Short Films

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A Rebel in Hollywood: William Friedkin

TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.

• Director: William Friedkin
• USA / 1985 / DCP / Colour / 116’ / English; Turkish s.t.

• Screenplay: William Friedkin
• Original Work: Gerald Petievich
• Director of Photography: Robby Müller
• Editing: M. Scott Smith
• Music: Wang Chung
• Cast: William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Dean Stockwell
• Production Co.: New Century Productions, United Artists, SLM Production Group
• World Sales: Park Circus

1986 Cognac Festival du Film Policier Audience Award

To Live and Die in L.A. is perhaps the ultimate ’80s action-thriller, Friedkin’s West Coast equivalent or thematic extension of his own hit The French Connection. The film follows an arrogant Secret Service agent, who seeks revenge against a sleek counterfeiter-artist after he murders a fellow agent. His obsessive pursuit swiftly spirals out of control and he becomes a loose cannon bending and overstepping the very laws he has vowed to protect. The script is co-written by William Friedkin and former Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich, based on his 1984 novel. The film that catapulted Willem Dafoe, William Petersen, and John Turturro to fame, To Live and Die in L.A. is as film noir as explosive crime drama with its gritty, neon look, the wrong way car chase on LA freeway and a foot chase at the LAX Airport, plenty shootouts, twists throughout, and the high-energy new wave score by Londoner band Wang Chung.

This film is screened with the generous support of the U.S. Mission to Turkey.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.