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To Live and Die in L.A.

Screening on Film
Directed by William Friedkin.
With William L. Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow.
US, 1985, 35mm, color, 116 min.
Print source: HFA

Friedkin's feverish exploration of the Los Angeles criminal underworld follows a pair of Secret Service agents forced to take the most desperate measures to capture a violent counterfeiter and avoid the numb police bureaucracy threatening to foil their every effort. Willem Dafoe brings a mysteriously brooding glamour and almost feline quality to the shadowy criminal mastermind who embodies the world of sunshine and noir brilliantly captured by Friedkin and cinematographer Robby Muller. Released during a studio meltdown, To Live and Die in L.A. survived an attempted sabotage by MGM to be canonized as one of Friedkin's most accomplished and popular works.

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