The Central Theme Of Privacy And Surveillance In The Conversation

The Conversation directed by Francis Ford Coppola focuses on surveillance and privacy. The central character of Harry Caul works as a for-hire electronic surveillance expert who is compulsively concerned with his own privacy. This is evident in various points of the film, such as when Harry does not give anyone his telephone number and when the camera tilts along his doorway as he unlocks the multiple locks on his door. Sound plays a large role in this film, as it is extremely environmental and important to the films central storyline. The very first scene presents us with the conversation that is referred to in the title, which is a conversation that is replayed over and over again throughout the film. In the opening scene we see the camera looking down into a crowd of people and slowly zooming and following a couple as they speak to each other.
Harry is then revealed to be the ‘man behind the curtain’ and the film follows his story as he questions the morality of his work and deals with being haunted by his past. Sound is also used to shock the audience or convey emotion in this film, such as the jarring, shrill screeching sound that plays when Harry is watching the violent scene play out through the glass divider on the hotel balcony. The screeching sound is synchronized with the shaking of the bloody handprint on the glass and continues to play as Harry runs into his room horrified and filled with guilt because of what has happened. This is a case of parallelism, where the sound is trying to convey a sense of trauma such as being shown to the audience and Harry