A classic

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, it’s too bad that this rewatch was on the BBC without subtitles and I think I will rewatch it again at some point with some subtitles to get a better grip on the damned thing. Anyway, even though it is less showy than some others of his classics, it is apparently Francis Ford Coppola's personal favorite of his movies. Eventually, the only reason this movie seems to fly a bit under the radar was probably due the fact that Coppola was really on fire in the 70’s and all his movies turned out to be some massive masterpieces (‘The Godfather’, ‘The Godfather: Part II’, ‘Apocalypse Now’). Anyway, the whole thing was a raw and realistic feature, so much more spellbinding than the modern thrillers that we get nowadays. It is also a nice companion piece for ‘Blow-Up’, another of my favorite thrillers, replacing the image with sound this time around. What was also so cool with this movie was the main character, Harry Caul, thanks to Gene Hackman who delivered here a career-best performance. Indeed, Caul might be great at his job but the rest of his life was actually pretty pathetic (Hackman actually did struggle at the time to play someone so remote from his own personality). While rewatching the damned thing, I was surprised to find out that this whole surveillance operation was not linked to some kind of secret government black ops or something but, apparently, it was some rather basic investigation on some mondain infidelity. That’s also the cool thing, at the end, Caul was so wrapped up in his paranoia that we are not sure anymore what was it all about and what the hell actually happened after all. Anyway, to conclude, it is simply one of the best thrillers ever made and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Francis Ford Coppola's work.