| THE CONVERSATION |
 1974
- USADirector: Francis Ford Coppola - Reviewed by Linda  Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a
surveillance expert for hire, who is on assignment recording the conversation of a young
man and woman walking in a city square in San Francisco. He always works with
professional detachment, and doesn’t pass judgment or get involved in the cases
he works on. But something about this particular conversation catches his
interest and curiosity... the way the couple seem to know they are being
followed, but still get together despite the risk.The Conversation is an excellent suspense film, but has a languid and somewhat dream-like pacing, making the climax all the more jarring. The viewers, like Harry, hear the conversation over and over, dissecting the same sentences and phrases along with him. The conversation itself starts to serve as a soundtrack, haunting Harry's (and the viewers') thoughts as he plays it over and over on his surveillance machines and in his head. Coppola subtly adds to the detachment of Caul’s world by filming many scenes by slowly and steadily panning first one direction, then back, as though watching through a surveillance camera. The soundtrack is an unobtrusive, simplistic piano score which compliments the mood of mystery and suspicion. Other than the dated surveillance equipment itself, the film’s setting, script, and ambiance hold up surprisingly well decades later. The Conversation has somehow been overlooked over the years, but I think it ranks easily among Francis Ford Coppola’s work, and is one of the best films of the 1970s. |
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