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Problems with the sound dynamics in The Godfather II

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The Conversation fails people's expectations
Walter Murch Film-maker
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The film went on to win Best Picture at Cannes that year, and then it was released and unfortunately, did not do very well. People expected, because of Francis [Ford Coppola] and because of Gene Hackman, and because of what was very much in the news at that time, Watergate, they expected, 'Oh, this is going to be The Godfather meets French Connection meets Watergate.' And of course, it really isn't any of those things, and so there was a mismatch between people's expectations for a kind of violent, rough 'em up story. No, this about a man who is put into an agony of wondering, is something I did responsible for the death of somebody? Rather than those other films, in which people are killed without even thinking about them.

Born in 1943 in New York City, Murch graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. His career stretches back to 1969 and includes work on Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, The Conversation, and The English Patient. He has been referred to as 'the most respected film editor and sound designer in modern cinema.' In a career that spans over 40 years, Murch is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola, beginning in 1969 with The Rain People. After working with George Lucas on THX 1138 (1971), which he co-wrote, and American Graffiti (1973), Murch returned to Coppola in 1974 for The Conversation, resulting in his first Academy Award nomination. Murch's pioneering achievements were acknowledged by Coppola in his follow-up film, the 1979 Palme d'Or winner Apocalypse Now, for which Murch was granted, in what is seen as a film-history first, the screen credit 'Sound Designer.' Murch has been nominated for nine Academy Awards and has won three, for best sound on Apocalypse Now (for which he and his collaborators devised the now-standard 5.1 sound format), and achieving an unprecedented double when he won both Best Film Editing and Best Sound for his work on The English Patient. Murch’s contributions to film reconstruction include 2001's Apocalypse Now: Redux and the 1998 re-edit of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil. He is also the director and co-writer of Return to Oz (1985). In 1995, Murch published a book on film editing, In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing, in which he urges editors to prioritise emotion.

Listeners: Christopher Sykes

Christopher Sykes is an independent documentary producer who has made a number of films about science and scientists for BBC TV, Channel Four, and PBS.

Tags: The Conversation, The Godfather, French Connection

Duration: 1 minute, 3 seconds

Date story recorded: April 2016

Date story went live: 01 March 2017