alr

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. 

Part of film series

Read more

100 Years of Paramount Pictures

Other film series with this film

Read more

Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive: Actors E–J

Read more

Furious and Furiouser

Read more

From the HFA Collection...

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy