The Conversation is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who faces a moral dilemma when his recordings reveal a potential murder. Supporting cast members include John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, and Frederic Forrest. Harrison Ford and Teri Garr appear in credited roles, with Robert Duvall in an uncredited role.
During the editing of the film, a lot of key story and structure choices were necessitated by the fact that a good chunk of the film had yet to be shot. Coppola ran out of time and money as he was contracted to start The Godfather Part II, he gave what he had to editor Walter Murch and said “see if you can make it work.”
One of the major changes was a “dream sequence” 2/3 of the way through the film, it shows Harry (Gene Hackman) meeting Ann (Cindy Williams) at a park; he tells her about himself and tries to warn her of the imminent threat against her life.
In fact, the sequence was meant to actually happen within the narrative of the film (not as a dream), and much later on, after the murder has taken place. The beginning section of it (a scene on the bus) was never shot and Coppola was unhappy with the way the manufactured “fog” looked in the footage they did manage to get. Editor Walter Murch rescued the scene by printing more fog over top of the footage and cutting to Harry sleeping and mumbling as he “dreams” it.
From Filmmakers Newsletter, Volume 7 #7 (Coppola was extensively interviewed about The Conversation by Brian De Palma in this issue):
Francis Ford Coppola: I was trying to imply (an) obsession with (Ann) in the movie. It’s subtle, but I think it’s clear to some people. He begins to replace (Mark) in a way by trying to get a very personal relationship with the girl. In the dream sequence in the park, in a way he has replaced the guy in their walk. So I was really trying to imply a kind of romantic magnetism.
And I loved the idea of the guy following her and saying, ‘Listen, you don’t know who I am but I know you and I know your problems and I love you.’ Which is what he ultimately wants to say.
San Francisco gets very foggy, and I thought for sure that if we were shooting this film for 40 days we’d get one foggy day. Well, (we never got the fog). So the last day, in desperation, we tried to make the fog and we got the scene you see in the picture.
But it’s a very surreal park. with its levels, and in the 1940s many art films were staged there, so I don’t feel that bad about it. The important thing was the idea of him trying to reach out: The notion of a man who’s totally private, who has never even told anyone his phone number or anything about himself, running after this woman and saying, ‘I was born in 1939 and I weigh 182 Ibs. and I do this, and ... ’ To give so much information, like overkill, I thought would be pathetic.
Brian De Palma: And this scene originally came at the end of the movie?
Francis Ford Coppola: Yes, but we had such a botch-up with the fog – the fog was too extreme because we manufactured it to block out the blue sky – that we were even going to cut it out totally. But I didn’t want to lose him finally voicing something about himself, so then one of the editors came up with the idea of moving it up earlier and we liked it so we left it there.
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