The Conversation

The evening screening of The Conversation on April 10 at Muranów cinema will be preceded by a 15-minute TEDx-style talk led by Maciej Jarkowiec.

What is fact, and what is mere paranoia? Where is the line between truth and deceit? Who is eavesdropping on whom? Coppola’s timeless masterpiece, awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes, poses questions that resonate today – in the age of fake news, propaganda, and post-truths – as strongly as they did in the mid–1970s. Back then, cinema was one step ahead of reality. The screenplay, focusing on a lone surveillance expert, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) who finds himself on the trail of a suspected crime, was written a few years before Watergate. The film premiered a few months before Richard Nixon resigned. The surveillance equipment Caul uses in the film, coincidentally, is the same that Nixon’s men used to spy on political opponents.

Hackman, a legend of American cinema who passed away a few weeks ago, and Coppola did not get along on set. The actor expected instructions, while the director demanded improvisation. From this creative conflict blossomed a character that Roger Ebert, America’s most influential film critic, labelled as “one of the most affecting and tragic characters in the movies.”

Maciej Jarkowiec

Francis Ford Coppola (born 1939) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer, and one of the leading figures of New Hollywood. He gained worldwide fame with The Godfather trilogy (1972–1990), while Apocalypse Now (1979) solidified his status as a visionary. His key films include The Conversation (1974), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and Twixt (2011). His work blends epic storytelling with introspective narratives, frequently exploring themes of power, family, and moral dilemmas.