Give me specific examples of great conversations?

October 5, 2012 8:58 AM

Conversation as art form? Can you show me specific instances, available free online in audio/video, of discussions which go beyond the ploddingly serious back-and-forth or airy jokiness or superficiality of a typical interview or panel or debate? I'm looking for masterful demonstrations of how the conversational form can uniquely educate, entertain, provoke honesty, and even reveal new truths.

If you're going to mention podcasts or the like, please point me to a particular episode rather than the show in general.

posted by shivohum to grab bag (18 answers total)

The film "My Dinner With Andre". It's up to you to find it for free online.
posted by thelonius at 9:07 AM on October 5, 2012 [6 favorites]

Socratic dialogue.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 9:26 AM on October 5, 2012

Mindwalk
posted by lois1950 at 9:30 AM on October 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Dick Cavett with Orson Welles. Dick Cavett with George Harrison. Google "Dick Cavett video" for more.
posted by beagle at 9:37 AM on October 5, 2012

The scene in HEAT when De Niro and Pacino talk over coffee.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 9:46 AM on October 5, 2012

I came in here to suggest "My Dinner With Andre", but I'll also toss in there "Before Sunrise" and its sequel, "Before Sunset", as two more films which are almost entirely conversational dialog.
posted by straw at 9:49 AM on October 5, 2012

Chinatown is the classic movie answer. It's the go-to film for screenwriting classes for this very reason, especially when you study writing at the "scene" level, as well as dialogue.

Casablanca is good for this, too.

Anything by Oscar Wilde would be a great example of prose fiction and theatre, though I think sometimes his dialogue is artful for its own sake and not quite as elegant (or maybe minimalist is the right term) as modern drama tends to be.
posted by Sara C. at 9:56 AM on October 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Coffee and Cigarettes. It's a series of vignettes in which the people involved have a conversation over....coffee and cigarettes. It was actually filmed in pieces (Jim Jarmusch filmed a couple of the vignettes as standalone short films before realizing "wait, I've kind of got a theme here"), and some of the vignettes are available online (the one with Iggy Pop and Tom Waits for one).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:30 AM on October 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the wonderful answers so far. In addition to the movies, does anyone have any unscripted examples?
posted by shivohum at 10:44 AM on October 5, 2012

Marc Maron's WTF interview with Mike DeStefano shortly before his death was amazing.
posted by any major dude at 10:51 AM on October 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

The film Ridicule is about the use of witty conversation as The means to rise and fall at the court of Versailles.
Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin round table are another (possibly too superficial) example.
posted by runincircles at 11:37 AM on October 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Trip, which I believe was largely improvised. (The scene I picked is a terrible example but so great that I couldn't resist.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:38 AM on October 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

Slacker, although many of the conversations are more like monologues, and many of them aren't things you'd want to emulate.

That was directed by Richard Linklater, who also directed the movie Waking Life, which would be another answer to your question if it were free online.

Seconding My Dinner with Andre and The Trip (they're very similar, although also very different).

There are some great examples on the website Bloggingheads.tv, but I'll have to take some more time to find specific episodes for you. Feel free to memail me to remind me to do this.
posted by John Cohen at 12:42 PM on October 5, 2012

One of the recurring scenes of Infinite Jest features two operatives from two opposing top-secret agencies/cells, this conversation happens in the Arizona desert and takes like a whole day (iirc) and touches on many differing topics (geopolitics, philosophy, entertainment) and continues where it left off and is itself like a chapter divided up by the other chapters in the story. It's the first thing I thought about when I read your question. I would second Coffee and Cigarettes as well. Cool question btw :)
posted by fantodstic at 5:58 PM on October 5, 2012

Oh my god I totally didn't read the question correctly. I apologize.
posted by fantodstic at 6:04 PM on October 5, 2012

Craig Ferguson's conversation with Stephen Fry on the Late Late Show. Just a conversation between two old friends who happen to be exceedingly clever and funny and generous and interesting. Yes, it's a chat show featuring two comedians but it's surprisingly non-superficial and non-jokey (though often funny).
posted by mskyle at 7:33 PM on October 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's been a long time since I watched it, but I remember loving the movie version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for this very kind of thing.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:44 AM on October 8, 2012

I know that this article doesn't answer your question but it is something that I found interesting when I first read it. I sent links to it to both of my sons. (I have no daughters or they would have gotten it also.) I think I will read it again now.
posted by snowjoe at 9:25 PM on October 8, 2012