A SAMPLE FILM ANALYSIS SHEET

FILM TITLE: The Conversation

DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola

WRITER: Francis Ford Coppola

YEAR: 1974

1. NARRATIVE FORM

Here we have the opening scene with Harry who is a private investigator. We see and hear the conversation being taken upon 2 individuals where we finally hear, “He’d kill us if he had the chance”. This sets up the plot for us to watch who would kill them and why. The turning point is when we find out who Harry is hired by, “The Director” who wants the relationship broken up because the women is his wife. The conclusion is when we find out that Harry wasn’t actually handing the tapes to the Director in order to kill his wife, but in the end, the wife has actually killed him.

2. FILM STYLE – MISE EN SCENE

SETTING/LOCATION, SETS AND PROPS:
The intensity of the muffled voices, when trying to understand the recordings, the loud music throughout, the constant sound, the rewinding of tapes makes the sound and image of the film intense. Simply had an eerie effect on the viewer and made you think someone can always be listening or watching you. The part where Harry is pressing buttons trying to figure out the tapes gives us the meaning that this is his life, he dedicated private investigation. It also shows a great deal of importance to him. The scary fact that all this work goes into this project to such accuracy makes us think of this “Big Brother World”.

Harrys house shows an important “prop” because it is so technical and high scale it just adds to the intensity of private investigation.

COSTUME AND MAKE-UP:
There really wasn’t too much that drew my attention except at the end of the film where Harry was so sweaty from ripping up his whole entire apartment it showed how paranoid he was and scared.


LIGHTING AND COLOR:
The constant blood that Harry thought he was seeing and the color of a hotel room that is sketchy really added to the paranoia of Harrys mind.

STAGING AND PERFORMANCE:

The performance of the struggle that Harry has trying to over-power the Director when he physically can not shows Harry as weak and a subordinate. He thinks the Director is a bad person and Harry indirectly lead him to kill his wife making Harry somewhat responsible. He is angry and wants to get to him, but can not and leaves him distress. This shows that although Harry has high technical equipment, he is not immortal.

3. FILM STYLE - CINEMATOGRAPHY

CAMERA ANGLES, FRAMING AND LENGTH OF SHOTS
The zooming in on the conversation and walking around the park with the lengthy scene of the couple in the park shows how important this conversation was and the basis of the film.

4. FILM STYLE-EDITING TECHNIQUES

The intensity effect of shots of “murder” of the Directors wife dying was scary and extremeness of the quick shots of someone being murdered or the screen being splashed with blood definitely showed the intense plot of the film.

5. FILM STYLE-USE OF SOUND (EFFECTS, DIALOGUE, SCORE, ETC.)

When Harry was rewinding the tapes it was very intense. The slamming on the button, the noise of the tape showed how important and intense it was. It was loud, it was with authority and looked difficult to do. Harry had a job to do and he did it effectively.

6. USE OF GENRE/GENRES AND AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS
I would say this is a drama thriller. As the audience we expect an intense plot with a twist at the end. It kept us wanting to watch more and found out what was going to happen to the Director, to Harry, or to that couple. It draws us from the very beginning and the saying of “He’d kill us if he got the chance”. We want to know what that is and what it meant.