Filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe is a movie fanboy at heart. Over the past decade, he has devoted himself to enthusiastic if superficial documentary-esque explorations of zombie films (“Doc of the Dead”), Star Wars fans (“The People vs. George Lucas”) and Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (“Memory: The Origins of ‘Alien’”). Even 2017’s more focused “78/52,“ an appreciation of the “Psycho” shower scene, rarely gets beyond Film 101-level insights offered by a random assortment of industry nonexperts.
So it’s a welcome surprise that “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on ‘The Exorcist,’” a look at another seminal genre film, 1973’s “The Exorcist,” uses the creation of the groundbreaking horror film as a framework on which to hang a far more expansive and interesting conversation with notorious New Hollywood director William Friedkin.
Unlike Philippe’s previous films, “Leap of Faith” eschews multiple sources, keeping the focus squarely on Friedkin as he sits beside a cozy fireplace in a standard talking head shot. For his part, Friedkin, 84, is still a top-shelf raconteur, and stories of his old-school directing techniques—slapping amateur actor and real-life priest William O'Malley in the face to generate a tearful take, firing a gun on set to prompt a genuine startle response—and feuds with two legendary composers over “The Exorcist” score confirm his reputation as a cinematic provocateur.
But while the discussion revolves around “The Exorcist,” Friedkin—and Philippe, through editing of six days of interviews—broaden its scope by sharing the impact of Friedkin's earliest film experience (“Citizen Kane”), the role of what he calls “serendipity” or “fate” in both his directorial choices and his career path and the influences of director Carl Theodor Dreyer as well as paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Magritte on lighting and blocking choices in films such as “The French Connection,” “Sorcerer,” “Cruising” and “Bug.” Throughout, Philippe supports the discourse by cutting in illustrative still shots, clips and even original animations.
Lacking other points of view, there is no one to question the accuracy of Friedkin’s recollections or to challenge his methods in light of cultural shifts over the intervening decades. And certainly, some of the stories and self-analysis seem more than a bit self-serving, entrenched as they are in auteur theory.
But this lack of balance turns out to be the film’s greatest strength, transcending objective truth to offer a genuine peek into the mind and process of a creative artist.
In fact, with "Leap of Faith," Philippe may have found his métier. I can imagine an entire series of documentaries featuring iconic directors reflecting in similar fashion on their signature films.