Posted at May 21, 2020
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‘The Conversation’ Critique

In 1974’s ‘The Conversation’ we are introduced to Harry Caul who is a surveillance operator and technician, who wants nothing more than to have a quiet solace in life and privacy. One scene that particularly utilized sound and filmmaking visuals was when Caul was in the hotel room and after opening the blinds sees somebody’s bloody hands scraping over the window. The soundtrack turns into a loud shriek of music that makes the blood curdle and the heart pound intensely. 

What really touched me about this sequence was the fact that it was a man taking pride in bugging a room to listen into someone else’s conversation, which makes it eerily creepy. This whole scene stood out profusely for me for its scary and profound elements that were contained inside of the scene.

The way that this scene was set-up was brilliant. The director made the executive decision to eliminate the music in this part of the film and focus solely on the bloody hand until the audience came to a great shock of terror at the end when what is revealed is revealed. The lack of diegetic sounds just made the non-diegetic music even more impressive to behold and frightening to listen to after the audience hears what they hear. 

This helps to set the mood of an obvious scare and being in a frightening manner thus putting the audience on the edge of their seats. 

With that being said, musical soundtrack can set the tone and/or mood of the film or project with a multitude of ways: The tempo, chords, loudness and even progression. Even cutting out the music in the sequence that I talk about previously is something that can help progress the film all on its own. 

The score can be used to enhance and/or add to the film that is already being seen on the screen. It is not used to detract or distract from the rest of the film. Omitting the music can be a very strong choice in crafting a perfect scene. It shows confidence in the film being shown that it doesn’t need a background score to fit in perfectly and sometimes, it is a lot better if they didn’t have a background score. 

So, with that being said, the climax of the film was very effective for me because of its use of silence. The old saying “Quiet before the storm”, stands in this particular situation very well. 

The theme of this film is spying and stalking and throughout the course of the film, the audience does not hear that much of a discernible score and with that, it makes the jump scare score all the more incredible to listen to and be shocked about. The film deals with its storytelling themes well as it talks about a quiet man who is a surveillance expert. So it makes sense that the score would be really quiet for most of the run of the film. For me, I thought that the film was very slow except for the jump scare theme because it seems to drag along. However, it does hold relevance in the privacy and security of national terrorism. 

 

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