To Live and Die in L.A.

To Live and Die in L.A.

Selected by the Cinematographers Branch. Special guest: Introduction by cinematographer Robert Yeoman.

Selected by the Cinematographers Branch.

Director William Friedkin teamed up with former Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich to adapt Petievich’s 1984 novel about two government agents who risk everything to bring down a master counterfeiter. Cinematographer Robby Müller, a longtime collaborator of Wim Wenders, gave the film a memorable, smog-tinged look, and shot a thrilling car chase to rival the one in Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971). British New Wave band Wang Chung provided the pulsating original score.

DIRECTED BY: William Friedkin. WRITTEN BY: William Friedkin, Gerald Petievich. WITH: William L. Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer. 1985. 116 min. USA. Color. English. Rated R. 35mm.

This program is made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation. 

Theater accessibility accommodations available upon request. Learn more about our accessibility initiatives.

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