It’s a Prescient film about surveillance. Today people are recorded and filmed 24/7 in the cities and no one even cares or pays attention. Privacy? what’s privacy? Never heard of it. People have just accepted the spying and recording as the new normal in exchange for safety. The film is a murder mystery with a twist. I won’t ruin it for you but it a well made film.
Coppola did "The Godfather" to gather money to do this film. Who created that sound effect we hear in the opening sequence? That sound effect became synonym for surveillance and can be heard on PBS' Frontline "United States Secrets".
No other filmmaker hit it out of the park like Coppola did between 1972 and 1974. Three all-time masterpieces in a row: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather II. Who else has a record to match that?
What the hell is behind the Times wanting to stretch this video to fit the widescreen format? It distorts everything including the motion picture that conforms to the native aspect ratio to begin with.
One of the more interesting and less predictable choices on the Criticis' Picks list. Although of course it is in a lot of ways the American version of Blow Up.
Why American version? Blow Up was made by Depalma an American film director. You mean that Blow Up is more European in terms of lens and camera perspective?
Francis Ford Coppola is incredibly extraordinary! Every movie he's ever made tells a saga to its audience in the most uncontaminated form. I revere Coppola so much because he's the reason why I love cinema the way I could never love unless I watched his masterpieces. Needless to say, Gene, Ford, Duvall & Cazale are like blessings to the world of cinema. *15 December 2023*
I'm not sure the film would have the same emotional impact today. It played off an awareness or sensitivity that no longer exists. There used to be a reflexive reaction to an intrusion into our privacy, but now surveillance is pretty much expected, isn't it? On the highway, at the store, on the phone, online, everything is tracked and recorded. If anonymity is possible, it's simply a result of overwhelming input from other sources, and apathy. Maybe that could be the theme of the sequel. Hackman and Williams star in the new film, Another Conversation. You'll hear the actors deliver such memorable lines as, "Meh, what are you going to do?"
I agree with all of your points except that this movie still packed an emotional punch when I watched it...and I'm 25. I can understand the paranioa in context. Hackman's performance alone effects me.
In my opinion, the point is not the particular time and context when something becomes trending topic, like surveillance in the times of the Watergate scandal, but how a story is told and unveils, whatever the medium used, film or literature, and from that perspective, I think, "The Conversation" delivers good entertainment to this day thanks to the craftsmanship with which the film was made, which makes it possible for it to stand the test of time despite how irrelevant the plot could seem to be now. The same happens to me with many of the films by Alfred Hitchcock.
I guarantee this story would work if it was set in the current era. You’re missing the point completely. There were just as many dull meaningless conversations at that time as there are now. This wasn’t a movie about spying on society it was about a husband spying on his wife and a private detective with blood on his hands from a previous job and a heavy conscience telling him it could happen again and as his character says “I don’t fear death, but murder” There’s much more going on in the movie and you are selling the story short or confusing it for a different story altogether. Did you even watch the movie?
I know Brian Depalma‘s blowout is mostly inspired by the 60s (Michelangelo Antonioni )film blow up but I see a lot of influence from the conversation as well.
This is amazing. The film is a great classic. But the critic is clean, simple and effective. I miss that. I enjoy complex and creative reviews, but sometimes it just saturates me as an audience member and makes me appreciate less pretentious styles of cinema ibterpretation
I adore this movie but am bothered how it "cheats" by abruptly altering the emphasis of a key piece of the taped "Conversation" after it had been played earlier - I wish this twist were somehow done differently - a great film nonetheless.
