December 4: The Conversation

The Conversation

One of the great American films of the 1970s, Francis Ford Coppola’s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece was released the same year as his The Godfather Part II.

Lonely wiretapping expert and devout Catholic Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is hired to record a seemingly innocuous conversation between two lovers in San Francisco’s Union Square. Upon re-hearing the tapes, however, Caul believes he may be putting the couple in danger if he turns the material over to his client (Robert Duvall). But what one hears can ultimately turn out to be quite different from what was actually recorded. (Rialto Pictures)

“AN IMMACULATE THRILLER, a study in paranoia and loneliness, partly inspired by Antonioni’s Blow-Up, and released as the Watergate scandal was unfolding, [with] one of Gene Hackman’s greatest performances.” – Philip French, The Guardian