The French Connection depicts moments from one scene of the film of the same title: The central car/elevated train chase, as reflected in actor Gene Hackman’s face, in a series of portraits of Hackman’s cop on the hunt. The watercolors focus exclusively on Hackman’s facial expressions, while the actual car and the context of the chase remain strictly peripheral and undepicted. An homage to the power of acting (it is a scene free of gimmicks, quick cuts and other means of distraction), this series lays bare the visceral intensity and clear focus of Gene Hackman’s art, as well as the construction of illusion by means of artifice.