Coppola's _The Conversation_

"He'd kill us if he had the chance... MACLUNKEY!"

What was happening outside the window behind Caul, when he’s gotten home and is calling his landlady? This is near the beginning.

Saw this again on the big screen tonight.

It was a different film this time (this was the 4th or 5th time I saw it and the second time in a theater) - more about a wounded man trying so hard to control and hide himself from the world around him that the world wounds him (as opposed to a sinister conspiracy or a surveillance fable).

Poster I made up for my second attempt at launching a Film Night in my small town. The first night--Sweet Smell of Success--one person showed up! (Me plus one other person, just to be clear.)

https://phildellio.tripod.com/conversation.jpg

great movie, and very cool you’re doing that! i’d suggest using an image from the movie though. at first glance this flyer looks like it’s advertising social media platforms

Thanks. I did one with the original movie poster, too--with the screening details in a little box in the corner--and that's the one I posted around town. This was just an extra thing I linked to on FB, trying to explain why I thought the film was a relevant as ever.

It's really hard to launch this kind of thing in a small town. This Thursday I have to compete with the annual library book sale and a small get-together for the tennis club (which will be attended by all of 10 people or so--but cost me two people who said they'd be there).

If you go from an audience of one to an audience of two, is that incremental or exponential growth? It's both--I love math!

Having seen this so many, many times, something I think I noticed for the first time tonight (and only because it's the first time I've ever watched it was captions--it'd be easy to miss otherwise): Nixon is mentioned by name once, at a crucial moment.

was = with

Just noticed it was #72 on the directors' list, so that's heartening.

Nixon is mentioned by name once, at a crucial moment.

Oh yeah ... I remembered that bit from the first time I saw it, but then I kinda associate this film with Nixon and that era of "paranoid film" ... I think I probably saw it for the first time in a thematic week along with All the Presidents Men so ... (I think I've only seen it 4-5 times though)

The image flashed by quickly, but I think it might have even been Coppola himself who says it (although not having come across mention of this before seems unlikely).

hey clemenza, thanks for your email! I appreciated it!

You knew what thread I'd open for sure.

From Sam Wasson's The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story (which I'm not especially liking--for the 57th time, Coppola the crazed genius lost in the jungle):

The first cut of The Conversation was extremely long, close to five hours.

I usually name The Conversation as the closest any film has ever gotten for me to perfection. There's one of Elizabeth MacRae's lines that always sounds off to me, otherwise there isn't a line or a moment elsewhere I'd change. So in no way would I expect longer to be better, or even close. But if this cut still exists--highly doubtful--I sure would love to have a chance to see it.

Half the cut footage is different readings of <the line> and the other half is Gene wailing on sax.

I saw a bunch of people on Twitter saying how unnecessary the sax scene at the end was and finally lost my last bit of faith

I'm thinking of "These pretzels are making me thirsty from Seinfeld"; every possible permutation of "He'd kill us if he got the chance."

Yeah, that's bizarre--that final scene is so crucial. Makes me think of Google/Facebook when I watch it now.

Move that end quote...