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The Conversation (1974)

 -  Drama | Mystery | Thriller  -  1974 (Japan)
8.0
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Ratings: 8.0/10 from 51,258 users   Metascore: 86/100
Reviews: 269 user | 112 critic | 6 from Metacritic.com

A paranoid and personally-secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.

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Title: The Conversation (1974)

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Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 11 nominations. See more awards »

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Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
...
Bernie Moran
...
...
Ann
Michael Higgins ...
Paul
...
Meredith (as Elizabeth Mac Rae)
...
Amy
...
...
Receptionist
Robert Shields ...
The Mime
Phoebe Alexander ...
Lurleen
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Storyline

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 solitary man in both his personal and professional life, which especially irks Stan, his business associate who often feels shut out of what is happening with their work. This privacy, which includes not letting anyone into his apartment and always telephoning his clients from pay phones, is in part intended to control what happens around him. His and Stan's latest job, a difficult one, is to record the private discussion of a young male/female couple meeting in crowded and noisy Union Square. The arrangement with his client, known only to him as "the director", is to provide the audio recording of the ... Written by Huggo

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Harry Caul will go anywhere to bug a private conversation. See more »


Certificate:

PG | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

1974 (Japan)  »

Also Known As:

La conversación  »

Box Office

Budget:

$1,600,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

| (restored version)

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Due to creative differences on this shoot, veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler was replaced by DP Bill Butler See more »

Goofs

Throughout the film, Harry Caul wears a pinkie ring on his right hand except in several scenes at the beginning of the film inside the surveillance van where the ring appears on his left pinkie finger. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Passerby: Well, I want to go over to my place and start, you know, getting it on...
Ann: Oh, that's terrible.
Mark: Yeah. Do you ever, uh... ballet?
Ann: Be thankful. Do you have a quarter for them?
Mark: Yes, I do.
Ann: [gives it to street band]
Ann: What about me?
Mark: You'll see.
Ann: A lot of fun you are. You're supposed to tease me, give hints, make me guess, you know.
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Mad About You: The Conversation (1997) See more »

Soundtracks

"I Remember You"
(1941)
Music by Victor Schertzinger
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

Ingenious and frightening!
10 May 1999 | by (Sterling Heights, Michigan) – See all my reviews

"The Conversation" is a really great movie. I was quite surprised when I saw it. Not at how good it was, but how few people have seen it or heard of it. This is a classic suspense thriller, and a terrifying psychological horror film! From the opening credits, I, like the characters, was unsure of where I was going, or what the opening conversation (which is what the entire film is built around) might lead to. It seemed so unusually powerful, despite its masterfully simplistic execution. There is no overkill or excess in this film, nor is it under written or underplayed. It's just perfect! And I was even more surprised at how little was shown, and how much it could engross or frighten the hell out of me! My heart was racing, even though there was little action! This is the kind of film Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud to direct. The direction went to another master instead, Francis Ford Coppola. I felt ahead of the movie at its opening credits. But then, it blasted me and got miles ahead of me. It is an attack on our psyche and our fear, and it's amazing how, like the film itself, the conversation in the film that seemed so small and irrational could lead to something as big as it did!


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