The Conversation

The Conversation un film de Francis Ford Coppola - Retrospective

A  very musical film, Coppola's The  Conversation is about an invader of privacy that tape people's  conversations for his clients. Respected by his pairs and regarded has a  myth he only lives for his work and never cared about the people's  lifes. But one day a conversation he tapes, the one from the openning  sequence, changes his approach on his work and he starts to care about  what is gonna happen after his job is done.

With the succes of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola  made the film he wanted to make: The  Conversation. A more minimalist approach to films and a personnal  film is the result of The  Conversation. A film inspired by european filmmakers of the  1960's, Italian films and the French New Wave films. After Apocalypse Now, The Conversation is the best film  Coppola made in his entire career. The  Godfather saga was not bad but the romantic/traditionnal touch  of the films is too much and they don't pass the test of time because  they feel old.

The Conversation should be regarded has one of the best films of the 1970's and it's a  shame it is shadowed by the two first parts of The Godfather... This is a highly recommended film that  every cinephile must have seen.

A  Film Retrospective by Michaël Parent

http://cinephiliaque.blogspot.com/2010/03/conversation-un-film-de-francis-ford.html

Recommendations: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Duel

Last updated: 2010-04-27 14:27:45 by MichaelParent

Movies 365: Day 25 – The Conversation

I’m going to return to the question I brought up in my review of The French Connection regarding the worthiness of Best Picture winners. In 1974 the five nominees were The Godfather Part II (it won), Chinatown, Lenny, The Towering Inferno and The Conversation. Two of those films have something in common, and that thing is director Francis Ford Coppola who wrote and directed both The Godfather Part II and The Conversation. If you’ve seen The Godfather Part II it’s pretty hard to disagree with it’s win, but I’m going to have to say that in this case (unlike The French Connection) the Academy got it wrong.

The Conversation focuses on Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) a surveillance expert who is tasked with recording the titular conversation. The film opens with Harry and his team recording the conversation, a marvelously choreographed sequence set in Golden Gate Park, following this Harry begins to refine the recording. Harry lives by a code of sorts, to not care about the conversations he records, as his job is merely to record, not to judge. But when the last bit of the recording is finally refined and Harry can finally make out what is said, he begins to have doubts about his code.

As a paranoid thriller, The Conversation works wonderfully, due in no small part to Gene Hackman’s performance. Hackman is incredible in this film, a performance that is understated and gripping, he cites this film as his personal favorite performance of his, and though I haven’t seen everything Hackman’s done, I sincerely doubt he’s done better. He’s backed up by a great cast including John Cazale, Harrison Ford and Robert Duvall in a small part.

But the real master here is Coppola, who performs double duty as director and screenwriter. Though his output in recent years hasn’t been as regular or as good, it’s hard to argue with the assertion that he was one of the best filmmakers working in the 1970’s, a decade many consider to be the best decade for film. He masterfully brings the audience along on Harry’s journey, always taking care to never slow the pacing down too much, or lose the audience. Though people cite The Godfather Part II as one of the best films of all time, they seem to forget that in 1974 Coppola made two masterpieces, so if you’ve overlooked The Conversation, I’d rectify that immediately.

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