What does the film tell us about sound technology? How is the
treatment of sounds different from the treatment of images? How do we
interpret what we hear, and is this different from the way in which we
interpret what we see?
Consider the film's themes of surveillance and paranoia. Who is
listening? Who is in control? What is the role of the corporation that
employs Harry, and whose offices he visits at several points in the
course of the film?
What drives Harry Caul? How would you describe his personality? What
are his relationships with other people like? Consider his obsessive
need for privacy, his professional ethics, his sense of guilt, his
childhood memories, his religious convictions, his love of jazz.
What actually happens in that room at the Jack Tar Hotel? Is Harry a
reliable witness? Do we accept the objectivity of what we see (in brief
glimpses) on screen, or do we read this as Harry's subjective fantasy?