The Conversation (1974)

Paranoia and surveillance reign in Coppola's prescient, low-key masterwork.

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Cinematography by: Haskell Wexler & Bill Butler

Country: United States

Genre: Drama/Mystery/Thriller

Francis Ford Coppola was nothing short of a juggernaut in the 1970s; at the 1975 Academy Awards, he had TWO films - The Godfather 2 and The Conversation - nominated for Best Picture (The Godfather 2 would win). While this film isn’t an opus like The Godfather movies, or an odyssey like Apocalypse Now (1979), it features the same memorable characters, intensely detailed direction, and deeply layered, fatalistic writing that’s cemented the filmmaker as a legend of the cinema. The Conversation is another of my all-time favorite movies, and besides Coppola’s contributions, it’s cited as a masterclass in editing and sound design as well.

Coppola considers The Conversation to be his most personal work, and the movie is paranoid to the bone. With this tense psychological mystery-thriller, he crafted a mirror reflecting an extremely wary 1970s America following a decade of governmental cover-ups, conspiracies, and political assassinations; it’s also eerily prescient about surveillance in the 21st century.

The story follows surveillance expert Harry Caul, an obsessively secretive and solitary man haunted by his past. The movie opens with a slow, continuous zoom from above, as if a satellite is honing in on a target, as Caul and a few of his associates covertly photograph and record the conversation of a young couple walking through Union Square in San Francisco. Caul is renowned within his field, and we learn throughout the film that it’s rumored a job he pulled on the East Coast resulted in the deaths of three people, and is the reason he relocated out West.

Driven by the guilt of history repeating itself, Caul refuses to hand the surveillance tapes over to the shady, high-profile client who hired him, because after listening to the audio himself, Caul believes the couple are discussing a potential murder plot against them. From there Caul finds himself becoming more and more involved in the conspiracy, and enters a rapid, chaotic tailspin of paranoia and fear, for the lives of the young couple, as well as his own.

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures / Rialto Pictures / Lionsgate / StudioCanal