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The Conversation

Screening on Film
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola .
With Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield .
US, 1974, 35mm, color, 113 min.
Print source: American Zoetrope

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation hit a deep social nerve in the proto-technological Watergate era, when political intrigue, taped conversations, and concern with surveillance loomed large in the public consciousness. Gene Hackman delivers a brilliant performance as a pathologically private wiretapper who – despite his detached disposition – is preoccupied with a previous assignment that ended in murder. On a new case, he gradually extracts the words of a conversation from the dense background noise, yet their meaning only grows more elusive and ominous, ultimately compelling him to intervene. 

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