this explains the "adjoining hotel rooms" visions, i guess.
according to IMDB, his name was meant to be "Call", but homynyms & Freudien slips are funny, ain't they?
― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 16 September 2005 06:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 16 September 2005 06:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 16 September 2005 09:02 (eighteen years ago) link
Michael Bay did more harm than he'll ever know.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 16 September 2005 12:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 16 September 2005 12:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 16 September 2005 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 16 September 2005 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link
Hmm, true. Less a shout out than a beery fart, likely enough.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:16 (eighteen years ago) link
(xpost)
― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link
It's pretty good but no classic; haven't seen it in awhile, but the church confession scene particularly annoyed me. SEE, HE'S FULL OF INARTICULATE GUILT.
I prefer Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 16 September 2005 13:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 16 September 2005 13:42 (eighteen years ago) link
watching enemy of the state--solid fuckin flick, holds up well
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Sunday, 7 June 2009 22:47 (fifteen years ago) link
i think the slowness is just frank aiming for 'serious auteur' art-movieness.
This is a deeply irritating statement, but never mind.
― Freedom, Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:06 (fourteen years ago) link
ive probably mellowed in the intervening seven years (dats a pretty typical ilx thing to say, c. 2003), but it's not my favourite failure-of-communication movie. probably should give it another go, since i haven't seen it since ooh 1998.
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Sunday, June 7, 2009 11:47 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark
^^^ also kind of an ilx thing to say. don't really agree with this tho.
― V-E-R-Y (history mayne), Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:08 (fourteen years ago) link
best eugene hackman movie
― chris nibbs (cozen), Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:10 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah. great haskell wexler opening shot.
― V-E-R-Y (history mayne), Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:14 (fourteen years ago) link
remember this as wonderful, kind of afraid to go back to be honest. lotta films like that from the student days, though.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:15 (fourteen years ago) link
i still prefer 'blow up' but maybe it's because im a londoner.
― V-E-R-Y (history mayne), Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:17 (fourteen years ago) link
kingston-upon-thames is in london right?
blow-up has way more hotter chicks that's for sure!
― da Wesley CRUSHER (latebloomer), Thursday, 11 February 2010 17:01 (fourteen years ago) link
huh I guess I should see this eh
― I won't vote for you unless you acknowledge my magic pony (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 17:23 (fourteen years ago) link
blow-up has way more hotter chicks that's for sure!this is true, but young teri garr in the conversation ain't bad. love Harrison Ford in this. He shoud be more like this in other movies.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 13 April 2010 18:16 (fourteen years ago) link
yes!
― fuckin' lame, bros (latebloomer), Wednesday, 14 April 2010 09:51 (fourteen years ago) link
he is in the movie star bizness, no characters plz
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 April 2010 11:41 (fourteen years ago) link
very ILX of everyone above to be so allergic to something "deep."
anyway, aside from all that, i think what will stick with me from this movie is yes the editing but also some lovely moments--that strange slow swooping movement the camera makes (i think) three times as Hackman gives that monologue to the blond woman in the green dress. and him riding the subway alone with the recurrent musical theme.
― ryan, Thursday, 2 June 2011 05:43 (thirteen years ago) link
this flick owns
― in no way more ancient than fucking space (latebloomer), Thursday, 2 June 2011 05:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Seeing it (again) tonight as part of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. I was baffled too...Coppola? No, don't think so, and Harry Caul's a devout Catholic. It's David Shire, the composer, who'll be talking and performing afterwards.
― clemenza, Sunday, 6 May 2012 12:05 (twelve years ago) link
Well, I guess the score is quite central to it, but yeah, a tad tenuous.
― Freedom, Monday, 7 May 2012 10:45 (twelve years ago) link
He was great--lots of stories, and he sat and played The Conversation's main theme. Didn't even clue into the fact he was Talia Shire's husband, nor did I realize that he did the piano work on Zodiac (hired because Fincher had The Conversation in mind), and that it's him playing overtop that amazing overhead Library-of-Congress shot in All the President's Men.
― clemenza, Monday, 7 May 2012 11:23 (twelve years ago) link
interesting stuff here from an interview with Terri Garr http://www.avclub.com/articles/teri-garr,2390/
― piscesx, Monday, 7 May 2012 11:39 (twelve years ago) link
man, that's a great interview. thanks, piscesx.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Monday, 7 May 2012 15:16 (twelve years ago) link
They're showing this at a beer theater in Portland in the next few weeks. Should be good.
― Choad of Choad Hall (kingfish), Monday, 7 May 2012 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
weird, just watched this for the first time a couple weeks ago
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 7 May 2012 16:25 (twelve years ago) link
like it? i think it's kind of the perfect 70s movie.
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
yeah def dug it. It does encapsulate a lot of different 70s tropes in a great way
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 7 May 2012 16:43 (twelve years ago) link
One thing I learned last night that surprised me was that Hackman played all his saxophone parts himself. Coppola would be after him to go over lines, and he'd be off in a corner practising B-flat scales.
I'm tempted to say that nobody has ever so completely disappeared into a role as Hackman does here, but thinking about it, Hackman's impish humour does surface in some of his banter with Allen Garfield.
― clemenza, Monday, 7 May 2012 17:02 (twelve years ago) link
Can't prove a thing, nor does it matter, but David Shire's score is to my ears deeply indebted to Emahoy Tsege-Maryam Guèbrou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFE2ycYOmik
― poxen, Monday, 7 May 2012 17:12 (twelve years ago) link
I can hear some similarity--that's before '74, I assume? He said his main inspiration was a late-night DJ he used to listen to who'd accompany himself on piano underneath his patter. I asked him in the Q&A if there was any Scott Joplin influence, because I always thought I heard some of The Sting theme in there (which would have been a year earlier). He gave one of those polite "Maybe"s that really meant "Not at all," and now that I've relistened, I see what he means--they're not really similar at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogQt0WJJkI
― clemenza, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
haw, it'd be pretty wild if shire was listening to that in 1974 (though i see what you mean).
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:13 (twelve years ago) link
i'd say "strikingly similar", before "deeply indebted", if i didn't know better (and i don't)
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:25 (twelve years ago) link
Check the rest of that album out, it's uncanny! And Guebrou wasn't unknown in the early 70s. "Strikingly similar" for sure. I guess saying "indebted" suggests plagiarism, which isn't what I meant.
― poxen, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
i do want to hear the rest of the album now, as that one minute snippet is great
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:47 (twelve years ago) link
also..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6wGzJ8PP7k
― piscesx, Monday, 7 May 2012 23:24 (twelve years ago) link
snap, put it on telly as a late movie last Sunday and stayed up to watch it
― ┗|∵|┓ (sic), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 00:29 (twelve years ago) link
this film is pretty hard to love IMO
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 01:14 (twelve years ago) link
'blow up' is much better IMO
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
i dunno, hard to love? maybe i'm a pushover, but you put gene hackman, paul cazale, frederic forrest, teri garr, cindy williams and harrison ford in a movie together, i'm going to love it.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
This is perhaps my favorite nihilistic "you got played" ending next to "The Killing."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
my favourite part was
CLOSE VIEW OF THE MUSICIANS 4on!Q& hem puts down his instrumen and does a ?ro licb.ng tap dance. DllNGeK o« D1tNcG D itriEC rDlf ·
― Ste, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 11:25 (two years ago) link
Just skimmed that screenplay--looks like the order of things was radically changed.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 13:42 (two years ago) link
The American Zoetrope-related films had a real murderer's row of film editors!
― mh, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 15:09 (two years ago) link
Use to have a friend, or acquaintance at least, that worked there for a bit/pvmic
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 15:19 (two years ago) link
No saxophone playing in the final shot of that screenplay!
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 15:24 (two years ago) link
I think there's a thread on ILM somewhere for movies with playing-records scenes; I can rattle off a dozen or two. Add The Conversation; first time Harry plays sax in his apartment, there's a shot of his turntable and the record he's playing along to.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 15:32 (two years ago) link
That scene does appear in the screenplay, it seems stranded without the "payoff" at the end.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link
If only they'd had the technology back then Murch could've done a Yanni/Laurel thing with the key line
― Josefa, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 15:42 (two years ago) link
"He'd kill us if he had the chance... MACLUNKEY!"
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 16:21 (two years ago) link
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.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 14 April 2022 02:21 (two years ago) link
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).
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 14 April 2022 02:22 (two years ago) link
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
― clemenza, Wednesday, 30 November 2022 02:32 (one year ago) link
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
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 30 November 2022 08:56 (one year ago) link
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).
― clemenza, Wednesday, 30 November 2022 11:30 (one year ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Friday, 2 December 2022 02:34 (one year ago) link
was = with
Just noticed it was #72 on the directors' list, so that's heartening.
― clemenza, Friday, 2 December 2022 03:45 (one year ago) link
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)
― sarahell, Friday, 2 December 2022 06:03 (one year ago) link
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).
― clemenza, Friday, 2 December 2022 13:26 (one year ago) link
hey clemenza, thanks for your email! I appreciated it!
― sarahell, Monday, 17 July 2023 17:48 (eleven months ago) link
You knew what thread I'd open for sure.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 00:59 (eleven months ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 January 2024 04:01 (five months ago) link
Half the cut footage is different readings of <the line> and the other half is Gene wailing on sax.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 19 January 2024 04:08 (five months ago) link
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
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 19 January 2024 04:12 (five months ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 January 2024 04:23 (five months ago) link
Move that end quote...