The Conversation

Francis Lord Coppola's The Conversation was a very interesting film for me. I was very enticed by the story and its cinematography was really well thought out. For Coppola, The Conversation was his attempt at experimenting with a few things. Mostly he was trying to do something with repetition and the sound design of the film was incredibly done.

The story centers around Harry Caul (played by Gene Hackman) who is a surveillance expert. I liked that his last name was a homonym of "call" as he deals with phones a lot in his work. The conflict of the film comes in when he becomes more and more concerned that a couple he was hired to spy on may be killed by his employers.

As with the other 70's films we watched Harry is a very complex and somewhat introverted character. He is dealing with psychological problems that stem from guilt over a previous job where his target was murdered by his client. This causes Harry to be very paranoid and secretive even to the people he works close with.

The sound design in this film is very well done. Since Harry Caul's job requires him to listen to everything with such precision, the audience is brought into this experience through almost every sound being exaggerated to the point of being overwhelmed by them.

Lastly there are certain points in the film where the camera takes on a surveillance cam point of view moving back and forth (often in Harry apartment) over the same area in a timed fashion following more of a set pattern rather than following the action or the character as it would in a traditional film.

Overall a great thriller/mystery and easily a new favorite Coppola film for me.