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| Gene
Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest,
Terri Garr, Harrison Ford and Robert Duval |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Harry
Caul:
Listen, if there's one surefire rule that I have learned in this business
it's that I don't know anything about human nature, I don't know anything
about curiosity, I'd eh Ú that's not part of what I do. What I eh, Ú
this is my business and when I'm eh... (falls silent)
A
surveillance expert records a conversation between a young couple with
grave consequences.
 It's
hard not to talk in superlatives about Francis Ford Coppola's output
in the seventies: The Godfather saga, The Conversation
and Apocalypse Now are all considered masterpieces of modern
cinema, all for different reasons. Of these classic titles, The Conversation
is the least known. This is hardly surprising because it is more of
a character study in the European sense than it is a rousing American
epic.
The Conversation was made solely on the succes of The Godfather
but was in fact written a couple of years earlier. Coppola borrows heavily
from Antonioni's Blow Up for the central mystery in the story
but adds a couple of layers of meaning to the central character of Harry
Caul: the movie is rife with repeated images and themes, most of them
relating to the see-through aspect of Harry's job. Gene Hackman gives
an amazing performance as a professional eavesdropper with an overly
developed sense of paranoia and mistrust as a result of his profession.
His unease around people is tangible and his self-inflicted isolation
is depicted in wordless scenes of incredible subtlety. He doesn't bare
his soul to anyone, and when he does in an unguarded moment the repercussions
are immediate and almost painful to watch. His sense of security quickly
evaporates as he becomes obsessed with the possibility that his own
tools may be turned against him. The actual conversation is only revealed
a little bit at at time and its meaning remains ambigious right until
a final plot twist worthy of Hitchcock.
Coppola chooses a very naturalistic and down-to-earth style in portraying
the world of Harry Caul. The camera follows Harry like an eavesdropper:
static shots inside his apartment show him wandering in and out of the
frame or sitting in the corner of a frame. Lots of memorable scenes
during the recording of the conversation in the square, the surveillance
experts convention (which in fact, was not shot on a set but at a real
surveillance convention happening at the time) and the finale in Harry
Caul's apartment are particularly outstanding. |
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This DVD is currently only available in
Region 1.
The picture is anamorphically enhanced
and framed at 1.85:1. Colours are good, blacks are solid and edge enhancement
is absent. There are no distracting artifacts of any kind, a first rate
compression job. If American Zoetrope keeps this quality going we're
in for a treat when The Godfather DVD releases comes along.
The audio has been remixed from the original mono source into a very
presentable Dolby Digital 5.1 score, not so much for better quality
but it does make a difference in the presentation of the movie. Sound
is of course very important to the story and editor and sound designer
Walter Murch has worked miracles with limited materials. Distortion
is evident in some of the dialogue but this is inherent to the original
track. The music by David Shire has always been a personal favourite
and it's presented here in great quality.
Francis
Ford Coppola provides a commentary track here and it's a treat for fans.
Right from the bat it is clear that Coppola is well-prepared and knows
exactly what he wants to tell. He manages to explain the origin of the
story and the ideas behind it perfectly in sync with the first sequence
in the square. He also reveals some of the more personal aspects of
the story. He has nothing but praise for the actors with one aside for
Gene Hackman. Coppola hardly mentions him until late in the film and
it becomes clear why: even 25 years later Coppola remembers the troubles
he had with Hackman, who played against type but did turn into the sad
figure of Harry Caul in such a fashion that he became very difficult
to work with according to Coppola. So Coppola probably figured that
instead of bitching about it, better not mention it too much. The shoot
itself was also difficult because of the pressure of the second Godfather
movie Coppola agreed to, the shooting of which already started during
post-production of The Conversation. In fact, problems with the
shooting of the ending led Coppola to pull the plug prematurely on The
Conversation, after which the story was rearranged by editor and
sound designer Walter Murch to give it the ending we now know. The commentary
by Walter Murch unfortunately covers a lot of the same ground (mostly
the background of the story) and he does fall into the trap of telling
the viewer what's happening on-screen rather too often. But he does
provide some insights into the movie's structure and how the final cut
was achieved: Coppola was not present during post-production as Murch
explains and he provides some details on how that influenced everything.
An interesting making-of featurette called "Close-up on The Conversation"
produced at the time of the movie's release shows on-set scenes with
Coppola being interviewed. The original theatrical trailer is also on
the disc.  The
animated menus are very well done: the main menu is a picture of Harry
and Stan working in the office while the spools run through the tape recorder.
David Shire's main theme plays in the background. All the other menus
have similarly inventive setups, with dialogue from the movie spliced
in occasionally.
Gerard Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Conversation .
Click here
to return to the front page.
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