The Conversation
Classic paranoia thriller from Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather) starring Gene Hackman as an eavesdropping expert who is so obsessed with privacy and security that it heralds his own downfall.
Harry Caul is the best-known surveillance specialist in the business; paranoid, and antisocial, he lives a solitary, guarded life. When a mysterious client and his assistant ask him to spy on a young couple in a San Francisco square, Caul accepts this job. But something feels off about the conversation between those two people, and he begins to suspect they may be involved in a murder plot.
Previously neutral about the ethics of his profession, Caul must decide whether to pursue his suspicions; as he does so, this professional eavesdropper and intensely private man finds his own privacy being violated.
What is most appealing about The Conversation – both then and now – is the way it combines a character study with a thriller plot and, above all, how it conveys the unease of a society in which overall control, including through bugging with ever-improving technology, is beginning to become the norm. A dark and brilliant film.
Winner of the Golden Palm at Cannes and nominated for three Oscars, including the one for best film – incidentally, won by The Godfather Part II, also by Coppola.