The Conversation (1974)

film by Coppola!

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

 

Thirty-seven years later, this film continues to be an intriguing mystery about the subject of surveillance. Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is an expert in surveillance, and he is totally professional. He is given a job, which he executes meticulously and dispassionately. He is tasked with surreptitiously recording a conversation between a man and woman, Mark (Frederic Forrest) and Ann (Cindy Williams) as they walk in crowds at Union Square, San Francisco.

 

It is recorded from three or four vantage points, and Harry’s job is to reconstruct the entire conversation, since no one recording reveals the entire chat. He is assisted by Stan (John Cazale), another expert.  Harry is a loner and he is somewhat paranoid because he understands the ease of which someone else can be watched and heard. 

 

Amy (Teri Garr) is seemingly Harry’s girlfriend, but the scene depicting their relationship is very brief. When Harry goes to a surveillance convention, he sees an East Coast competitor “Bernie” Moran (Allem Garfield), whom Harry does not trust.

 

As Harry unveils more of the conversation, he begins to suspect that the couple he has been recording are going to be murdered. He also suspects that a man who works at the office where he drops off the tapes, Martin Statt (Harrison Ford) has something to do with the potentionally heinous activities

 

Inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s film, Blow-Up, in which a photograph is dissected, Coppola writes of a recording which is dissected.  Walter Murch whose real brilliance as an editor and sound designer would come to the fore in Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, did the same duties for this film.

 

Robert Duvall is also featured in an important but uncredited role. The jazz-influenced acore was created by Coppola’s then brother-in-law, David Shire (husband of Talia Shire).