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While I’ve watched The Conversation many times, it was wonderful to see it on a big screen—the print was new and featured a stereo mix, created in 2000. In and of itself this would have been a real treat, but once the lights went up there was Walter ready to regal us with stories about the process of editing the film.

The central conceit is that The Conversation, which was made between The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II, wrapped with 10 days left to shoot. While this seemed a little strange to the 29-year old Walter Murch, who was cutting his first feature, he got on with the task at hand and began to shape what he had into a coherent film.

During the course of the evening we learnt about how a misreading of the key line, “He’d kill us if had the chance”, became the crux of the film and about a subplot that didn’t make the final cut, which revealed Harry Caul to be the negligent landlord of the building he lives in. Another subject Walter discussed was the coming of digital sound and how that had influenced the technology the characters worked with in the film. Some of the tales will appear familiar to those who have read the Ondaatje book, but when you hear them in person new details and insights are revealed.

My favourite story involved the revelation that the shot in which Harry discovers the tapes have been stolen from his studio was a late addition, filmed on the set of Chinatown (1974), with Gene Hackman’s stuntman brother, Richard. Apparently, if the camera had been able to pan across, we would have seen Polanski and Nicholson impatiently awaiting the return of their camera!

I also rather enjoyed hearing that while Walter worked on both the new cuts of Touch of Evil (1998) and Apocalypse Now: Redux (2001), he does not hold much stock in George Luca’s “revisionist” tendencies. It was refreshing to hear him say that if you’re going to change it, you should at least make sure the original version is available.