The Conversation

Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, an expert surveillance man, who during a routine wire-tapping job hears snatches of conversation which make him believe a young couple is in danger. The more Harry tries to discover the secret surrounding the couple, the more he descends into a nightmare of secrecy, betrayal and murder, all taking place amidst a world of moral ambivalence. Influenced by the Watergate scandals of the early 1970’s, “The Conversation” is a tense and excellently edited suspense thriller. It is also Coppola’s most anguished and personal film.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

production company

Zoetrope Studios

Paramount Pictures

producer/director

Francis Ford Coppola

Duration

01:49:00:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1974

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

303182

Language

English

Audience classification

MA

Subject categories

Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers

Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Detective and mystery films

Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Film noir

Feature films

Feature films → Feature films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q1009788

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/82048--the-conversation/ |title=The Conversation |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=24 September 2022 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United States, 1974