The Conversation
4 Out Of 4 For Coppola
Oh wow. Wow. I'm not going to write up a proper "review" as such of the 1974 movie The Conversation because I don't think I could do it justice without going through it again and taking notes on what made this film so damn good. This is the type of movie that makes you realise how shit contemporary Hollywood movies are, how much potential there is in this art form, and how try-hard the majority of "art-house" movies really are. This is a film that reminds me why I want to make movies. It never forces its plot. It's an intriguing thriller / mystery which breaks the mould of the genre in that rather than focusing on the plot itself it is in fact more than anything a character study. It doesn't try to be clever. It doesn't hurry things up. It just slowly and patiently unfolds, and the audience is taken on a journey of discovery as the lead character Harry Caul, a very normal, very realistic middle-aged freelance surveillance expert with very real limitations tries to figure out what the conversation he recorded on his last assignment really means - leading him to have somewhat of a moral dilemma as he considers whether or not he should just drop it like a professional who has done his job, or try to warn the people who he thinks may be in danger that the people who hired him know about... their conversation. Absolutely stunning masterpiece. Yes, that word is used far too often. So are terms brilliant, work of genius and any other as-good-as-it-gets superlative you can throw at a movie. But nothing could possibly overstate the quality of this film. I've now seen 4 Francis Ford Coppola films since I knew who he was (not counting seeing Jack when I was about 9) and the four I speak of happen to be his supposed classic quartet, all released between 1972 and 1979, all made consecutively as the only movies he made in that period (The Conversation was made in between the first two Godfather movies, losing to Part II for best Picture in 1974, while Apocalypse Now was originally released in 1979) and all are superb. This one is the only one that doesn't slot into my Top 10 of all-time in fact, but it's in my Top 20 right away and could go higher with repeat viewings. So it's an A, duh, which, duh, means 5/5.
Why don't they make movies like this anymore? Seventies films are awesome. In the last month or so I've seen Marathon Man, Dirty Harry & All The President's Men and while none of these three very good films come close to the quality of The Conversation there's something about the pacing, the way they're photographed and the style of the drama in these movies that you just don't see anymore. In a recent passage on IMDB.com, cinematographer Oliver Stapleton talked about how these days the way films are shot has been largely influenced by the way television conventions have evolved and I can see what he means - there has been a noticable move away from the painting-like-composition of still-camera wide shots that few directors, David Lynch being among those who still qualify as exceptions, actually still use today, with cinema instead moving towards more close angles and moving cameras, the types of things which are so much more effective when used sparingly. Hail to the wide shot, slow edits, mumbled conversations and plots that don't need a tie-up epilogue.
Youth Without Youth, Coppola's first film in 9 years, is due out in coming months. Can he recapture the quality of his seventies efforts? Or have his supposed "failures" as he adapted to these modern conventions seen him lose the magic touch he once had. The Conversation and the other Coppola films I've seen are so brilliantly directed that I can't imagine how someone that competent could go through such a "mediocre spell" as he supposedly (I haven't seen his eighties and nineties flicks) has. Hmm.
About My Movie Grading System
Oh wow. Wow. I'm not going to write up a proper "review" as such of the 1974 movie The Conversation because I don't think I could do it justice without going through it again and taking notes on what made this film so damn good. This is the type of movie that makes you realise how shit contemporary Hollywood movies are, how much potential there is in this art form, and how try-hard the majority of "art-house" movies really are. This is a film that reminds me why I want to make movies. It never forces its plot. It's an intriguing thriller / mystery which breaks the mould of the genre in that rather than focusing on the plot itself it is in fact more than anything a character study. It doesn't try to be clever. It doesn't hurry things up. It just slowly and patiently unfolds, and the audience is taken on a journey of discovery as the lead character Harry Caul, a very normal, very realistic middle-aged freelance surveillance expert with very real limitations tries to figure out what the conversation he recorded on his last assignment really means - leading him to have somewhat of a moral dilemma as he considers whether or not he should just drop it like a professional who has done his job, or try to warn the people who he thinks may be in danger that the people who hired him know about... their conversation. Absolutely stunning masterpiece. Yes, that word is used far too often. So are terms brilliant, work of genius and any other as-good-as-it-gets superlative you can throw at a movie. But nothing could possibly overstate the quality of this film. I've now seen 4 Francis Ford Coppola films since I knew who he was (not counting seeing Jack when I was about 9) and the four I speak of happen to be his supposed classic quartet, all released between 1972 and 1979, all made consecutively as the only movies he made in that period (The Conversation was made in between the first two Godfather movies, losing to Part II for best Picture in 1974, while Apocalypse Now was originally released in 1979) and all are superb. This one is the only one that doesn't slot into my Top 10 of all-time in fact, but it's in my Top 20 right away and could go higher with repeat viewings. So it's an A, duh, which, duh, means 5/5.
Why don't they make movies like this anymore? Seventies films are awesome. In the last month or so I've seen Marathon Man, Dirty Harry & All The President's Men and while none of these three very good films come close to the quality of The Conversation there's something about the pacing, the way they're photographed and the style of the drama in these movies that you just don't see anymore. In a recent passage on IMDB.com, cinematographer Oliver Stapleton talked about how these days the way films are shot has been largely influenced by the way television conventions have evolved and I can see what he means - there has been a noticable move away from the painting-like-composition of still-camera wide shots that few directors, David Lynch being among those who still qualify as exceptions, actually still use today, with cinema instead moving towards more close angles and moving cameras, the types of things which are so much more effective when used sparingly. Hail to the wide shot, slow edits, mumbled conversations and plots that don't need a tie-up epilogue.
Youth Without Youth, Coppola's first film in 9 years, is due out in coming months. Can he recapture the quality of his seventies efforts? Or have his supposed "failures" as he adapted to these modern conventions seen him lose the magic touch he once had. The Conversation and the other Coppola films I've seen are so brilliantly directed that I can't imagine how someone that competent could go through such a "mediocre spell" as he supposedly (I haven't seen his eighties and nineties flicks) has. Hmm.
About My Movie Grading System
posted by Steve @ 10:33 PM
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