Start the week with a film: Surveillance and paranoia in Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’

Director Francis Ford Coppola was at his professional peak in the 1970s, rolling a series of acclaimed films, including two of the three Godfather productions. The Conversation, which came out in 1974, the same year as The Godfather II, found Coppola competing with himself at the Oscars.

The Conversation also won the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honour (called the Grand Prix in those years, later the Palme d’Or). It’s not hard to see why the Cannes jury, led by French director Rene Clair, were swayed by Coppola’s European-style film about a surveillance expert who starts to question his work.

The Conversation can be rented on Prime Video. Meanwhile, the PVR Inox multiplex chain is re-releasing The Godfather trilogy. The Godfather will be out on September 12, followed by The Godfather Part II on October 17 and The Godfather Part III on November 14.

The Conversation stars Gene Hackman in one of his most well-regarded roles. Hackman plays Harry Caul, who is considered one of the best in his profession. Harry’s clients include governments and companies. He takes pride in his work, designing his own equipment and coming up with innovative ways to eavesdrop.

One assignment revolves around a pair of lovers. Harry and his colleagues, including Stanley (John Cazale), pick up snatches of the conversation between the man and the woman at a...

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