The story of a surveillance expert facing a moral dilemma, The Conversation is considered the finest of the four great paranoia thrillers of the 1970s alongside All the President’s Men, The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. Ironically, it came to be seen as a lesser Coppola work, being overshadowed by The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.

The film examines the role of technology in society and the nature of personal responsibility. It was, coincidentally, being made as the Watergate surveillance scandal was breaking, and was released a few months before President Nixon resigned.

Gene Hackman said that it is the favourite of all the films he made as an actor. His character, the guilt-ridden Harry Caul, was inspired by surveillance expert Martin Kaiser, who acted as a technical consultant to the film. Coppola has cited Antonioni’s Blow-Up and Hitchcock’s Psycho as influences.

The Conversation won the Cannes Palme d’Or and was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but lost out to Coppola’s other nominated film, The Godfather Part II. Both films feature John Cazale and Robert Duvall in supporting roles.

“An immaculate thriller, a study in paranoia and loneliness … features one of Gene Hackman’s greatest performances” Philip French, The Observer.

“Works on a moral level and also as a taut, intelligent thriller … Comes from another time and place than today’s thrillers, which are so often simple-minded” Roger Ebert, The Great Movies.