Portland State’s local cinema house 5th Avenue Cinema put on a digital screening of William Friedkin’s 1977 existential thriller Sorcerer on Friday, May 16. Friedkin is an American director who is not only responsible for creating one of the best horror films in history, The Exorcist, but also shot the two best car chases in cinema in The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A.
Sorcerer is the second adaptation of Georges Arnaud’s 1950 novel Le Salaire de la peur. The film, starring Roy Schneider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou, follows four outcasts of various backgrounds who all somehow meet up in a South American village, where they are all assigned as truck drivers to transport cargos of nitroglycerin. The film’s title refers to one of the trucks, which has the name Sorcerer painted across the hood.
The screening concludes the cinema’s Fall of New Hollywood series, which is part of the student-run Special Features digital film lecture series. During the digital screenings, cinema workers not only screen diverse films to draw in different crowds, but also provide background information and lead discussions about the films to create a more involving experience, said projectionist Leif Fuller.
The Fall of New Hollywood examines a time in film when the industry gave directors more power and freedom over their projects. The two films selected for the series, The Ascent and Sorcerer, were widely disregarded by audiences at the time of their release because of films such as Superman and Star Wars, Fuller said.
“Luckily, with the recent interest in digital conversion, these overlooked titles have gone through a complete restoration that allows new people to see the film for the first time in beautiful high definition. It’s a bit selfish, but my favorite part of this series is simply turning people on to different kinds of film,” Fuller said.
The cinema is currently in the process of planning the summer roster for regular film screenings, as well as for Special Features.
“Expect to see some modern foreign and independent films, some obscure late-night movies for our digital series, and a couple of major crowd-pleasers to bookend the term,” Fuller said.
5th Avenue Cinema is free for Portland State students, $3 for other students, and $4 general admission. Special Feature screenings are free and open to students and the public. Visit 5thavenuecinema.org/upcoming-films for showtimes and a full schedule.