PG | 1h 53min | Drama, Crime, Mystery, Thriller | 7 April 1974 (USA)
Produced and released in between the first two installments of “The Godfather,” director Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” is arguably one of his finest efforts and easily his most overlooked and underappreciated.
Although lacking the epic sweep and operatic grandeur of the movies that bookended it, “The Conversation” more than makes up for it with spare, assured, and measured storytelling, supreme character development, and the finest overall solo screenwriting of Mr. Coppola’s storied career.
Repeat and Repeat Again
The movie opens with an aerial shot of Union Square in San Francisco which, at the time, was an oval-shaped walking area surrounded inside and out with park benches. As the camera creeps oh so slowly downward, we are also shown juxtaposing perspectives from different locations and start to hear a fractured conversation between Ann (Cindy Williams) and Mark (Frederic Forrest)….