To mark the passing of the great Gene Hackman, the writer and critic Sean T. Collins and the cartoonist and graphic novelist Julia Gfröher are my special guests for a deep dive into one of our favourite films, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).

The Conversation was groundbreaking in terms of film editing; when Coppola was pulled away to direct The Godfather Part II, editor Walter Murch had to streamline a narrative out of an incomplete film shoot and synthesized new approaches to picture editing and sound design which he credited to studying Hackman’s precise performance as the surveillance expert Harry Caul, a lonely middle-aged man whose Catholic guilt and past sins begins to weigh on his conscience as he obsesses over his latest spycraft job, plagued with worry over the fate of the young couple he’s recorded and what the tape will be used for by his sinister corporate client. 

We discuss the autobiographical details Coppola lent to the characterization and Jungian psychoanalysis that can be applied to the content, some of our favourite moments, and how the themes of The Conversation continue to resonate with audiences over half a century later. 

Follow Sean T. Collins and Julia Gfrörer on Bluesky. And support Sean and Julia’s work on Patreon!

Julia Gfrörer’s newest collection of fiction World Within the World: Collected Minicomix & Short Works 2010-2022 (Fantagraphics) is now available. 

‘I’m Not Afraid of Death’: How Gene Hackman’s Dream in The Conversation Mirrors Our Dark Moment, by Sean T. Collins, for Decider, February 27, 2025

“The Making of The Conversation: An Interview with Francis Ford Coppola” by Brian De Palma, from Filmmakers Newsletter, 1974, reproduced by Cinephilia & Beyond 

Trailer for The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)