The Devil and Father AmorthIt was a testament to his endless curiosity, his willingness to explore ideas and environments that most of us wouldn’t dare. Later, he regretted nothing about his time in Rome except the death at age 91 of Father Amorth , in the middle of filming.
Fearless, Friedkin never hesitated to place himself in the same sanctum as, well, the devil himself; and yet he didn’t approach the subject with judgment or prejudice, any more than he did the characters from. In fact, while making the latter, Friedkin — a Jew raised in Chicago — received holy communion and told writer William Peter Blatty how moved he was.
“He thought I had unwittingly committed a sacrilege and phoned the officiating priest to apologize,” the movie maker recalled in his memoir,Feisty and opinionated, razor-sharp when mounting an intellectual attack , Friedkin was nonetheless exceptionally open to others. Unlike so many older filmmakers, he had no envy of a younger generation that was having its moment in the sun. He welcomed newcomers like Damien Chazelle into his home; frequently co-hosted screenings with his wife of more than three decades, former Paramount chairman