Another week, another Coppola creation that I am pleased to say is one of my new favorite films. Gene Hackman plays the fumbling Harry Caul in this interesting piece of commentary about the transformation of surveillance from a tool to an industry. In a time where the US was dealing with one of its most significant internal espionage cases, The Conversation sheds some light on the true nature of surveillance and some of the dilemmas it can bring to modern society.  Hackman is hired to follow a couple and record their conversations, wherein he manages to capture a recording of interest. The movie follows Hackman as he tries to determine whether or not the couple is in danger. Coppola employs a score filled with tension to add to the already suspenseful nature of this film.  This thriller is meant to be upsetting, and intentionally puts the viewer in uncomfortable positions which I believe relays the true nature of the surveillance business quite well.  The Conversation is an important period piece because it was made during a time when the surveillance was still new, and the true fear of the technology had not quite gripped the public like it does now. You have people taping up their webcams, using burner phones just to talk to their family, and many other eccentric things to avoid  “being watched by the man, man”. The ending scene of Caul tearing his apartment up in an attempt to find any wires or bugs has undoubtedly been re-created by paranoid citizens countless times.

Coppola states his inspiration for this film came from a conversation he had with a fellow film-maker where they spoke about the development of surveillance as an industry. At the time, of course it was already happening by many governments, but there is a very interesting scene in the film where Gene Hackman attends a security convention, and it seems almost dystopian for a minute until you think for a moment about just how far surveillance has come (Ie. facial recognition, voice recognition). The Watergate Scandal was arguably the largest event in US history in 1974, leading to the ousting of sitting president Richard Nixon, and sewing a deep amount of distrust into the American public regarding the government itself. In retrospect, at the time it was a very unconventional film yet now it exists as an important piece of commentary on surveillance itself.

When this movie was released, it did not do incredibly well as it pulled in a mere 4.4 million which is dwarfed by for instance, the income of Blazing Saddles which raked in 119 million the same year. In retrospect, it was 31st most popular movie of 1974 and flew largely under the radar considering its importance and success in later years. There The was a very recent and exciting announcement about the remaster of this film, which you can read more on here.

In his review of the film, Ebert states that ” The cinematography is deliberately planned from a voyeuristic point of view”, which is true throughout the entirety of the movie. The experience of observing the observer is interesting as I feel when this is employed as a cinematographic strategy is offers the viewer a avenue to question the morality of what they are watching.   I agree with Eberts statement on cinematography, as Coppola makes you feel you are frequently invisible in a place where you should not be. Especially when the main character Harry Caul is cramped and crammed in these positions doing his job and you feel like a bug on the wall, or when you are watching someone in a crowd, moving with them and picking up small bits of conversations as you go.  He employs specific camera angles, as well as depth and layered shots to achieve this. I have included the original trailer below as it has excellent examples of this style of cinematography and the trailer will not ruin any scene if you decide to watch the film. This video has more specific examples of sequences which help put the viewer in the eyes of the surveillance agent.  The score of The Conversation was of course extremely important in drawing out that paranoia from certain scenes. Many do not realize that Francis Ford Coppola’s father Carmine was a talented composer and contributed greatly to his films.

This film was very similar to  Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which in short is about a disabled man who is confined to his apartment and witnesses a domestic dispute turn violent over the course of his recovery. In both films, there are voyeuristic elements which contribute greatly to their suspense and horror. As for its main inspiration, Coppola acknowledges he was greatly influenced by the film Blow Up. Blow Up is a French film about a photographer who discovers disturbing things in his film when reviewing it later in his studio. An interesting follow-up which is a psuedo-sequel  to The Conversation is a movie called Enemy of the State from 1998 which starts Will Smith and has a main character that closely resembles Hackman’s.

The Conversation probably would have won a few academy awards as well in 1975 had it not been for…. Francis Ford Coppola! Thats right, The Conversation was in fact nominated for three academy awards but lost all three to The Godfather: Part 2 which premiered 8 months behind The Conversation. Here is a video of him winning the much deserved best director award for that year.