The Q Filmcast

The Q Filmcast


Episode 58 : THE CONVERSATION / Top 3 “Paranoid” Movie Characters

September 06, 2014

Hey, are you following me?… No worries, Just setting the tone as we Queue up this weeks selection, the (1974) Paranoid Thriller  THE CONVERSATION   from director Francis Ford Coppola staring Gene Hackman. Made between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, The Conversation was a return to small-scale art films for Coppola. Regarded as an artistic highpoint of the time, it tells the tale of sound surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), who’s hired to track a young couple, taping their conversation as they walk through San Francisco’s crowded Union Square. Knowing full well how technology can invade privacy, Harry obsessively keeps to himself, separating business from his personal life, even refusing to discuss what he does or where he lives with his girlfriend, Amy. Harry’s work starts to trouble him, however, as he comes to believe that the conversation he pieced together reveals a plot by the mysterious corporate “Director†who hired him to murder the couple. After he allows himself to be seduced by a call girl, who then steals the tapes, Harry is all the more convinced that a killing will occur, and he can no longer separate his job from his conscience. The Godfather Part II and The Conversation earned Coppola a rare pair of Oscar nominations for Best Picture, as well as two nominations for Best Screenplay (The Godfather Part II won both). Praised by critics, The Conversation was not a popular hit, but it has since come to be praised as a film of note, both for it’s supburb depictions and methodical tones - not to mention a VERY YOUNG Harrison Ford! We round it out with our Top 3 “Paranoid Movie Charactersâ€â€¦ Hey, are you looking at me?



 


 


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