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Why Bertolucci's The Conformist deserves a

place in cinema history

The Italian director's 1970 expressionist masterpiece offered a blueprint for a

new kind of Hollywood film, which is why Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese and co

owe him a huge debt

Bernardo Bertolucci's expressionist masterpiece of 1970, The Conformist,

is the movie that plugs postwar Italian cinema firmly and directly into theemerging 1970s renaissance in Hollywood film-making. Its account of

the neuroses and self-loathing of a sexually confused would-be fascist

(Jean-Louis Trintignant) aching to fit in in 1938 Rome, who is despatched

to Paris to murder his former, anti-fascist college professor, was deemed

an instant classic on release.

It was, and is, a highly self-conscious and stylistically venturesome

pinnacle of late modernism, drawing from the full range of recent Italian

movie history: a little neo-neorealism, a lot of stark and blinding

Antonioni-style mise-en-scène, some moments redolent of Fellini. And it

was all framed within an evocation of the frivolous fascist-era film-

making style derided by Bertolucci's generation as "white telephone"

cinema. Add a dose of unhealthy sexual confusion and it's hardly

surprising that it was one of the international hits of the year. It alsooffered the blueprint for the new wave of Hollywood film-makers to a

different kind of cinema and a roadmap of new formal possibilities – not

merely for those of Italian descent such as Francis Coppola and Martin

Scorsese.

To be sure, Coppola's The Godfather, with its operatic qualities, seems on

the surface to have more in common with Visconti's mature work (while

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the paranoid-realist spirit of Francesco Rosi hovers ever near), but

Bertolucci became friends with Coppola, and his influence is palpably

discernible in the formally adventurous The Godfather: Part II.

Surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) in Coppola's The

Conversation is a repressed Catholic and professional paranoid who has

plenty in common with Trintignant's agonised Marcello Clerici.

Meanwhile, Bertolucci's cinematographer Vittorio Storaro – who shot

both The Conformist and Bertolucci's other 1970 masterpiece The

Spider's Stratagem – made his American debut on Apocalypse Now, and

has worked with Coppola several times since, as well as remainingBertolucci's DP (while also working fitfully for Warren Beatty).

There are other links. Marlon Brando, after completing work on The

Godfather – something that reinvigorated his career and sealed his

image as actorly padre padrone to the young ethnic method players who

emerged from the set of that film and thereafter dominated serious

American cinema of the 1970s – went straight to work on Bertolucci's LastTango in Paris.

Whereas The Godfather's producers had been fearful of Brando's

reputation for destroying big-budget movies with his sheer

unmanageability, and had reined him in accordingly, Bertolucci was the

first director successfully to accord Brando the privilege of near co-

authorship: he knew that a creative Brando inside the Bertolucci tent was

better than a destructive one outside. Brando's on-screen successor in the

role of Vito Corleone, Robert De Niro, would follow in Brando's

transatlantic footsteps to play the lead in Bertolucci's socialist-realist

melodrama 1900 (Novecento), in 1976. Another memorable exchange

was the actor Gastone Moschin; having played the fascist operative

Mangianello in The Conformist, he was later cast as Don Fanucci, the

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comic-opera kingpin of the Black Hand in The Godfather: Part II, a

growlingly menacing portrayal straight out of silent melodrama.

Some aspects of Bertolucci travelled less well. Some of his formal ideaswere greedily consumed by American film-makers, while the radical

politics and pointedly Brechtian alienation techniques were largely

discarded. Thus the emotionally expressive colour scheme of The

Conformist – principally evident in the honeymoon train-ride of Clerici

and his blousy new bride, during which insanely unrealistic rear-

projection and alternating blue and gold filters throw into doubt thedependability of Clerici's perceptions – are partially replicated in the

colour-scheme of the two sections – past and present – of The Godfather:

Part II. Its flashback sections are shot in ridiculously warm and nostalgic

golds and sepias (the consoling colours of infantile memory and adult

self-delusion) while the late 1950s present-day is rendered in icily

comfortless blues and greys. Similarly, Taxi Driver's heavy reliance on the

perceptions of Travis Bickle, the least reliable narrator in 1970s cinema, isevoked using many powerful expressionist effects that Bertolucci had

made his own – but, again, with no concomitant importation of his

political radicalism.

And Bertolucci, it turned out, would suffer a similar fate to all his

contemporaries in the "new Hollywood". 1900 brought him closer to the

fretful world of international co-production dictated by the new Italian

film- financing laws enacted at the start of the 70s and – interesting

though it remains – it stands as Bertolucci's equivalent to the movie

brats' big-budget disasters, the films that knocked them off-course:

Steven Spielberg's 1941, Scorsese's New York New York, William

Friedkin's Sorcerer, even Coppola's Apocalypse

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Now. And, as happened with Coppola, Bertolucci's work was never again

as interesting or as pioneering afterwards.

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The Conformist – A Visual Master Class

30 AUGUST 2012 CINEMA MASTERPIECES BY DAVID ZOUA couple of days ago I re-watched My favorite film from the Italian

Maestro Bernado Bertolucci – The Conformist .I was lucky enough to be

introduced to this film in the Alberto Moravia film retrospective in

Beijing,although it was a projection display of poor quality dvd,the

stunning stylish visuals still blew me away. After watching it again,I

would include it in my top 20 films of all time,one of my favorite film

cinematographer Vittorio Storaro left a rich legacy to all the latercinematographers,it is,in my opinion,one of the best textbooks for

cinematography,because it peaks in so many categories.To pay homage

to this work of visual wonders,I decide to pick some of the most visually

outstanding scenes to analyze the cinematic magic in them.

Lights and Shadows

In this scene with Marcello and his fiancee at home,the stripes of shades

are filtered by the curtains and beautifully reflect on the bodies of the

characters.Vittorio Storaro explains he was using this kind of sharp

contrast of light and shadows to “form a cage” on the protagonist,which

visualized the conflict inside the character.After Marcello goes to Paris,the

lights start to embrace the shadows and colors appear on the images

too.As the character’s psychology changes,so does the light and shadows

around him.

In this famous scene,Marcello visits his former teacher at his home,they

talk about the theory of “Plato’s cave“.The story is about many people was

kept prisoners in a cave from the beginning of their lives,and they were

forced to look at the shadows created by the fire outside the cave and

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moving people and objects passing in front of it,and they believed that

was what real life is.Both Bertolucci and Storaro love this idea and

thought it was a perfect metaphor of the relationship between film-goers

and cinema.In order to create the “cave feel” of the images,Storaro

refered to a painting called La Vocazione Di San Matteo by the famous

painter Caravaggio,this is one of the rare paintings that have a clear

boundary between light and darkness.Storaro used the exact same idea

to shoot this scene to symbolize the conscience and un- conscience of the

protagonist,he has something to present in front of him,which is the

reality,also he has to hide something inside him.

Storaro’s lighting is so masterful and stylish and symbolic in this film,I

couldn’t list them all here,but allow me to post a still from an interesting

scene.

This is the scene in which the two guys meet secretly,the director

deliberately asked one of the actors to touch the bulb so it would swingback and forth while the two characters were talking,so the lighting of the

whole scene is switched on and of f back and forth,very interesting

lighting.

The Color Scheme

It’s obvious Storaro used three main filters in the film,Blue,Yellow andWhite.

Speaking of the brilliance in it and its influence on the upcoming New

Hollywood Cinema,I could’t state it better than John in this article,so I’d

better quote the whole paragraph.

“Some aspects of Bertolucci travelled less well. Some of his formal ideas

were greedily consumed by American film-makers, while the radical

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politics and pointedly Brechtian alienation techniques were largely

discarded. Thus the emotionally expressive colour scheme of The

Conformist – principally evident in the honeymoon train-ride of Clerici

and his blousy new bride, during which insanely unrealistic rear-

projection and alternating blue and gold filters throw into doubt the

dependability of Clerici’s perceptions – are partially replicated in the

colour-scheme of the two sections – past and present – of The Godfather:

Part II. Its flashback sections are shot in ridiculously warm and nostalgic

golds and sepias (the consoling colours of infantile memory and adult

self-delusion) while the late 1950s present-day is rendered in icilycomfortless blues and greys. Similarly, Taxi Driver’s heavy reliance on the

perceptions of Travis Bickle, the least reliable narrator in 1970s cinema, is

evoked using many powerful expressionist effects that Bertolucci had

made his own – but, again, with no concomitant importation of his

political radicalism.”

Mise-en-scene

Here comes my favorite scene in the film,the dancing scene. The Mise-en-

scene here is just incredible.Look at how the group of people quickly

form a queue of circles and walk out of the restaurant,then the camera

turns around inside the restaurant,shooting those people outside the

window,then stops at the guy Marcello is about to meet.Then the camera

focused on the two characters with the background of the queue,as the

people is about to come back,they stop talking and the queue enters the

room and circles Marcello in the center,gives us a feeling that the

protagonist is trapped.The choreography and camera movement of the

whole scene is so perfectly designed and executed that this part of the

plot moves so fluently.

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You can find all kinds of visual brilliance throughout the film,besides all

those mentioned above,I’m gonna give you more in set pieces.

The opening sequence,I love how the camera moves up and reveals thenaked body of Marcello’s lover. The tilt tracking shot of Marcello walking

to get his mission,reminds me of the tilt shots of The Third Man.

When we are enjoying the flirt scene in the office,the camera suddenly

pulls back and shows how vast this place is.

The camera starts very low,almost tied with the ground,and than pulls upto shoot the leaves,you can easily find the copy in Coen Brother’s Miller’s

Crossing and Kieslowski’s Three Colors Red,which also stars Jean- Louis

Trintignant.

Finally,the hunt for Dominique Sanda character,the hand held camera is

just so shocking,so ahead-its-time and so... right.

Finishing this essay is just like taking notes from one of the greatest

filmmaking lessons,I’ve always wanted to write something like this,scene

by scene,pure cinema,I’m proud that I pulled it off,and hope you could

watch this film soon after reading this essay,no matter how many times

you have seen it.

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The Conformist by Keith Phipps

The past is a slippery thing in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 landmark The

Conformist , a film that nests flashbacks within flashbacks until a finalsequence that brings the future crashing down on its eponymous

protagonist. Much of the film unfolds as Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant)

rides in a car with Manganiello (Gastone Moschin), setting out from Paris

for the outlying countryside on a misty morning in 1936. Manganiello

works as muscle for the Italian fascists. Marcello’s just along for the ride

and to point the finger at Professor Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), an anti-fascistprofessor now living in exile in France. The act will define him, but it’s

also just the most destructive instance of a pattern he’s followed for most

of his life. Going along for the ride is what he does. He was a fascist

before he even knew it.

As the ride progresses, Marcello looks back, remembering the

circumstances that put him in the passenger seat, each presented with

the fuzzy edges of a dream. These include a humiliating bullying episode

followed by sexual abuse at the hands of his family’s chauffeur, Lino

(Pierre Clémenti), followed by Lino’s murder at Marcello’s own hands. Or

at least that’s the way he remembers it. Or maybe the incident’s just the

excuse he needs to cloak himself in normality no matter what the cost to

others. He marries Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), a woman he treasures for

her mediocrity. And when called into service by the men who’ve assumed

control in the pitiless corridors of power, he does what he’s told.

Bertolucci shoots those corridors, and the way they dwarf Marcello as he

walks them, the way he shoots the rest of the film: with an exaggeration

that skirts Expressionism. The film has a dreamlike quality, much of it

courtesy of Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography. Storaro’s work here

influenced the look of film for years after The Conformist , but if the

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restored version of The Conformist overseen by Storaro and Bertolucci

that appears on this new Blu-ray edition reveals anything, it’s the

undertones teased out by Storaro’s color scheme. He shoots the past inblue and gold filters, but the shades always feel slightly off. It’s yesteryear

remembered with a combination of nostalgia and repulsion, a queasy

combination that defines the film and gives it a kind of hideous allure.

Adapting a 1951 novel by Alberto Moravia, Bertolucci drops one

memorable setpiece after another: Marcello’s visit to the leaf-strewn

grounds of his manor where his mother indulges a morphine addiction, a

trip to a sanitarium to see a syphilis-mad father, a rapturous dance scene

that never escapes the tension underlying the whole film. But it’s as

much a story about the passage of time, and the way memories cling and

claw, as one about any given moment. Marcello flees the horrors of his

parents only to deliver himself to a much greater horror. Toward the end,

he looks down at his toddler daughter and then walks into the ravaged

Rome he helped create, the one he’s leaving to her and others of her

generation. He was just along for the ride, but sometimes it’s the

passengers that determine the destination.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Only one, apart from the trailer, but it’s a substantial one, an hourlong

documentary about the film called In The Shade Of The Conformist , which

features an extensive recent interview with Bertolucci.

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The Conformist (Il Conformista) (1970)

It would be too shallow to call Bernardo Bertolucci's magnum opus "The

Conformist" (1970) a political thriller. It goes way beyond, further

beneath its multiple layers and themes, as Bertolucci, in his terrific

screenplay adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel weaves a meticulous,

highly complex web of deceit and betrayal while presenting us a

character study of a protagonist so extremely ambiguous and

unpredictable, yet one we can all relate to as human beings.

At the center of this almost Shakespearean tragedy is Marcello Clerici

(Jean-Louis Trintignant) a seemingly ordinary man involved with the

Fascist Secret Police under the regime of Benito Mussolini in the 1930s

Italy. He is the textbook example of a reluctant (anti-) hero drawn into

something he doesn't really believe in. Is he really fascist by nature? As

one superior official says, most of them are in it either because they are

afraid or because they are in it for the money! Are there really peoplewhobelieve in the ideology of Fascism? Clerici has his own strange

reasons to be in the group. He wants to live a normal life. He wants to

conform. And for that, he is turning over a new leaf. He is getting married

to his sweetheart, a cute but dimwitted socialite Giulia (Stefania

Sandrelli). Being in matrimony, having a family, being accepted by

society and having a feeling of being belonged are the criteria for

leading a normal life, they say!

Marcello is sent on a mission to perform a task for his Fascist cause,

pertaining to a certain Professor Quadri (Enzo Tarascio) a staunch anti-

fascist who exiled to Paris. Only Professor Quadri happens to be Clerici's

teacher from Graduate school, one who regarded Clerici very highly as a

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student. Does Marcello betray his professor? Is he able enough to bear

the cross of the betrayal?

These questions act as devices to drive the plot forward. However,Bertolucci is more concerned about the dynamics of his characters rather

than the progression and conclusion of the plot at hand. And therefore, in

his extremely intelligent screenplay, he twists Moravia's story in a fashion

so as to take us deeper into the psyche of Marcello and give more

prominence to his character rather than concentrate on the political

intrigue of his Fascist mission.

Marcello's family life is rife with tragedy. Marcello's father is now an old

lunatic who previously worked for the Fascist party. His mother is a loner

who finds solace in morphine and sleeps with any guy who gets her the

stuff. Bertolucci's screenplay, in its very carefully structured non-linear

arrangement, presents snippets of the crucial moments in the life of

Marcello; life-altering events, including a disturbing childhood traumainvolving a chauffeur (Pierre Clementi), which may have shaped him as

the person he has now become. It is no surprise then, that Marcello is

doubly cautious when Special Agent Manganiello (the magnificent

Gastone Moschin) follows him around in a car, and Bertolucci, in an

ingenious filming move, tilts the camera at an angle, an oblique

suggestion that something about this scene is somewhat off-kilter!

Marcello wants to bring order in his life, but of all things he chooses the

Fascist Secret Police and matrimony! But given Marcello’s confused state

of mind (even pertaining to his sexuality!), indecision and lack of

confidence, will he be able to pull it off? After all, it isn’t difficult to see,

that despite his pseudo-fascist inclinations, the man has a conscience! In

one of the film's best scenes, we see Marcello have a face-off with a priest

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he confesses to. Being an unbeliever, the confession is of course, just to

satiate his would-be wife Guilia. Bertolucci, in a work of fantastic writing,

brings out the hypocrisies of the church, and the mindset of a society in

general about what constitutes a normal life.

Bertolucci also uses this opportunity to launch a scathing attack on Fascist

ideologies and the shallowness of its politics. However, in a very cunning

move, he refrains from taking sides and distances himself from either

belief! Take for instance that almost surrealist angle of Marcello’s friend

Italo (Jose Quaglio), a blind Fascist, also a part of the secret police. Heand his blind comrades throw Marcello a party to wish him well for his

upcoming married life.

It may seem odd that all of them are literally blind, but perhaps they are

emblematic of the sad truth of how politics is usually blindly followed

and that these members of the fascist party are actuallyblinded by their

political leaders into believing something that is extreme and absurd!The celebration is somewhat awkward with two people picking a fight

and eventually Italo having a talk with Marcello. Italo mentions to him

that they are two of a kind , different from others, and insists that he is

never wrong. In a sharp jab at his claims, Bertolucci concludes this scene

by shifting focus to Italo’s shoes, which are both of different colours,

indicating they are each from different pairs!

Marcello eventually comes face to face with his old professor. As soon as

Prof. Quardi and Marcello get reacquainted, despite their differing

political views, Quadri’s faith in Marcello is reignited. They discuss the

allegory of Plato’s cave and in the dialog that follows, the theory that

"illusions that are the shadows of reality" are akin to the current mindsets

of fascist Italians is established. There are two spectacular shots in this

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scene, brought about by the use of well thought out lighting effects,

which corroborate the theory of blinding by deception and also at the

same time not entirely vindicating the other side that makes these

claims! Blink and you will miss, how Marcello is demonstrating with the

motion of his hands a huge wall in the discussion of Plato’s cave and how

his shadow cast behind him resembles the classic pose of a particular

Nazi dictator!

Blame it on the rapid editing, but Bertolucci is in no mood to spoon-feed.

Grasp it or move on! And on the flipside, it is surely not a coincidence thatthroughout the scene, we only see a silhouetted professor Quadri, akin to

a shadow , no less! Marcello’s reluctance and deviance from a

normal fascist nature is rather obvious and the professor refuses to

believe Marcello is what he says he is. To further confirm his belief, he

even puts him to the test in yet another fantastic piece of writing.

With professor Quadri, Marcello also comes face to face with Anna(Dominique Sanda), the beautiful young wife of the professor who he

remembers from some previous encounters (could they be visions from

dreams?). Anna is yet another devious character who works in her own

strange ways. With what aim, isn't very particularly clear. But we can only

infer what could possibly be going on in her mind when she attempts to

seduce Guilia as well as Marcello who has very obviously taken an instant

liking to her. A weird game of sexual politics begins, as at one point, even

professor Quadri appears to be propositioning Guilia! So much for

normalcy !

While the astounding cinematography, with fantastic use of lighting and

rich colours, by Vittorio Storaro, greatly beautifies the film, it also serves

as a symbol for the protagonist’s true state of mind; the changing colours

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perhaps allude to his inability to conform in any given situation, let alone

his personal life. Georges Delerue’s original music is spellbinding and it

is especially noteworthy how a somber score that engulfs the atmosphere

every time Marcello is in the frame, and changes to a more flamboyant

and fanfare-like, just as his partner in crime Manganiello appears on

screen!

A remarkable theme in the narrative is also that of doubles and

repetitions. Dominique Sanda who makes a prominent appearance as

Anna appears at least twice in the film before in scenes you might miss inthe initial viewing. And then there’s the ubiquitous chauffeur, a dreaded

figure, that makes Marcello rather uncomfortable, be it the man from his

childhood memories or Manganiello or his mother’s Japanese chauffeur!

In the film’s barbaric climax and the shocking epilogue that follows, we

get to witness something totally unexpected and that makes Bertolucci’s

film all the more devastating in its final few minutes. It makes a powerfulimpact and leaves you emotionally drained, thanks to Bertolucci’s potent

storytelling that is complemented by the bravura, realistic performances

by all of the cast. Special mention though is reserved for Jean-Louis

Trintignant in a tour-de-force acting performance that is possibly one of

the greatest in film history, followed closely by Gastone Moschin as the

sly, cold, mocking special agent who sometimes reminds of his famous

Don Fanucci character in The Godfather Part II.

But that’s just one of the things that remind us of Francis Ford Coppola’s

epic sequel. One can’t miss the famous image of autumn leaves blowing

in the wind, a strikingly similar image seen in The Godfather sequel.

Bernardo Bertolucci’s "The Conformist" is a miraculous piece of

filmmaking, albeit one that may require multiple viewings to fully grasp

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and appreciate its finer nuances so carefully embedded within. It carries

an important message amidst all the chaos; one that urges to beware of

the deception of the shadows; learn to see what’s real and what is merely

an illusion.

If you haven’t seen "The Conformist" yet, you don’t know what you are

missing.

The Conformist (Italian: Il conformista) is a 1970 political drama directed

by Bernardo Bertolucci. The screenplay was written by Bertolucci based

on the 1951 novel The Conformist by Alberto Moravia. The film stars Jean-

Louis Trintignant and Stefania Sandrelli, and features Gastone Moschin,

Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, José Quaglio, Dominique Sanda andPierre

Clémenti. The film was a co-production of Italian, French, and West

German film companies.

Bertolucci makes use of the 1930s art and decor associated with

theFascist era: the middle-class drawing

rooms and the huge halls of the ruling elite.[1] Plot

The film opens with Marcello Clerici ( Jean-Louis Trintignant) in

Parisfinalizing preparations to assassinate his former college professor,

Luca Quadri (Enzo Tarascio). It frequently returns to the interior of a car

driven by Manganiello (Gastone Moschin) as the two of them pursue theprofessor and his wife.

Through a series of flashbacks, we see him discussing with Italo, a

blindfriend, his plans to marry, his somewhat awkward attempts to join

the Fascist secret police, and his visits to his morphine-addicted mother at

the family's decaying villa and his unhinged father at an insane asylum.

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In one of these flashbacks we see him as a boy during World War I, who

finds himself isolated from society by his family's wealth. He is socially

humiliated by his schoolmates until he is rescued by chauffeur Lino

(Pierre Clémenti). Lino offers to show him a pistol and then makes sexual

advances towards Marcello, which he partially responds to before

grabbing the pistol and shooting wildly into the walls and into Lino, then

flees from the scene of what he assumes is a murder.

In another flashback Marcello and his fiancee Giulia discuss the necessity

of his going to confession in order for her parents to allow them to marry,even though he is an atheist. He agrees, and in confession admits to the

priest to having committed many sins, including his homosexual

experience with Lino, the consequent murder, premarital sex, and his

absence of guilt for these sins. Marcello admits he thinks little of his new

wife but craves the normality that a traditional marriage with children will

bring. The priest is shocked — apparently more by Marcello's

homosexuality than the murder — but quickly absolves Marcello once hehears that he is currently working for the Fascist secret police, called

Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism (OVRA).

Now married, Marcello finds himself ordered to assassinate his old friend

and teacher, Professor Quadri, an outspokenanti-Fascist intellectual now

living in exile in France. Using his marriage as a convenient cover he

takes Giulia on their honeymoon to Paris where he can carry out the

mission.

While visiting Quadri he falls in love with Anna - the professor's young

wife - and actively pursues her. Although it becomes clear that she and

her husband are aware of Marcello's Fascist sympathies and the danger

he presents to them she seems to accept his advances, as well as forming

a close attachment to Giulia, toward whom she appears to make sexual

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advances as well, possibly for Marcello's benefit. Giulia and Anna dress

extravagantly and go to a dance hall with their husbands where

Marcello's commitment to the Fascists is tested by Quadri. Manganiello is

also at the dance hall, having been pursuing Marcello for some time and

is doubtful of his intentions. Marcello returns the gun that he has been

given and secretly gives Manganiello the location of Quadri's country

house where the couple plan to go the following day. Even though

Marcello has warned Anna not to go to the country with her husband and

has apparently persuaded her that she should leave her husband and

stay with him she does make the car journey. On a deserted woodlandroad Fascist agents conspire to stop Quadri's car with a false accident.

When he attempts to help a stricken driver he is attacked and stabbed to

death by several men who appear from the woods. Anna sees her

husband murdered and realising the danger to herself runs to Marcello's

car for help. When Anna sees that the passenger in the rear of the car is

Marcello, she begins to scream uncontrollably, then runs off into the

woods. Marcello merely watches without emotion as she is pursued

through the woods and finally shot to death.

The ending of the film takes place in 1943 during the fall of Benito

Mussolini and the fascist dictatorship, Marcello now has a small child and

is apparently settled in a conventional lifestyle. He is called by Italo, his

blind friend and former Fascist, and asked to meet on the streets. While

walking with Italo, they overhear a conversation between two men and

Marcello recognizes one of them as Lino, who attempted to seduce him

when he was a boy. Marcello publicly denounces Lino as a homosexual,

Fascist, and for participating in the murder of Professor Quadri and his

wife. While in this frenzy, he also denounces his friend Italo. As a crowd

sweeps past, taking Italo with them, Marcello is left alone, unaccepted by

the people of the new partisan political movement, and having spurned

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his former friend. He sits near a small fire and stares intently behind him

at the young man Lino was previously talking to. the political level, in

particular."[3]

In 2013, Interiors, an online journal concerned with the relationship

between architecture and film, released an issue that discussed how

space is used in a scene that takes place on the Palazzo dei Congressi. The

issue highlights the use of architecture in the film, pointing out that in

order to understand the film itself, it’s

essential to understand the history of theEUR district in Rome and itsdeep ties with fascism.[4] Production[edit] The filming locations included Gare d'Orsay and Paris, France; Sant'

Angelo Bridge and the Colosseum, both

in Rome.[5]

According to the documentary Visions of Light the film is widely praisedas a visual masterpiece. It was photographed byVittorio Storaro, who used

rich colors, authentic wardrobe of the 1930s, and a series of unusual

camera angles and fluid camera movement. Film critic and author Robin

Buss writes that the cinematography suggests Clerici's inability to

conform with "normal" reality: the reality of the time is

"abnormal."[6] Also, Bertolucci's cinematic style synthesizesexpressionismand "fascist" film aesthetics. Its style has been compared

with classic German films of the 1920s and 1930s, such as inLeni

Riefenstahl's

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Triumph of the Will and Fritz Lang's Metropolis.[7]

The drama was influential to other filmmakers: the image of blowing

leaves in The Conformist , for example,

influenced a very similar scene in The Godfather, Part II (1974) by Francis

Ford Coppola.[8] Additionally, the scene in which Dominique Sanda is

chased through the snowy woods after her husband has been stabbed, is

echoed with mood, lighting and setting in a third season episode of The

Sopranos, "Pine Barrens", directed by Steve Buscemi.

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Critical response

Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times , liked Bertolucci's

screenplay and his directorial effort, and wrote, "Bernardo Bertolucci...has

at last made a very middle-class, almost conventional movie that turns

out to be one of the elegant surprises of the current New York Film

Festival...It is also apparent in Bertolucci's cinematic style, which is so

rich, poetic, and baroque that it is simply incapable of meaning only what

it says...The movie is perfectly cast, from Trintignant and on down,

including Pierre Clementi, who appears briefly as the wicked young manwho makes a play for the young Marcello. The Conformist is flawed,

perhaps, but those very flaws may make it Bertolucci's first commercially

popular film, at least in Europe

where there always seems to be a market for intelligent, upper middle-

class decadence."[18]

In 1994 critic James Berardinelli wrote a review and heralded the film's

look. He wrote, "Storaro and Bertolucci have fashioned a visual

masterpiece in The Conformist , with some of the best use of light and

shadow ever in a motion picture. This isn't just photography, it's art —

powerful, beautiful, and effective. There's a scene in the woods, with

sunlight streaming between trees, that's breathtaking to behold — and all

the more stunning because of the brutal events that take place before

this background."[19]

In 2005 Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times staff writer, said, "In this

dazzling film, Bertolucci manages to combine the bravura style of Fellini,

the acute sense of period of Visconti and the fervent political

commitment of Elio Petri — and, better still, a lack of self-indulgence...The

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Conformist," which memorably costars Dominique Sanda as a sexually

ambiguous beauty, is not merely an indictment of fascism — with

some swipes at ecclesiastical hypocrisy as well — but also a profound

personal tragedy.[20]

In a 2012 article in The Guardian, John Patterson defined the movie an

"expressionist masterpiece", which

"offered a blueprint for a new kind of Hollywood film," inspiring New

Hollywood film makers.[21]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100 percent of

critics gave the film a positive review,

based on thirty-nine reviews.[22]

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Bernardo Bertolucci's films are often centered on the "split" protagonist.

Sometimes ( Before the Revolution, The Conformist and—if we take MariaSchneider as the central figure— Last Tango in Paris ) the split is

dramatized within a single individual torn between two lovers/ways of

life/political allegiances; sometimes

( Partner, 1900 ) it is dramatized by simultaneously paralleling and

opposing two protagonists, inverted "doubles."

The Conformist repeats the essential structure of Before the Revolution.

The protagonist is torn between alternatives on two levels: political—

Marxism vs. conservative Fascism; and sexual— bourgeois marriage vs. a

form of sexual deviancy (incest in the earlier film and homosexuality in

the later, though this is touched on in the first section of the earlier film

also). There are also important differences. In The Conformist the choice

has already been made, and Marcello is presented with the quandary ofwhether to re-confirm or reverse it; also, because the protagonist is a

(precariously) committed Fascist, Bertolucci is able to distance himself

from him more successfully, achieving a degree of irony that eluded him

in Before the Revolution. What gives the films both richness and

confusion is the failure of the political and sexual levels to become

coherently aligned. One expects the straightforward opposition of

Marxism/sexual liberation vs. conservatism/sexual conformity, but this

never quite materializes. In Before the Revolution the protagonist's aunt/

lover (and before her, his young male friend/potential lover) is presented

as apolitical and neurotic. In The Conformist the "liberated" woman with

left-wing commitments and explicit lesbian tendencies is associated (via

the lesbianism) with decadence and irresponsibility. The homosexual

chauffeur who seduced an already sexually ambiguous Marcello in

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childhood is also presented as decadent and exploitive. Yet the film is

quite clear in connecting Marcello's repression of his homosexuality with

his espousal of Fascism. The tension is never resolved in the film, or

elsewhere, in Bertolucci's work so far.

Fundamental to the "Bertoluccian split" is a tension within his cinematic

allegiances. Avowedly a disciple of Godard, his stylistic affinities are with

a tradition of luxuriance and excess that might be represented by Welles,

Ophüls and von Sternberg—a tradition totally alien to Godard's filmic

practice. When Bertolucci obtained financing from Paramount for The

Conformist , Godard (then at his most intransigent, in the periodimmediately following the upheavals of May 1968) denounced him.

Bertolucci took his revenge by giving Marcello's left-wing mentor,

Professor Quadri, Godard's telephone number, then having the character

violently assassinated. It is not surprising that the same film sees the full

flowering of Bertolucci's stylistic flamboyance—elaborate camera

movements, strange baroque angles, luxuriant color effects, a profusion

of ornate decor, the intricate play of light and shadow. This

abandonment, however, never ceases to be troubled and uneasy:

baroque excess collides with Godardian distanciation. The film at once

intellectually disavows "decadence" yet acknowledges an irresistible

fascination for it. The split is not merely thematic (hence under the artist's

control): it manifests itself at every level of his filmmaking.

—Robin Wood

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Documents

confirmist.pdf