Remarkable movies often grab viewers' attention from the get-go and provide a compelling hook that entices them into the story from the very beginning shot. With Michael Haneke’s Caché (2005) and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), viewers are introduced to two of the most eyes-opening and mind-bending psychological thrillers of the film industry. Though both movies maintain an admirable balance between content and aesthetics, serving as an in-depth exploration into the concept of surveillance, their opening scenes differ significantly in the emphasis of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound design elements. This paper will examine how both the opening shots in Caché and The Conversation establish the fundamental framework through which the viewer perceives the rest of the masterpieces, yet they are different in affirming a mysterious atmosphere, which portrays the elements of film technique and further contributes to the deeper meaning of the movies.
Both Caché and The Conversation possess a nontraditional beginning, which grounds the viewers in the protagonist’s observation and sets up the stage for the movies’ theme of surveillance. Caché opens with a static shot of the exterior of Georges Laurent’s house as he walks over to his car during an early morning. Nevertheless, not until the next shot comes up does the viewer realize that he is watching, along with the characters, a videotape sequence. With just a single image, Haneke brilliantly places the characters’ life under surveillance and engages the viewer with Cache on a conscious, rational perspective rather than a subconscious, emotional one. As Cache utilizes restricted narration, the viewer’s knowledge is limited by the characters’ point of view. When Georges wonders “How did I manage to miss this guy? I can’t figure it out.”, Anne replies, “Maybe the camera was in the car.” With these assumptions in mind, Haneke puts the viewer on a journey of surveillance to experience as much as the characters; the viewer is able to watch these cassettes entering the movie impossibly and disrupting the story in a philosophical level. Likewise, in The Conversation, the viewer “listens to” the opening scene—a conversation between a woman and a man in busy Union Square in San Francisco. The movie employs remarkable photographic techniques so as to give the viewer an illusion of watching the scene as through optical surveillance devices. The viewer observes the couple—Ann and Mark—walking through the public square over the shoulders of several forefront pedestrians. These techniques put the viewer into the Harry Caul’s state of mind and create an impression that the viewer is spying on the couple himself. The camera functions like a surveillance device, engaging the viewer with the mystery and tension of The Conversation’s plot. Furthermore, as the movie’s screenplay was written in the 60s amid the Watergate scandal, The Conversation serves as an iconic representation of surveillance and the political repercussion of a society in which people are put under surveillance and their privacy is being threatened at all times. Without doubt, through two unforgettable opening scenes, both Michael Haneke’s Caché and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation successfully pushes viewers to think critically and acknowledge cinema as a means of seeing the truth and the art of surveillance.
Through mise-en-scene, Caché develops an atmosphere of a contemporary setting, while The Conversation creates a more vibrant and upbeat environment. Caché begins with a long take that extends over two minutes, overlooking a narrow urban street and centering on a house somewhere in Paris, France. Employing different elements of mise-en-scene, Haneke challenges viewers in their power of observation and makes them aware of their status in front of the camera. Just as the hidden observer is watching the Laurent family inside the screen world, the viewer is watching Georges and Anne outside of the screen world. On a superficial level, the viewer is looking at a simple videotape; but it is in watching the videotape that prompts other upcoming events that intensify throughout the film until the ambiguous and mysterious ending. On the contrary, The Conversation impresses viewers with a vigorous environment in San Francisco, a crowded public place in which Harry Caul is conducting his surveillance work. The public square is apparently anonymous, with people surrounding while Anna and Mark are walking together, but little do they realize they are being taped. Even though the environment appears to be busy, this open space makes the couple more vulnerable and exposed. As a consequence, mise-en-scene plays an essential role in both Caché and The Conversation, ultimately contributing dramatic effects and meaning to the movies’ narrative.
Another film technique that shapes the viewer’s impression of movies from the first shot is the art of cinematography, which succeeds in both Caché and The Conversation with an astonishing distortion of the cinematic lens. Caché’s beginning scene, a typical long zoom shot, captures an ordinary street as the camera frame centers on a house with nothing significant passing by. All of a sudden, the film credits appear horizontally as though someone is typing on the screen. Then, not until the image rewinds does the viewer know that he is watching a video recording. The stationary framing and surveillance-like positioning of the image signalize the subsequent recordings that will come up in later scenes. However, as the film continues, the viewer faces the impossibility of differentiating the video recordings from the movie itself. As viewers concentrate on the scene and expects the frame to end at any moment, it just lasts for much longer, intriguing their curiosity and patience. Likewise, The Conversation begins with an astonishing three-minute long take: the camera starts with a wide angle on the square, where the enigmatic conversation takes place. The camera lens slowly zooms in on the square and later in on a mime, which highlights the auditory disconnect from the visual in the film. When the camera lies at the top of the shot, the noise of the square sounds distant; but as the camera pushes in, the sound becomes more audible and crunchy. This camera position’s main purpose is to draw the viewer into the movie through the auditory perspective of the surveillance expert, Harry Caul. As a result, the cinematography in both Caché and The Conversation’s opening scenes leaves a lasting impression on the viewer and their understanding of the film as a powerful medium.
Furthermore, Caché and The Conversation serves as faultless examples of movies whose editing and sound mixing are used to perfection. In Caché’s opening scene, the sound volume is relatively low, especially in the static shots of the house; yet when the scene changes to the couple’s conversation in the room, this low volume gradually increases to a higher level. Haneke also uses minimalistic editing techniques to develop his narrative while still restricting the information given to the viewer. Instead of explicitly displaying to the viewer what he wants to see, Haneke utilizes subtle editing techniques to alter how the viewer watches Caché, forcing the viewer to delve deeper into the story to solve the puzzle and gather different pieces together into a concise narration. In this way, the viewer is like a detective himself, spying in on the story of the movie to gain more knowledge than what he already knows. Similarly, the editing technique of The Conversation demonstrates Harry Caul’s characteristic and how he uses his machinery to analyze what he hears. In the opening scene, when the viewer hears Harry’s co-worker, Stan’s voice for the first time, the shot is taken from Harry’s point of view; thus it seems like Harry has been interrupted while concentrating on his work. Moreover, The Conversation’s sound design also reaches the movie’s exceptional balance between a psychological thriller and an in-depth character study. In the opening scene, in order to find out what Mark and Ann are talking about, Harry Caul investigates multiple overlapping dialogues, on-location sound, and abstract noise. Consequently, he hears a piece of the conversation that leads him to a belief that the couple is in danger: “He would kill us if he had a chance.” The sentence itself makes him torn between his moral dilemma and occupational hazards, and the repetition of this sentence throughout the movie sheds light on the theme of paranoia. Undoubtedly, The Conversation’s opening scene has become one of the most revolutionary scenes in film history in terms of sound mixing. In summation, the combination of editing and sound design creates a magnificent effect in both Caché and The Conversation, ultimately demonstrating the influence of film techniques on what the viewer sees and hears.
In conclusion, in movies that focus on the art of surveillance like Michael Haneke’s Caché and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, the manipulation of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound design elements plays a vital role in shaping the opening scenes through the lens of a videotape, which gives viewers an unusual yet refreshing way in approaching these two masterpieces.
Works Cited
Cache. Haneke, Michael. France 3 Cinéma. Canal. Bavaria Film. Wega Film. 2005.
The Conversation. Ford Coppola, Francis. The Directors Company. The Coppola Company. American Zoetrope. 1974.