light and talking faster, Sonnenfeld provides an entertaining master class in how to make commercial art in the face of constant human foible.
-
-
Are you in need of a good laugh from a GREAT story
- By Thomas H. Jackson Jr on 11-23-24
By: Barry Sonnenfeld
-
Kubrick
- An Odyssey
- By: Robert P. Kolker, Nathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life.
-
-
A stellar biography for Kubrick lovers
- By Daniel on 09-10-24
By: Robert P. Kolker, and others
-
Something Like an Autobiography
- By: Akira Kurosawa
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The distinguished filmmaker chronicles his life, from his birth in 1910 to the worldwide success in 1950 of his film Rashomon, and provides a provocative account of the Japanese film industry.
-
-
The early life of Kurosawa
- By A. Parham on 06-26-23
By: Akira Kurosawa
-
Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg
- The Whole Equation
- By: Kenneth Turan
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One was a tough junkman's son, the other a cosseted mama's boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899-1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry.
-
-
Lives of two Hollywood Giants
- By rumdok on 03-08-25
By: Kenneth Turan
-
The World Is Yours
- The Story of Scarface
- By: Glenn Kenny
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino’s masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic “Say hello to my little friend,” Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema.
-
-
Definitive
- By Andrew H. on 05-08-24
By: Glenn Kenny
-
Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
-
-
Classic in the field stands up
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-01-24
By: William Goldman
-
Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time
- True Stories from a Career in Hollywood
- By: Barry Sonnenfeld
- Narrated by: Barry Sonnenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time delivers a cavalcade of sometimes baffling, often enlightening, and always funny stories about Sonnenfeld’s many films and television shows. From battling with studio executives and producers to bad-script-solving on set to coaxing actors into finding the right light and talking faster, Sonnenfeld provides an entertaining master class in how to make commercial art in the face of constant human foible.
-
-
Are you in need of a good laugh from a GREAT story
- By Thomas H. Jackson Jr on 11-23-24
By: Barry Sonnenfeld
-
Kubrick
- An Odyssey
- By: Robert P. Kolker, Nathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life.
-
-
A stellar biography for Kubrick lovers
- By Daniel on 09-10-24
By: Robert P. Kolker, and others
-
Something Like an Autobiography
- By: Akira Kurosawa
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The distinguished filmmaker chronicles his life, from his birth in 1910 to the worldwide success in 1950 of his film Rashomon, and provides a provocative account of the Japanese film industry.
-
-
The early life of Kurosawa
- By A. Parham on 06-26-23
By: Akira Kurosawa
-
The Anatomy of Genres
- How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works
- By: John Truby
- Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most people think genres are simply categories on Netflix or Amazon that provide a helpful guide to making entertainment choices. Most people are wrong. Genre stories aren’t just a small subset of the films, video games, TV shows, and books that people consume. They are the all-stars of the entertainment world, comprising the vast majority of popular stories worldwide. That’s why businesses—movie studios, production companies, video game studios, and publishing houses—buy and sell them. Legendary writing teacher John Truby provides a guide to understanding the major genres of the story world.
-
-
Analysis of stories that entice the writer
- By Steve Capell on 09-29-24
By: John Truby
-
When the Going Was Good
- An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
- By: Graydon Carter, James Fox - contributor
- Narrated by: Graydon Carter
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Graydon Carter was offered the editorship of Vanity Fair in 1992, he knew he faced an uphill battle—how to make the esteemed and long-established magazine his own. Not only was he confronted with a staff that he perceived to be loyal to the previous regime, but he arrived only a few years after launching Spy magazine, which gloried in skewering the celebrated and powerful—the very people Vanity Fair venerated.
-
-
A lucky man
- By Dassha1 on 03-30-25
By: Graydon Carter, and others
-
The Future Was Now
- Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
- By: Chris Nashawaty
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood's now biggest names―altering the art of movie-making to this day.
-
-
Great story about an incredible year in sci fi film making.
- By Jesse Poole Van Swol on 10-04-24
By: Chris Nashawaty
-
Song of Spider-Man
- The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History
- By: Glen Berger
- Narrated by: Glen Berger
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The true story of a theatrical dream—or nightmare—come true…the making of the Spider-Man musical.
-
-
A "Disaster Artist" for theater nerds
- By Mike Zancola on 05-21-22
By: Glen Berger
-
Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions
- My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood
- By: Ed Zwick
- Narrated by: Ed Zwick
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though there are many factors behind such success, including luck and the contributions of his creative partner Marshall Herskovitz, he’s known to have a special talent for bringing out the best in the people he’s worked with, notably the actors. In those intense collaborations, he seeks to discover the small pieces of connective tissue, vulnerability, and fellowship that can help an actor realize their character in full.
-
-
Authentic, Sobering & Full of Grace
- By David_Leah Wiley on 02-17-24
By: Ed Zwick
-
Led Zeppelin
- The Biography
- By: Bob Spitz
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the definitive New York Times best-selling history of the Beatles comes the authoritative account of the group many call the greatest rock band of all time, arguably the most successful, and certainly one of the most notorious.
-
-
Sex & Drugs & Rock-n-Roll.... in that order.
- By Joe on 01-03-22
By: Bob Spitz
-
Lorne
- The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live
- By: Susan Morrison
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio, Susan Morrison
- Length: 22 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys—and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him.
-
-
Great read but several weird mispronunciations
- By Larry Carlat on 02-20-25
By: Susan Morrison
-
Sonny Boy
- A Memoir
- By: Al Pacino
- Narrated by: Al Pacino
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force.
-
-
I loved this so much!!! But….
- By paintgal on 10-24-24
By: Al Pacino
-
The Coen Brothers
- By: Adam Nayman
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From such cult hits as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski to major critical darlings Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and Inside Llewyn Davis, Ethan and Joel Coen have cultivated a bleakly comical, instantly recognizable voice in modern American cinema. Film critic Adam Nayman carefully sifts through their complex cinematic universe in an effort to plot, as he puts it, "some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness." The book combines critical text with a visual aesthetic that honors the Coens' singular mix of darkness and levity.
-
-
Brilliant companion!
- By Buretto on 12-05-18
By: Adam Nayman
-
A Disturbance in the Force
- How and Why the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened
- By: Steve Kozak
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even by the standards of the 1970s, even compared to Jar-Jar Binks, the legendary 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special is a peerlessly cringeworthy pop-culture artifact.
-
-
Padded with Information Unrelated to the Special
- By Alan on 12-28-23
By: Steve Kozak
-
Ferocious Ambition
- Joan Crawford’s March to Stardom
- By: Robert Dance
- Narrated by: Greg D. Barnett
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan Crawford's remarkable forty-five-year motion picture career is one of the industry's longest. Signing her first contract in 1925, she was crowned an MGM star four years later and by the mid-1930s was the most popular actress in America. In the early 1940s, Crawford's risky decision to move to Warner Bros. was rewarded with an Oscar for Mildred Pierce. This triumph launched a series of film noir classics. She teamed with rival Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, proving that Crawford, whose career had begun by defining big-screen glamor, had matured into a dramatic actress.
-
-
A Most Excellent Film Biography
- By Patrick A. Oconnor on 05-02-24
By: Robert Dance
-
The Last Action Heroes
- The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
- By: Nick de Semlyen
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat, the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace. In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Alan on 07-17-23
By: Nick de Semlyen
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Kubrick
- An Odyssey
- By: Robert P. Kolker, Nathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life.
-
-
A stellar biography for Kubrick lovers
- By Daniel on 09-10-24
By: Robert P. Kolker, and others
-
Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions
- My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood
- By: Ed Zwick
- Narrated by: Ed Zwick
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though there are many factors behind such success, including luck and the contributions of his creative partner Marshall Herskovitz, he’s known to have a special talent for bringing out the best in the people he’s worked with, notably the actors. In those intense collaborations, he seeks to discover the small pieces of connective tissue, vulnerability, and fellowship that can help an actor realize their character in full.
-
-
Authentic, Sobering & Full of Grace
- By David_Leah Wiley on 02-17-24
By: Ed Zwick
-
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
- How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Easy Rider, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both on screen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme.
-
-
Great Dish, Sketchy Analysis
- By Dubi on 12-14-13
By: Peter Biskind
-
Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
-
-
Classic in the field stands up
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-01-24
By: William Goldman
-
Making Movies
- By: Sidney Lumet
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the greatest directors of all time, Sidney Lumet has made movies that have been nominated for more than 50 Academy Awards. Making Movies is an honest and unflinching look at the business and craft of movie making. Lumet's book reveals the ingredients for the potion that brings movie magic to life and assures one thing: you will never look at movies the same way again.
-
-
Clearly a genius but material dates
- By M. Rogers on 08-31-19
By: Sidney Lumet
-
Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties
- The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher—Television
- By: Foster Hirsch
- Narrated by: Foster Hirsch
- Length: 36 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions—from Cinerama, Cinemascope and Vistavision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios, the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the “small screen” television.
-
-
Captivating from start to finish
- By Steve C. on 02-01-25
By: Foster Hirsch
-
Kubrick
- An Odyssey
- By: Robert P. Kolker, Nathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life.
-
-
A stellar biography for Kubrick lovers
- By Daniel on 09-10-24
By: Robert P. Kolker, and others
-
Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions
- My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood
- By: Ed Zwick
- Narrated by: Ed Zwick
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though there are many factors behind such success, including luck and the contributions of his creative partner Marshall Herskovitz, he’s known to have a special talent for bringing out the best in the people he’s worked with, notably the actors. In those intense collaborations, he seeks to discover the small pieces of connective tissue, vulnerability, and fellowship that can help an actor realize their character in full.
-
-
Authentic, Sobering & Full of Grace
- By David_Leah Wiley on 02-17-24
By: Ed Zwick
-
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
- How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Easy Rider, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both on screen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme.
-
-
Great Dish, Sketchy Analysis
- By Dubi on 12-14-13
By: Peter Biskind
-
Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
-
-
Classic in the field stands up
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-01-24
By: William Goldman
-
Making Movies
- By: Sidney Lumet
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the greatest directors of all time, Sidney Lumet has made movies that have been nominated for more than 50 Academy Awards. Making Movies is an honest and unflinching look at the business and craft of movie making. Lumet's book reveals the ingredients for the potion that brings movie magic to life and assures one thing: you will never look at movies the same way again.
-
-
Clearly a genius but material dates
- By M. Rogers on 08-31-19
By: Sidney Lumet
-
Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties
- The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher—Television
- By: Foster Hirsch
- Narrated by: Foster Hirsch
- Length: 36 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions—from Cinerama, Cinemascope and Vistavision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios, the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the “small screen” television.
-
-
Captivating from start to finish
- By Steve C. on 02-01-25
By: Foster Hirsch
-
The Future Was Now
- Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
- By: Chris Nashawaty
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood's now biggest names―altering the art of movie-making to this day.
-
-
Great story about an incredible year in sci fi film making.
- By Jesse Poole Van Swol on 10-04-24
By: Chris Nashawaty
-
Box Office Poison
- Hollywood's Story in a Century of Flops
- By: Tim Robey
- Narrated by: Tim Robey
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Box Office Poison tells a hugely entertaining alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. What can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public’s appetite–or lack of it–and the circumstances that saw such flops actually made? Away from the canon, this is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures.
-
-
The ending
- By Anonymous User on 03-13-25
By: Tim Robey
-
Pandora's Box
- How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, Pandora’s Box asks, “What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?” The answer: It gave us a revolution. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending up with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses—Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.
-
-
The rise and fall of peak TV
- By AlexBenBlock on 02-16-24
By: Peter Biskind
-
Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time
- True Stories from a Career in Hollywood
- By: Barry Sonnenfeld
- Narrated by: Barry Sonnenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time delivers a cavalcade of sometimes baffling, often enlightening, and always funny stories about Sonnenfeld’s many films and television shows. From battling with studio executives and producers to bad-script-solving on set to coaxing actors into finding the right light and talking faster, Sonnenfeld provides an entertaining master class in how to make commercial art in the face of constant human foible.
-
-
Are you in need of a good laugh from a GREAT story
- By Thomas H. Jackson Jr on 11-23-24
By: Barry Sonnenfeld
-
The Late Shift
- Letterman, Leno, & the Network Battle for the Night
- By: Bill Carter
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When beloved host Johnny Carson announced his retirement after 30 years on The Tonight Show, millions of Americans mourned. But inside the television industry, the news ignited a battle between two amazing talents - Jay Leno and David Letterman - who both yearned to occupy the departing legend's chair. For NBC, it would be a decision with millions of dollars at stake. Soon these two comedians with strikingly different styles, who had once shared a friendship as they worked the clubs together, would be engaged in a fierce competition for the prize.
-
-
Very detailed, spectacular, and riveting!
- By John Collins on 02-09-21
By: Bill Carter
-
Wild and Crazy Guys
- How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
- By: Nick de Semlyen
- Narrated by: Curtis Armstrong
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The behind-the-scenes story of the iconic funnymen who ruled '80s Hollywood - Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Eddie Murphy - and the beloved films that made them stars, including Animal House, Caddyshack, and Ghostbusters.
-
-
Side-Alley Stroll Down Memory Lane of SNL/SCTV Comedians
- By Eirekitten on 02-23-21
By: Nick de Semlyen
-
Down and Dirty Pictures
- Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines - the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films - that have powered them. Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse.
-
-
For the independent film lover!
- By natalie on 08-26-14
By: Peter Biskind
-
Transcendental Style in Film
- Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer
- By: Paul Schrader
- Narrated by: Phil Thron
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a new introduction, acclaimed director and screenwriter Paul Schrader revisits and updates his contemplation of slow cinema over the past fifty years. Unlike the style of psychological realism, which dominates film, the transcendental style expresses a spiritual state by means of austere camerawork, acting devoid of self-consciousness, and editing that avoids editorial comment.
By: Paul Schrader
-
Something Like an Autobiography
- By: Akira Kurosawa
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The distinguished filmmaker chronicles his life, from his birth in 1910 to the worldwide success in 1950 of his film Rashomon, and provides a provocative account of the Japanese film industry.
-
-
The early life of Kurosawa
- By A. Parham on 06-26-23
By: Akira Kurosawa
-
Oscar Wars
- A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears
- By: Michael Schulman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman chronicles the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas—some iconic, others never-before-revealed—that have played out on the stage and off camera. Unlike other books on the subject, each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular year, conflict, or even category that tells a larger story of cultural change, from Louis B. Mayer to Moonlight. Schulman examines how the red carpet runs through contested turf, and the victors aren't always as clear as the names drawn from envelopes.
-
-
Fascinating and FUN
- By Peter Riley on 06-11-23
By: Michael Schulman
-
Hollywood: The Oral History
- By: Jeanine Basinger, Sam Wasson
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning
- Length: 28 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Gleaned from nearly three thousand interviews, involving four hundred voices from the industry, Hollywood: The Oral History, lets a listener “listen in” on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera—Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Harold Lloyd—to the biggest behind it—Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele, as well as the lesser known individuals that shaped what was heard and seen on screen.
-
-
Picky, Picky!
- By Patrick on 12-22-22
By: Jeanine Basinger, and others
-
Puppet Master Complete
- A Franchise History
- By: Nat Brehmer
- Narrated by: RJ Bayley
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book is a comprehensive history of the most successful straight-to-video horror franchise of all time: Puppet Master. It provides an in-depth exploration of all 14 films to date—including a made-for-TV crossover and a theatrical reboot—and the action figures, comics, and other merchandise that have helped to keep the brand alive for the past 30 years.
By: Nat Brehmer
What listeners say about The Friedkin Connection
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris
- 01-13-25
First hand details about movies from the source.
Heretofore unknown details of Freidkin's movies and life from the source. Wonderful narration by the Director himself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AlexBenBlock
- 03-30-25
Exorcist, French Connection Director Insightful, Truthful in Memoir
Oscar-winner William “Billy” Friedkin never sugar coated his many movies and he remained honest, truthful and real in his powerful memoir completed before he died in 2023. During a notable career over more than half a century he delivered tough minded, realistic and mostly memorable movies that largely stand the test of time. His most famous are the original “Exorcist” (1973) and “the French Connection” (1971) which earned him Best Picture and Best Director Oscar’s and set the standard for car chase thrillers forever after. His many other movies never quite reached the same level of acclaim but still were well done, usually exciting and intriguing. His story starts in Chicago where he began in local TV and became excellent at crafting documentaries-skill he brought to his best movies. In 1965 he began his Hollywood career in Tv with a memorable episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He went on to a career influenced by European new wave filmmakers like Fellini, matching that kind of vision with the unrelenting realism that marked his documentary roots. Along the way he had the good fortune to marry the beautiful, brilliant Sherry Lansing just as she became head of movies at Paramount Picture. She was his fourth wife but the longest lasting and most influential during their union that last about 30 years until his death. This is an entertaining, honest, important book especially for movie lovers and those who dream of making great entertainment. Whatever Hollywood is today it is poorer for not having Friedkin as a guide star.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeremy Landes
- 02-02-25
Friedkin shows humility
This man lived a fascinating life plagued with hubris. I wanted to learn more about his final decade.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!