With six decades of acting under his belt, Harrison Ford has made works that have run the gamut of critical responses. On Rotten Tomatoes, his most critically acclaimed role is listed as the "Apocalypse Now" making-of documentary "Hearts of Darkness," a film in which he ironically doesn't actually speak or appear but which nonetheless earned universal acclaim from the review-tabulating site. His lowest-rated film? An already-forgotten 2013 thriller called "Paranoia," which just 7% of critics included on the aggregation site wrote positively about.
Many of Ford's most entertaining films lie somewhere in the middle of that wide range; they're crowd-pleasing blockbusters and cult favorites with some endearing -- and in the best cases, now legendary -- imperfections. Ask fans what their favorite Ford-starring films are and you'll get a smorgasbord of answers that fit in this category, from "Star Wars" to "Indiana Jones" to "Blade Runner" to "The Fugitive." When it...
Many of Ford's most entertaining films lie somewhere in the middle of that wide range; they're crowd-pleasing blockbusters and cult favorites with some endearing -- and in the best cases, now legendary -- imperfections. Ask fans what their favorite Ford-starring films are and you'll get a smorgasbord of answers that fit in this category, from "Star Wars" to "Indiana Jones" to "Blade Runner" to "The Fugitive." When it...
- 5/5/2024
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 classic The Conversation is 50 years old – and is coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray…
It’s a terrific movie trivia question: at the 1975 Academy Awards, Francis Ford Coppola had two films nominated for Best Picture. The one that people tend to know is The Godfather Part II, which took home the Oscar. The one that might even be better than that is the paranoid thriller The Conversation, that’s very much a candidate for being Coppola’s best film.
It stars Gene Hackman, and the Cannes Palme D’Or winner is now celebrating its 50th birthday. As part of that celebration, it’s coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for the very first time.
Set for release on 15th July, you can find more information on the release, and order a copy, right here.
Initially, the movie will be available in an impressive-looking collectors’ set, with two discs in the box,...
It’s a terrific movie trivia question: at the 1975 Academy Awards, Francis Ford Coppola had two films nominated for Best Picture. The one that people tend to know is The Godfather Part II, which took home the Oscar. The one that might even be better than that is the paranoid thriller The Conversation, that’s very much a candidate for being Coppola’s best film.
It stars Gene Hackman, and the Cannes Palme D’Or winner is now celebrating its 50th birthday. As part of that celebration, it’s coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for the very first time.
Set for release on 15th July, you can find more information on the release, and order a copy, right here.
Initially, the movie will be available in an impressive-looking collectors’ set, with two discs in the box,...
- 5/3/2024
- by Simon Brew
- Film Stories
"Don't get involved in this, Mr. Caul." Don't get involved in what?! Who is after him?! Studiocanal UK has revealed a new re-release trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, for its 50th anniversary this year. The film initially opened in 1974 and premiered at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, meaning he is back again premiering his newest film (Megalopolis) at Cannes 2024 a full 50 years later. "To mark the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal neo-noir thriller, The Conversation, we are is thrilled to announce a brand-new 4K restoration of the film to UK cinemas on July 5th." This paranoia masterpiece stars Gene Hackman as sound surveillance expert Harry Caul, who hears something while taping a couple. A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered. The ensemble cast also includes John Cazale, Allen Garfield,...
- 5/2/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Two years after he leapt to the forefront of the New Hollywood with The Godfather, and just months before he picked up the threads of that operatic crime saga with the magnificent sequel/prequel The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola released a quiet movie, one in which sound itself — and, more specifically, its surreptitious recording — is the narrative engine. Arriving during a particularly fertile era for American film, The Conversation was not a hit, but it is one of the period’s most subtle and shattering features. Half a century later, it resounds as hauntingly as ever, not merely as a cautionary tale but as a searing portrait of where we are now.
The movie took its New York bow on Coppola’s 35th birthday, April 7, 1974, a few weeks before its Palme d’Or triumph in Cannes. Today the octogenarian writer-director is again preparing to compete on the Croisette,...
The movie took its New York bow on Coppola’s 35th birthday, April 7, 1974, a few weeks before its Palme d’Or triumph in Cannes. Today the octogenarian writer-director is again preparing to compete on the Croisette,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There was perhaps no movie director more in demand in the 1970s than Francis Ford Coppola, who was leading the New Hollywood film movement with epics like “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979). But fewer viewers remember his quiet neo-noir drama “The Conversation,” a complete turnaround in production scale and arguably his only intimate, simple dramatic film. While it was not as financially successful as the previously aforementioned grander classics, the mystery thriller was just as acclaimed and lauded, earning three Oscar nominations and winning the Palme d’Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Now on its 50th anniversary, let’s look back at one of Coppola’s overlooked films, “The Conversation,” which was released on April 7, 1974.
The picture stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a top surveillance expert who stumbles upon an ambiguous comment – that may lead to a potential murder – while recording for one of...
The picture stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a top surveillance expert who stumbles upon an ambiguous comment – that may lead to a potential murder – while recording for one of...
- 4/9/2024
- by Christopher Tsang
- Gold Derby
Until recently, if one were asked to name some of the best films of preeminent 1970s filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, it would be easy to pick the big hits. “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979) are definitely his most iconic and respected films. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a person aged 25-50 who isn’t keenly aware of his adaption of S.E. Hinton’s mandatory high school assigned “The Outsiders” (1983) or his classics “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) and maybe even “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988). Yet lately, Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) has entered the chat as a somewhat under the radar, low-key masterpiece from the filmmaker, and this year the film celebrates its 50th birthday.
After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...
After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...
- 4/8/2024
- by Don Lewis
- Indiewire
The 1974 suspense thriller smartly predicted the increasing importance of technology and lack of privacy in our lives
In the 50 years since Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation was released in theaters, the evolution of technology and the devolution of political culture have combined to make it seem both prescient and quaint. The film’s hero, Harry Caul, fears the future his job as a professional wiretapper helps to create, one in which surveillance threatens to encroach on everyday life and anti-government paranoia runs so rampant that truth seem as graspable as sand through your fingers. What would Harry make of a world where small cameras are ubiquitous in public spaces and people voluntarily give away information about themselves on social media or ice cream apps?
Consider Harry’s 44th birthday, which he celebrates by changing his mailing address to a Po Box and breaking up with a sometime girlfriend he...
In the 50 years since Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation was released in theaters, the evolution of technology and the devolution of political culture have combined to make it seem both prescient and quaint. The film’s hero, Harry Caul, fears the future his job as a professional wiretapper helps to create, one in which surveillance threatens to encroach on everyday life and anti-government paranoia runs so rampant that truth seem as graspable as sand through your fingers. What would Harry make of a world where small cameras are ubiquitous in public spaces and people voluntarily give away information about themselves on social media or ice cream apps?
Consider Harry’s 44th birthday, which he celebrates by changing his mailing address to a Po Box and breaking up with a sometime girlfriend he...
- 4/7/2024
- by Scott Tobias
- The Guardian - Film News
Superhero movies were nearing their maximalist peak in 2017 — "Avengers: Infinity War" was a year away, while the DC Extended Universe was self-destructively racing toward "Justice League" without a roadmap or significant audience buy-in — when James Mangold quietly, confidently subverted the genre with "Logan." There had been attempts at revisionist superhero films before, but they were mostly based on/influenced by explicitly revisionist graphic novels (e.g. Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" and Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy). Josh Trank's "Chronicle" was probably the boldest of the bunch, but that was a top-to-bottom original.
Mangold's "Logan" was different. It used Hugh Jackman, the man who'd been playing Wolverine for 17 years, to tell an X-Men tale that branched out from the film franchise's narrative to depict a Logan in physical decline. Nothing lasts forever — not even, apparently, Wolverine's mutant healing process. He is in unremitting pain, and each altercation plunges him deeper into agony.
Mangold's "Logan" was different. It used Hugh Jackman, the man who'd been playing Wolverine for 17 years, to tell an X-Men tale that branched out from the film franchise's narrative to depict a Logan in physical decline. Nothing lasts forever — not even, apparently, Wolverine's mutant healing process. He is in unremitting pain, and each altercation plunges him deeper into agony.
- 4/7/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" is his masterpiece in between masterpieces. The legendary filmmaker wrapped principal photography in late February 1973, just one month before he would win the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for "The Godfather" (Albert Ruddy took home the Best Picture Oscar as the mafia classic's producer). Had Paramount released the film that year, it almost certainly would've received nominations for Best Picture and Director (over the wholly forgotten "A Touch of Class"), giving Coppola three consecutive nods in the latter category, a feat only accomplished once in Academy Awards history (by William Wyler). Instead, he wound up competing against himself a year later, when he added three more Oscars to his trophy case with "The Godfather Part II."
While "The Godfather" movies placed him atop Hollywood's director A-list for the rest of the decade, some cinephiles believe "The Conversation" is the superior film. The...
While "The Godfather" movies placed him atop Hollywood's director A-list for the rest of the decade, some cinephiles believe "The Conversation" is the superior film. The...
- 3/24/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Francis Ford Coppola‘s 1974 masterpiece “The Conversation” will be remade as a TV series, with “Margin Call” and “All Is Lost” filmmaker J.C. Chandor attached to both write and direct the series, IndieWire has confirmed.
Chandor will direct via his CounterNarrative Films banner alongside Temple Hill, producer Adam Fishbach, and executive produced by Coppola’s American Zoetrope. Erin Levy, known for her work on “Mad Men” and “Mindhunter,” will be the showrunner on “The Conversation” remake.
MRC is the studio behind the series, and the company optioned the TV remake rights directly from the Coppola estate.
Despite a rumor that Aubrey Plaza was attached to star, no cast is involved at this stage, as a source close to the project tells IndieWire. Other media reports suggested it would be a limited series and that it was set up at a network, but it is being envisioned as an ongoing series,...
Chandor will direct via his CounterNarrative Films banner alongside Temple Hill, producer Adam Fishbach, and executive produced by Coppola’s American Zoetrope. Erin Levy, known for her work on “Mad Men” and “Mindhunter,” will be the showrunner on “The Conversation” remake.
MRC is the studio behind the series, and the company optioned the TV remake rights directly from the Coppola estate.
Despite a rumor that Aubrey Plaza was attached to star, no cast is involved at this stage, as a source close to the project tells IndieWire. Other media reports suggested it would be a limited series and that it was set up at a network, but it is being envisioned as an ongoing series,...
- 2/2/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
The Conversation
The Conversation, 11.15pm, BBC2, Monday, November 13
Francis Ford Coppola was enjoying a purple patch when he made this gripping psychological thriller between his Oscar-winning Godfathers - and it’s worth remembering that in addition to winning the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 1975 for Godfather II, he was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay for this, losing out to Chinatown. The Conversation’s subject of surveillance is ever-green, while its anti-hero Harry Caul is also one for the ages. From the opening slow zoom sequence on the conversation of the title to the sound design from Walter Murch and the jazz-inflected score from David Shire, the craft is classy all round. Look out for Harrison Ford in an early role as a slimeball and a small and uncredited but...
The Conversation, 11.15pm, BBC2, Monday, November 13
Francis Ford Coppola was enjoying a purple patch when he made this gripping psychological thriller between his Oscar-winning Godfathers - and it’s worth remembering that in addition to winning the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 1975 for Godfather II, he was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay for this, losing out to Chinatown. The Conversation’s subject of surveillance is ever-green, while its anti-hero Harry Caul is also one for the ages. From the opening slow zoom sequence on the conversation of the title to the sound design from Walter Murch and the jazz-inflected score from David Shire, the craft is classy all round. Look out for Harrison Ford in an early role as a slimeball and a small and uncredited but...
- 11/13/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Consummate character actor who came close to stardom in the 70s with roles in Apocalypse Now, The Conversation and The Rose
“He’d kill us if he got the chance.” Those words, spoken by a bespectacled, beige-suited young man (Frederic Forrest) as he wanders through Union Square in San Francisco with his lover (Cindy Williams), are secretly recorded by the surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) in The Conversation (1974). Their meaning, mulled over at length, becomes vital in unlocking the story’s mysteries. One of the key thrillers of its decade, Francis Ford Coppola’s film was also an eloquent expression of paranoia in a country reeling from Watergate.
Forrest, who has died aged 86, was the ideal actor to throw certainties into doubt. In The Conversation, he is bookish, furtive and opaque. The audience never becomes properly acquainted with him, though recordings of his voice and image are repeatedly offered...
“He’d kill us if he got the chance.” Those words, spoken by a bespectacled, beige-suited young man (Frederic Forrest) as he wanders through Union Square in San Francisco with his lover (Cindy Williams), are secretly recorded by the surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) in The Conversation (1974). Their meaning, mulled over at length, becomes vital in unlocking the story’s mysteries. One of the key thrillers of its decade, Francis Ford Coppola’s film was also an eloquent expression of paranoia in a country reeling from Watergate.
Forrest, who has died aged 86, was the ideal actor to throw certainties into doubt. In The Conversation, he is bookish, furtive and opaque. The audience never becomes properly acquainted with him, though recordings of his voice and image are repeatedly offered...
- 6/27/2023
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
We took Gene Hackman for granted, and he's making us pay for it.
Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.
Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...
Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.
Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...
- 4/14/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Harrison Ford's pre-"Star Wars" years were rough for the not-yet movie star. He'd failed to pop as a member of Columbia Pictures' archaic New Talent Program, and, when the work proved less than plentiful in the late 1960s and early 1970s, took up carpentry to take care of his young family. Ford looked like the real deal in a headshot, but, when he stepped in front of a camera, he seemed disinterested in dialing up that movie star wattage he so clearly possessed.
Check out his screen debut in 1966's "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round." All he has to do in the film is hand off a message to James Coburn. He briefly flashes that sly, million-dollar grin, but it vanishes the moment Coburn gives him the wrong name. He seems puzzled, wounded even, that Coburn's first name doesn't match up with that of the recipient's. In short,...
Check out his screen debut in 1966's "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round." All he has to do in the film is hand off a message to James Coburn. He briefly flashes that sly, million-dollar grin, but it vanishes the moment Coburn gives him the wrong name. He seems puzzled, wounded even, that Coburn's first name doesn't match up with that of the recipient's. In short,...
- 12/16/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
“We know that you know, Mr. Caul. For your own sake, don’t get involved any further. We’ll be listening to you.”
Francis Coppola’s The Conversation (1974) starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Cindy Williams, and Harrison Ford opens in St. Louis Friday March 11th at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater. For showtimes, check The Plaza Frontenac Cinema’s website Here.
Set against a claustrophobic backdrop of post-Watergate paranoia, Coppola’s favorite of his films hinges on the intonation of a single word. In The Conversation, Harry Caul is a devout Catholic and a lover of jazz music who plays his saxophone while listening to his jazz records. He is a San Francisco-based electronic surveillance expert who owns and operates his own small surveillance business. He is renowned within the profession as being the best, one who designs and constructs his own surveillance equipment. He is an intensely private and...
Francis Coppola’s The Conversation (1974) starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Cindy Williams, and Harrison Ford opens in St. Louis Friday March 11th at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater. For showtimes, check The Plaza Frontenac Cinema’s website Here.
Set against a claustrophobic backdrop of post-Watergate paranoia, Coppola’s favorite of his films hinges on the intonation of a single word. In The Conversation, Harry Caul is a devout Catholic and a lover of jazz music who plays his saxophone while listening to his jazz records. He is a San Francisco-based electronic surveillance expert who owns and operates his own small surveillance business. He is renowned within the profession as being the best, one who designs and constructs his own surveillance equipment. He is an intensely private and...
- 3/8/2022
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
by Nathaniel R
a wonderful 'establishing shot' not of a building but of a man (Gene Hackman), his targets (in photographs), and the tools of his trade.
Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) is nothing if not elusive. So many of the images in this paranoid mystery are obstructed. Coppola and the cinematographer Bill Butler are continually adjusting focus and searching for the subject and his targets. The protagonist, an 'unreliable narrator' type albeit without the narration, is Harry Caul and he's often hiding in the corner of frames, or with his back turned to us. The film begins with a full circle, as Harry is spying on a man and a woman as they walk around a city park. For what reason we do not yet know and might never know. Though we see his targets frequently, there are constant visual interruptions from trees and people and their own movements.
a wonderful 'establishing shot' not of a building but of a man (Gene Hackman), his targets (in photographs), and the tools of his trade.
Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) is nothing if not elusive. So many of the images in this paranoid mystery are obstructed. Coppola and the cinematographer Bill Butler are continually adjusting focus and searching for the subject and his targets. The protagonist, an 'unreliable narrator' type albeit without the narration, is Harry Caul and he's often hiding in the corner of frames, or with his back turned to us. The film begins with a full circle, as Harry is spying on a man and a woman as they walk around a city park. For what reason we do not yet know and might never know. Though we see his targets frequently, there are constant visual interruptions from trees and people and their own movements.
- 3/4/2022
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
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By Todd Garbarini
I have long considered Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation to be his greatest film. The story of a tortured sound recordist, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman in arguably his greatest screen performance), a man who is disturbed by the morality and ethics of his profession. He is secretly recording private citizens in exchange for payment from companies with a vested interest in doing so and whose actions have resulted in several deaths. The film was a long gestating project that came about during a 1967 discussion the director had with fellow director Irvin Kirshner about wiretapping and privacy intrusion. Following the instant success of the release of The Godfather in March 1972, Mr. Coppola was only given the green light to make The Conversation for Paramount Pictures after they begged him to direct The Godfather Part II. One month after the public announcement was made about Mr.
By Todd Garbarini
I have long considered Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation to be his greatest film. The story of a tortured sound recordist, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman in arguably his greatest screen performance), a man who is disturbed by the morality and ethics of his profession. He is secretly recording private citizens in exchange for payment from companies with a vested interest in doing so and whose actions have resulted in several deaths. The film was a long gestating project that came about during a 1967 discussion the director had with fellow director Irvin Kirshner about wiretapping and privacy intrusion. Following the instant success of the release of The Godfather in March 1972, Mr. Coppola was only given the green light to make The Conversation for Paramount Pictures after they begged him to direct The Godfather Part II. One month after the public announcement was made about Mr.
- 1/21/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
None of this is what Harry Caul wanted. While it was by no means a technically effortless endeavor, it should, still, have been another routine assignment. He and his freelance team of surveillance experts were to record the conversation between two subjects as they traversed the lunchtime crowd mingling around Union Square. Harry was to then assemble the recordings and deliver the tapes to his employer. That’s it. Then he’d move on. But this isn’t what happens in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974). Instead, as Coppola’s chief protagonists had done in the other films that distinguished the director’s extraordinary run of the 1970s,Harry finds himself reluctantly, though perhaps inevitably, enveloped in a world of intrigue and violence, and he endures the existential despair fundamentally resulting from his occupational options.Under The Conversation’s opening credits, an overhead shot of San Francisco’s social hub slowly zooms closer,...
- 1/11/2022
- MUBI
While we wait to see if his long-gestating Megalopolis sees the light of day as reported, those who want to see Francis Ford Coppola gems–both praised and overlooked–have recently had a field day. After restoring Tucker: The Man and His Dream, he reworked and restored both Apocalypse Now and The Cotton Club. He’s now returning to his Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece The Conversation, striking new 35mm prints for a nationwide tour beginning next month. In some locations, they’ll present a Dcp restoration remixed in Dolby 5.1 by sound designer Walter Murch.
In the film, the lonely wiretapping expert and devout Catholic Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is hired to record a seemingly innocuous conversation in San Francisco’s Union Square between two lovers (Frederick Forsythe and Cindy Williams). Upon re-hearing the tapes, however, Caul believes he may be putting the couple in danger if he turns the material...
In the film, the lonely wiretapping expert and devout Catholic Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is hired to record a seemingly innocuous conversation in San Francisco’s Union Square between two lovers (Frederick Forsythe and Cindy Williams). Upon re-hearing the tapes, however, Caul believes he may be putting the couple in danger if he turns the material...
- 2/20/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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