A Film review of
‘THE CONVERSATION’
Coppola. FF (1972) The Conversation .. is a film that opens with a brilliantly captured long shot of a conversation between a couple weaving in and out of crowds and street performers in Union Square, San Francisco.
What they say is of paramount importance throughout the film, bringing voyeurism to new levels. Revelling in the ‘conspiracy thriller’ genre appeal. With Gene Hackman giving a masterly understated performance as Harry Caul .He depicts loneliness, detachment and the unpredictability of communication in a world where everything is subject to recording and replay. Surveillance versus participation and perception versus reality.
The movie works on a moral level and also as a taut intelligent thriller. The complicated plot never gets muddy and the paranoia represented with growing technology is more than relevant today.
Francis Ford Coppola squeezed this art-house flick out between Godfathers’ 1 and II on a budget of 1.6 million dollars. For a public lapping up conspiracy thrillers this nestled well with ‘The Parallex View’ (74) and ‘All The President’s Men’ (76)… Inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’(66) ,but doing for audio what the mid-sixties iconic film did for photography. With its study of cinematic voyeurism, but with eavesdropping rather than watching.
The design of the sound editing gave us a new term of ‘sound design’ and gave this film an Academy Award nomination. Walter Murch ‘American Graffiti’ (73) ; Godfathers 1 and II (72&74); Apocalypse Now’ (79); ‘The English Patient’ (96) is undisputedly the king of sound and provides us with an emotional edge in character study and murder mystery and a knife edge balance between the two, which are almost contradictory but masters this and guarantees his reputation as a pioneer of true ‘Sound Design’.
An early role for Harrison Ford out of ‘American Graffiti’ confirmed his place in the future of cinema. John Cazale ‘s relaxed portrayal as a colleague of Harry Caul was a perfect foil for Hackman’s intense performance as a lone surveillance expert with a meticulous devotion to duty.
This film was made by the director at the peak of his creativity in the mid-seventies and we are left with a dark picture of privacy being destroyed and revealing we are never really alone with the reminder we are always looking but imperfectly seeing and listening.
A FILM REVIEW BY …TIM FRANCIS…….March 2011
‘THE CONVERSATION’
Coppola. FF (1972) The Conversation .. is a film that opens with a brilliantly captured long shot of a conversation between a couple weaving in and out of crowds and street performers in Union Square, San Francisco.
What they say is of paramount importance throughout the film, bringing voyeurism to new levels. Revelling in the ‘conspiracy thriller’ genre appeal. With Gene Hackman giving a masterly understated performance as Harry Caul .He depicts loneliness, detachment and the unpredictability of communication in a world where everything is subject to recording and replay. Surveillance versus participation and perception versus reality.
The movie works on a moral level and also as a taut intelligent thriller. The complicated plot never gets muddy and the paranoia represented with growing technology is more than relevant today.
Francis Ford Coppola squeezed this art-house flick out between Godfathers’ 1 and II on a budget of 1.6 million dollars. For a public lapping up conspiracy thrillers this nestled well with ‘The Parallex View’ (74) and ‘All The President’s Men’ (76)… Inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’(66) ,but doing for audio what the mid-sixties iconic film did for photography. With its study of cinematic voyeurism, but with eavesdropping rather than watching.
The design of the sound editing gave us a new term of ‘sound design’ and gave this film an Academy Award nomination. Walter Murch ‘American Graffiti’ (73) ; Godfathers 1 and II (72&74); Apocalypse Now’ (79); ‘The English Patient’ (96) is undisputedly the king of sound and provides us with an emotional edge in character study and murder mystery and a knife edge balance between the two, which are almost contradictory but masters this and guarantees his reputation as a pioneer of true ‘Sound Design’.
An early role for Harrison Ford out of ‘American Graffiti’ confirmed his place in the future of cinema. John Cazale ‘s relaxed portrayal as a colleague of Harry Caul was a perfect foil for Hackman’s intense performance as a lone surveillance expert with a meticulous devotion to duty.
This film was made by the director at the peak of his creativity in the mid-seventies and we are left with a dark picture of privacy being destroyed and revealing we are never really alone with the reminder we are always looking but imperfectly seeing and listening.
A FILM REVIEW BY …TIM FRANCIS…….March 2011
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