The Conversation (12A)

1974 USA
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

We have one of our occasional re-mastered anniversary films next week. This film, re-released and restored in 4K for its 50th anniversary, is arguably more relevant now than it was in the 70s when mass surveillance was in its relative infancy. A taut psychological thriller in which a secretive surveillance expert (Gene Hackman with lots of cutting-edge analogue equipment of the time) has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered. Said to be a passion project for American New Wave director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) it reflected the paranoia in American society at the time. It was nominated for an OSCAR and won awards at the BAFTAs and Cannes in 1975. A classic of American cinema and not to be missed.