Perceptions and questions

I chose this clip against all the others because there seemed, at first glance, to be less meaning in the events in this video and I felt it would pose more of a challenge to me. There is in fact just as much meaning in this as in the others, and it’s this subtlety that convinced me to pick The Conversation as my subject.

The sequence, a little over three minutes long, is shot at an extremely long range, slowly moving in onto a San Francisco park, where dozens of people gather around a street-performing mime. The mime follows and mimics people walking through, including dogs. Gene Hackman’s character is introduced roughly two minutes and twenty seconds into the scene, where the mime mimics and follows Hackman as he tries to move away from the mime. Upbeat band music can be heard throughout a large part of the video, intermittently interrupted by what seems to be electronic interference.

1. What is the purpose behind the chosen angle?
2. What is the meaning of the mime? Is there a meaning at all?
3. Why does Gene Hackman’s character try to avoid the mime? Is it deeper than mere annoyance?
4. Why a San Francisco park?
5. What is the interference and does it have a meaning?

These are the questions I will open my research with.

Title scene of Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’.

The Conversation.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and released in 1974 by American Zoetrope and Paramount.

Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlwdpNw1FW8&feature=player_embedded [accessed on 29th September 2010]