William Friedkin & MKULTRA

[guruilla]

I just started reading The Friedkin Connection the autobiography of William Friedkin (French Connection, The Exorcist). I recently made a comment to lunarmoth about enjoying (kind of) the cognitive dissonance of reading Hollywood bios & wondering what, if anything, was true in them. As I began the book I thought to myself, “I wonder if there will be any clues that Friedkin was an MKULTRA subject?”

There's a short prologue and then Friedkin begins his story, on page 9, with birth. On page 11, he describes his first experience of seeing a film: “An enormous black rectangle came alive with a blinding white light and a loud blast of music. The comforting darkness was shattered by words I couldn't read. My instinctive reaction was to scream at the top of my lungs. I clutched my mother's arms; I couldn't breathe.”

(Interesting side note, I just re-watched Wim Wenders' The End of Violence, in which the movie producer played by Bill Pullman explains that he became a filmmaker because of how movies terrified him as a child: i.e., he wanted to do the same to others.)

On page 14, Friedkin writes: “I discovered that people, especially young people, liked to be scared. Many years later, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, then head of Neuropsychiatric Clinic at UCLA [& with only a small exaggeration, of MKULTRA], explained to me why he thought people enjoy suspense and horror films. You're in a dark room with dangerous, life-threatening events happening before your eyes, but as a viewer you're in a safe place, removed from what's happening on screen.” [ie., dissociation]. 'A safe darkness,' he called it.”

I had a hunch and checked the contents page: sure enough, Friedkin uses the phrase “A Safe Darkness” for the title of chapter 13 of the book. A clear homage to his “teacher.”

(A possibly trivial detail, West, who if we discount the foreword is the first public figure Friedkin names in his narrative, is listed wrongly in the index on page 13.)

Immediately after name-dropping West, Friedkin describes a bully he knew at school called Joel Fenster. In his account, he finally turns on Fenster and overpowers him. “I had the distinct impulse to end his life, and I felt it would make me happy if I did.”

The Friedkin Connection preview on Google books

[semper occultus]

William Blatty was certainly quite interesting....nice CV for a Hollywood scriptwriter

[IanEye]

a very interesting double feature.

William Friedkin

Brian Glazer

.

[guruilla]

Good lead on Blatty. Listening to the WTF show now.

Meanwhile, this is somewhat unexpected:

Image37.jpg

[brekin]

I just started reading The Friedkin Connection the autobiography of William Friedkin (French Connection, The Exorcist). I recently made a comment to lunarmoth about enjoying (kind of) the cognitive dissonance of reading Hollywood bios & wondering what, if anything, was true in them. As I began the book I thought to myself, “I wonder if there will be any clues that Friedkin was an MKULTRA subject?”
There's a short prologue and then Friedkin begins his story, on page 9, with birth. On page 11, he describes his first experience of seeing a film: “An enormous black rectangle came alive with a blinding white light and a loud blast of music. The comforting darkness was shattered by words I couldn't read. My instinctive reaction was to scream at the top of my lungs. I clutched my mother's arms; I couldn't breathe.”

(Interesting side note, I just re-watched Wim Wenders' The End of Violence, in which the movie producer played by Bill Pullman explains that he became a filmmaker because of how movies terrified him as a child: i.e., he wanted to do the same to others.)
On page 14, Friedkin writes: “I discovered that people, especially young people, liked to be scared. Many years later, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, then head of Neuropsychiatric Clinic at UCLA [& with only a small exaggeration, of MKULTRA], explained to me why he thought people enjoy suspense and horror films. You're in a dark room with dangerous, life-threatening events happening before your eyes, but as a viewer you're in a safe place, removed from what's happening on screen.” [ie., dissociation]. 'A safe darkness,' he called it.”

I had a hunch and checked the contents page: sure enough, Friedkin uses the phrase “A Safe Darkness” for the title of chapter 13 of the book. A clear homage to his “teacher.”
(A possibly trivial detail, West, who if we discount the foreword is the first public figure Friedkin names in his narrative, is listed wrongly in the index on page 13.)
Immediately after name-dropping West, Friedkin describes a bully he knew at school called Joel Fenster. In his account, he finally turns on Fenster and overpowers him. “I had the distinct impulse to end his life, and I felt it would make me happy if I did.”

The Friedkin Connection preview on Google books

I finished it a few months back. Pretty awesome read. No doubt Friedkin brought a new intense level of realistic anxiety, tension and horror to film for his time (French Connection, Exorcist, The Sorcerer). One big takeaway I took from the book though was how much he went from hero to zero by the mid-80's. Self admittedly he blamed much of it on hubris and not seeing the cultural changes (he famously passed on Star Wars). I can't say I remember anything that made him stand out as "connected" although he seemed to definitely know people in the mob and other walks of life so who knows. His disagreement with Blatty about some key scenes in the Excorcist which are very, very key to the overall film's message and interpretation, which he ultimately, decades later agreed with to include is pretty intriguing.

[Luther Blissett]

Good lead on Blatty. Listening to the WTF show now.

Meanwhile, this is somewhat unexpected:

Image37.jpg

Shit man.

[guruilla]

Yeah there's lots of obvious mob connections to Freidkin's rise in the first few chapters, Sydney Korshak being the most overt & well-known.

"I happened to know the guy who was the head of the west side mob." 1:59:46, in WTF interview with Friedkin. (He is talking about Maddy Ianniello)

There's a key section from 1:54 to 2:00 roughly, on Paul Bateson, who was in The Exorcist.

In 1977 and '78, New York homosexuals were terrorized by a series of "bag murders," in which six male victims were mutilated and dismembered, their remains wrapped in black plastic bags and dumped in the Hudson River. Some of the grisly fragments washed up on the New Jersey shore, others coming to ground near the World Trade Center.

Police traced items of recovered clothing to a shop in Greenwich Village, catering to gays, and distinctive tattoos identified one of the victims as a known homosexual. Lacking identities and confirmed cause of death in several cases, the crimes were not officially classified as homicides, but were listed as CUPPI's -- circumstances undetermined pending police investigation.

A solution in the case derived from evidence collected in an "unrelated" case. On September 14, 1977, film critic Addison Verrill was beaten and stabbed to death in his New York apartment.

Charged with the slaying, Paul Bateson, a 38-year-old X-ray technician, confessed to meeting Verrill in a Greenwich Village gay bar. After having sex at Verrill's flat, Bateson crushed his victim's skull with a metal skillet, afterward stabbing Verrill in the heart.

Convicted of the homicide on March 5, 1979, Bateson drew a term of 20 years to life in prison. While in custody, awaiting trial, Paul Bateson bragged of killing other men "for fun," dismembering their bodies, and dropping the bagged remains in the Hudson River. Detectives satisfied themselves of Bateson's guilt, but he was never charged, and the "bag murders" -- that later inspired the movie Cruising -- remain technically unsolved.
http://www.murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bateson-paul.htm

Bateson was the assistant to a neuroscientist at the Neuropsychiatric division of the NY Medical Center (he was caught because the body parts were wrapped in NYMC bags). Friedkin met him "by chance" at the Medical Center.

Friedkin claims that Bateson told him he only has memory of committing the first of the murders (he confessed to eight).

[brekin]

Yeah there's lots of obvious mob connections to Freidkin's rise in the first few chapters, Sydney Korshak being the most overt & well-known.

"I happened to know the guy who was the head of the west side mob." 1:59:46, in WTF interview with Friedkin. (He is talking about Maddy Ianniello)

There's a key section from 1:54 to 2:00 roughly, on Paul Bateson, who was in The Exorcist.

In 1977 and '78, New York homosexuals were terrorized by a series of "bag murders," in which six male victims were mutilated and dismembered, their remains wrapped in black plastic bags and dumped in the Hudson River. Some of the grisly fragments washed up on the New Jersey shore, others coming to ground near the World Trade Center.

Police traced items of recovered clothing to a shop in Greenwich Village, catering to gays, and distinctive tattoos identified one of the victims as a known homosexual. Lacking identities and confirmed cause of death in several cases, the crimes were not officially classified as homicides, but were listed as CUPPI's -- circumstances undetermined pending police investigation.

A solution in the case derived from evidence collected in an "unrelated" case. On September 14, 1977, film critic Addison Verrill was beaten and stabbed to death in his New York apartment.

Charged with the slaying, Paul Bateson, a 38-year-old X-ray technician, confessed to meeting Verrill in a Greenwich Village gay bar. After having sex at Verrill's flat, Bateson crushed his victim's skull with a metal skillet, afterward stabbing Verrill in the heart.

Convicted of the homicide on March 5, 1979, Bateson drew a term of 20 years to life in prison. While in custody, awaiting trial, Paul Bateson bragged of killing other men "for fun," dismembering their bodies, and dropping the bagged remains in the Hudson River. Detectives satisfied themselves of Bateson's guilt, but he was never charged, and the "bag murders" -- that later inspired the movie Cruising -- remain technically unsolved.
http://www.murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bateson-paul.htm

Bateson was the assistant to a neuroscientist at the Neuropsychiatric division of the NY Medical Center (he was caught because the body parts were wrapped in NYMC bags). Friedkin met him "by chance" at the Medical Center.

Friedkin claims that Bateson told him he only has memory of committing the first of the murders (he confessed to eight).

What is also pretty interesting in the autobio is Friedkin's first big film, a documentary, was about a man on death row for a murder that Friedkin made to bring light to his plight and helped him avoid (I believe from memory) capital punishment. The film was a big deal in Chicago, nationally and internationally and did help bring attention and I think lessened the man's sentence. He (similar to Normal Mailer's work along similiar lines with a convict) was later released and I believe committed capital murder again. At the time of the documentary Friedkin believed in the man's innocence, years later he was pretty honest in saying in retrospect he realizes he was probably guilty.

[Cordelia]

By far, a more horrifying film than 'The Exorcist':


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpJ5K8Vt5V8

Filming it in the late 70's brought outrage from N.Y. gay community:
https://books.google.com/books?id=_-ACA ... 22&f=false

Coincidentally, gay response to 'Cruising' was re-written with the release of the dvd in 2007:

"Yet watching the movie today, it's a bit hard to understand what everyone was so upset about. Friedkin worked to ground his film in reality. Before shooting began, he befriended patrons of bars like the Anvil, Mine Shaft, and Ramrod, and even paid them as extras, lending the movie an admirable authenticity. Some real leather daddies—granddaddies today—will no doubt complain that Friedkin exaggerated the barroom bacchanalia for dramatic effect."
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/dvde ... a_man.html

"Not everyone was opposed to the film. Patrons of the notorious leather bars (some of which were owned by the Mafia), such as The Anvil and The Mine Shaft, where Friedkin shot the film's most memorable scenes, and "guys that hung around on the West Side", also took to the streets, to protest against the protesters."They were very upset by the fact that other people of the gay community were picketing, basically, their lifestyle, which they had absolutely no sense of trying to hide," he says.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 84795.html

(Paul Bateson, any relation to Gregory?)

[Nordic]

There's a key section from 1:54 to 2:00 roughly, on Paul Bateson, who was in The Exorcist.

Im confused. What do you mean by "in the Exorcist"? At first I thought you meant an actor. ??

[guruilla]

Bateson was in The Exorcist: http://behindtheexorcist.com/post/17992798820

[Nordic]

Bateson was in The Exorcist: http://behindtheexorcist.com/post/17992798820

Wow. And from your link:

Paul Bateson was released from prison in 2004.

[cptmarginal]

On page 14, Friedkin writes: “I discovered that people, especially young people, liked to be scared. Many years later, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, then head of Neuropsychiatric Clinic at UCLA [& with only a small exaggeration, of MKULTRA], explained to me why he thought people enjoy suspense and horror films. You're in a dark room with dangerous, life-threatening events happening before your eyes, but as a viewer you're in a safe place, removed from what's happening on screen.” [ie., dissociation]. 'A safe darkness,' he called it.”

I had a hunch and checked the contents page: sure enough, Friedkin uses the phrase “A Safe Darkness” for the title of chapter 13 of the book. A clear homage to his “teacher.”

(A possibly trivial detail, West, who if we discount the foreword is the first public figure Friedkin names in his narrative, is listed wrongly in the index on page 13.)

Immediately after name-dropping West, Friedkin describes a bully he knew at school called Joel Fenster. In his account, he finally turns on Fenster and overpowers him. “I had the distinct impulse to end his life, and I felt it would make me happy if I did.”

Wow, good find.

Regarding Friedkin - here's something highly disturbing that I posted about a while back, of relatively minor relevance:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ghter.html

The horrific scene when a devoted father "flipped" and battered his two-year-old daughter to death was described to a court yesterday.

Insurance executive Alberto Izaga suffered an "extreme and sudden" psychological breakdown which made him think the little girl was possessed by the Devil.

Sweating and shouting with rage, the 36-year-old millionaire ranted that "God doesn't exist! The universe doesn't exist! Humanity doesn't exist!"

His terrified wife was powerless to stop him as he shook and punched their only child before repeatedly smashing her head against the floor.

The Old Bailey heard that psychiatrists cannot say what triggered Mr Izaga's psychotic meltdown.

Shortly before the tragedy, however, he had been affected by seeing a horror film made by the director of The Exorcist.

Spanish-born Mr Izaga, who is being held in a secure mental hospital, appeared unable to take in what was being said as he sat in court.

He was supported by a large family group, including his parents, who have moved to Britain so they can visit him in hospital.

His wife, Ligia, 35, who also visits him every day, sat two seats away. Before the trial started the couple spoke amicably and during the lunch break they held hands.

Before last June's tragedy, Mr Izaga appeared to be living a charmed life. He had moved to London in 2002 and was a top executive at the insurance giant Swiss Re.

He lived with his wife and their daughter Yanire in a £1million Thames-side apartment with views of the Houses of Parliament.

The jury was told Mr Izaga was "universally liked" and "absolutely devoted" to his daughter, whom he described as "the most precious treasure on Earth".

But prosecutor Jonathan Rees told the jury how, in the weeks before the attack, Mr Izaga experienced two events that may have influenced his mental state.

The first was during a trip to New York, when Mr Izaga and his wife went to a cinema to find the only seats available were for the horror film Bug, directed by William Friedkin.

Not yet released in Britain, it concerns a swarm of cockroaches which crawl under people's skin, as well as Biblical themes.

Then, on a business trip to Geneva, Mr Izaga heard a motivational talk by adventurer Mike Horn, who spoke about leaving his family to go on lengthy trips and pushing himself to achieve his goals.

The evening after he returned, Mr Izaga was walking to a riverside restaurant with his wife when he started talking to himself and gesticulating wildly.

At around 4.30am the following day, he suddenly sat up in bed and started babbling incoherently.

Mr Rees told the court: "He began talking to his wife about the explorer in Geneva and the philosophies of the Jesuits.

"Referring to his fellow executives at Swiss Re, he appeared to indicate that they were part of a sect and trying to take over the financial world."

Over the next four hours Mr Izaga became increasingly worked up, bursting into tears and shouting about the film, the Devil and death.

At one point, his wife made a mobile phone call to a friend who recorded Mr Izaga raving in Spanish: "Death! Death! I know what to do. I have to kill her! She doesn't exist! Die Die Die! There is nothing left! I have to kill you!"

Neighbours, alerted by the shouting, went to the flat and found Mr Izaga cradling his daughter's bloody body.

Yanire died in hospital two days later.

Consultant psychiatrist Tim Exworthy said Mr Izaga may have thought she was possessed by the Devil. He said he remains profoundly mentally ill.

In a statement read to the court Mrs Izaga said: "It's impossible to believe this has happened. The best times were when the three of us were together and Yanire would start singing because she was so happy. She became our life."

In an unusual legal move, the prosecution and defence agreed on the facts of the case.

Under the 1883 Trial of Lunatics Act the jury found that Mr Izaga killed his daughter but was not guilty of murder "by reason of insanity".

The verdict means he will be treated in a secure mental unit until he is believed to have recovered.

After the hearing, his wife said: "I visit Alberto every day and we write to each other every other day. We discuss how we should re- start our lives. We tell each other not to give up."

Judge Richard Hone said: "This is a truly agonising case. No sentence I pass can ever match the sentence you will pass on yourself."

One night, R.C. introduces Agnes to Peter Evans, a drifter who says he is a recently discharged soldier. Agnes and Peter reach out to each other out of loneliness, and start a relationship. He convinces her that he was the subject of biological testing by the U.S. government while he was in the military, and says the anonymous phone calls she has been receiving were made by government agents in anticipation of his arrival. After they have sex, Peter tells Agnes that their room has become infested by bugs sent there by the government as part of their experiments.

[IanEye]

Brian Glazer

.

"the reality that you met with several CIA directors, that you can't divulge what was talked about, but is there a relationship with the high level of motion pictures and the U.S. Government in terms of anything?"

@56:20 the discussion between Marc Maron and Brian Glazer gets very R.I. in terms of the machinations of the film & TV industry for about 30 minutes.

It would basically be torture for Hugh Manatee Wins to have to listen to this episode.



.

[Agent Orange Cooper]

William Blatty was certainly quite interesting....nice CV for a Hollywood scriptwriter

this certainly makes The Ninth Configuration all the more interesting (not that it wasn't before):