THE CONVERSATION

THE CONVERSATION. Francis Ford Coppola, dir., prod. and script. USA: Directors Company [sic, no apostrophe] / Paramount, 1974. Gene Hackman, star.

Arguably the surveillance movie: Highly artistic mundane ("mainstream") film featuring Hackman as 1974 surveillance expert Harry Caul, who misunderstands the plot he has uncovered and is driven over the edge by his conscience and himself becoming the object of surveillance. See for its downscale descendant, ENEMY OF THE STATE. (RDE, 19/12/98)