The Conversation (12A)

★★★★★ In this small masterpiece from director Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman gives a superb performance as the lonely surveillance expert tracking the movements and voices of Frederic Forrest and Cindy Williams, only to find that the marital infidelity he supposes he is observing could be part of a murder plot. ~ Radio Times.

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Director Francis Ford Coppola provides Gene Hackman with one of his most emblematic roles as a secretive surveillance expert who has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.

The 1974 film deftly filters America’s paranoia through the anxiety of an individual who knows exactly what is going on.

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★★★★★ A fantastic reminder of why 70s Hollywood is so often the benchmark for modern moviedom to aspire to. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ Though it was commercially lost in the shuffle between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, The Conversation ranks among the finest films of Francis Ford Coppola's career. ~ AllMovie.

★★★★★ Overshadowed by The Godfather Part II, which also came out in 1974, this deeply unsettling character portrait has one of the bleakest twists in paranoia thriller history. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ In contrast to the breadth of Coppola's mob sagas, "The Conversation" is an intricate and unsettlingly subtle character study, with a very strong performance from Hackman. ~ BBC.

Coppola's cerebral classic of paranoia and surveillance still looks outstanding, and more relevant than ever in the age of CCTV. ~ The Guardian.