In Mussolini's Italy, repressed Jean-Louis Trintignant, trying to purge memories of a youthful homosexual episode – and possibly murder – joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in. As the reluctant Judas motors to his personal Gethsemane (the assassination of his leftist mentor), he calls to mind a dance party for the blind, visits his father in a stadium insane asylum, and views wife Stefania Sandrelli and lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango in a working-class hall – all lensed exquisitely by the director of Last Tango in Paris.
Written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Based on The Conformist by Albert Moravia
Produced by Maurizio Lodi-Fè
Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro
Edited by Franco Arcalli
Music by Georges Delerue
Release dates: 1 July 1970 (Berlin), 18 April 1971 (West Germany)
Running time: 1h 48m
HOW THIS WORKS
To find out where to rent or stream The Conformist online, visit JustWatch.com and TV.Movie. Watch it on your own during the week and then join us for our Zoom conversation Saturday, November 15. A Zoom link will appear on the right of your screen once you RSVP. (NOTE: If you can’t get that link to work, copy and paste it into the search bar of your browser.) First-timers must sign up no later than Friday 11/14 in order to ensure being admitted.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
TRAILER, RATINGS, EXTRAS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2djvGyhZ-k
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 98 based on 58 reviews
Metacritic: 100 based on 11 reviews
Bertolucci's cinematic style synthesizes expressionism and "fascist" film aesthetics. Its style has been compared with classic German films of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
BLURBS & ATTITUDES
In 1972, most of the world was shocked by the challenging, irreverent genius of Last Tango in Paris. But those who were familiar with Bernardo Bertolucci's previous work found it not so much a revelation as a happy fulfillment of his early promise. Two years before Last Tango, the man who would later call Hollywood "The Big Nipple" wrote and directed The Conformist. I've seen it probably 20 times over the years, and even if it weren't in pristine shape for its current re-release, it would still qualify as one of only a handful of films made in the past 30 years that truly deserve to be called great.
Based on the novel by Alberto Moravia, the movie follows the quest for bourgeois normalcy by a member of the Italian Fascist Party during World War II. The lead character, Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant), is an upper-class intellectual who has felt painfully isolated from his fellow man. Where other men see the connections between themselves and the rest of the world, Marcello sees only the divisions, the ways in which he stands apart.
This uniqueness, he believes, is the result of a childhood incident in which he shot the family chauffeur while the man was attempting to molest him. Marcello also reviles the decadence of his parents' generation, which left his father insane and his mother a dope addict. The cure is a rigorous dedication to the average. When he looks at Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), the luscious airhead he has chosen to marry, he sees the epitome of mediocrity. Following his marriage, Marcello wants to gain formal admittance into the leadership ranks of the party, and to prove his worthiness he agrees to travel to Paris to murder one of the leaders of the resistance.
The reason Marcello is chosen for the job is that the leader is a professor who once taught him. Visiting his former mentor in his apartment, Marcello remembers his professor's voice as they discussed Plato's cave, and for Bertolucci the allusion to the philosopher is not casually dropped. From the earliest days of Bertolucci's career, the poet turned filmmaker had been interested in the nature of reality. In Last Tango, he pursued the question through two characters who attempted to get to the bottom of man's nature by reducing themselves to the sum of their appetites. In The Last Emperor, man was defined by politics; in Little Buddha, by the soul.
In The Conformist, Bertolucci attempts to understand totalitarianism as a symptom of Marcello's impulse to belong, to be like everyone else. And the atmosphere of the film is anything but prosaic. Using tinted images and skewed angles and a fluid, romantic style, Bertolucci and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro create an orgy of competing patterns and textures. Visually, the movie combines the impending spareness of de Chirico with the stylish geometry of film noir and the colorful opulence of Visconti.
The result is a sort of haunted surreality in which sex, Freud, politics, and philosophy are flung together in a spirit of aesthetic exuberance and daring. The performances are almost as stylized as the production design, with Trintignant's crisp, angular moves providing counterpoint to the slinky voluptuousness of Sandrelli and Dominique Sanda. As the professor's wife, Sanda complicates Marcello's mission by offering him her favors and also making advances toward Giuilia, who accepts them without realizing their nature.
The movie isn't without flaws. Its ideas aren't all fully baked, especially the connections between sexual deviance and repressive politics. Still, almost nothing has been lost over the years. The brilliant mix of ideas, the audacity and originality of approach, the sensualist delight in the ravishing play of light and shadow – all these remain, as bracing and inspirational as ever. ∞ Hal Hinson, Washington Post
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
That Bertolucci's masterpiece – made when he was all of 29 – will be the most revelatory experience a fortunate pilgrim will have in a theater this year is a foregone conclusion. ∞ Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
It's a triumph of feeling and style ... so operatic that you come away with sequences in your head like arias. ∞ Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
Drunkenly beautiful and deeply disturbing. ∞ David Thomson, L.A. Weekly
In a story full of treachery, cowardice, and sexual decadence, with an outcome that doesn't end happily for anyone, the movie remains uplifting for its breathtaking style. Masterfully arranged for color, texture, decor, and camera fluidity, The Conformist is more like a symphonic poem than a movie. Your breath is taken away by its baroque compositions, like the shot in which Storaro's camera, powered by Georges Delerue's rhapsodic score, glides ghostlike toward its characters at ground level, stirring up a flurry of autumn leaves. Images like that projected on a big screen show you what the medium is capable of. They also demonstrate why going out to the theater remains the best way to see a movie. ∞ Desson Howe, Washington Post
One of Bertolucci's best films, The Conformist makes a provocative connection between repressed sexual desires and fascist politics. It's an intriguing, elegantly photographed study of the twisted Italian character of the 1930s. ∞ TV Guide
The Conformist has a decadent visual beauty about it that's breathtaking. But as striking as Bertolucci's classic looks, there's even more powerful stuff in the storytelling. ∞ Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
A bludgeoning indictment of fascistic follow-the-leader and an orgasm of coolness. ∞ Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
