The Conformist

The movie "The Conformist" is a compelling story that contains top-notch acting and unforgettable cinematography. In addition, the "Special Features" section was especially interesting, in which the movie's director and cinematographer explained several scenes and images and the prevalent use of light-and-shadow. Plus, their interpretations of the main character's personality, behavior, and possible motivations for the character's actions rendered a most informative and intriguing psychological portrait.

This is a movie that could be made in any era due to its timeless theme. Fascist Italy, however, is a perfect setting for "The Conformist" where as in all totalitarian states conformity is required, not an option. Jean-Louis Trintignant is perfectly cast as Marcello Clerici, a fascist assassin sent to Paris on a covert mission. Trintignant's slight figure, his humorless, unsmiling demeanor, and his consciously formal dress, including a hat that he cannot do without, project him as the perfect wannabe conformist.Based upon a traumatic childhood experience Clerici not only has a need to conform he is impelled to take conformity to its extreme; assassinating non-conformists. His confession before his marriage is a brilliant scene and Trintignant's interaction with the confessor priest reveals the heart of his motivation and his sense of self.His target is a former professor he admired as a student, Professor Quadri. The professor has left Italy for Paris due to his anti-fascist views and is viewed as dangerous by a mysterious arm of the fascist government. The scene where he discusses Plato's cave with the professor is worth the price of admission in itself.Two beautiful women in his life represent the extremes that pull at his conformist soul as he proceeds toward the intended assassination. Stefania Sandrelli, as his wife Giula, represents the carefree, sensual, emotional part of his life. Dominique Sanda, as the professor's wife, Anna, represents sensuality of a different type. She appeals to his intellect as well as his sense of real love.When Anna is formally introduced to Clerici as the professor's wife Clerici is stunned and aroused. Trintignant manages to convey both emotions with one look, the sign of a truly great actor. He has seen her in very different circumstances earlier in the movie. Anna provides the tension and inner conflict for Clerici which leaves the assassination of the professor in doubt.Sanda is quite believable as a woman who could have that effect on a man in real life. One need not suspend a sense of disbelief to be convinced. Without her presence there would be no doubt about the assassination for Clerici. That tension and doubt results in a climactic scene that is stunning.Bertolucci, in this 1970 release, is already displaying his trademark genius for visual beauty. Even scenes which are ugly are shot in an extraordinary cinema graphic style. His use of light, switching from black and white to color depending on the scene, shows real genius at work. The same cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, who later collaborated with him on "The Last Emperor," was also a young man at the time of release. The "Special Features" where the two discuss their innovations in the use of color and light is almost as fascinating as the movie.The "Special Features" also present very interesting insights into the artistic process in film and the dynamism of plot development. The only negative in this movie is that the flashback technique is overused to the point of confusion. All the other elements of the movie, though, show the promise of a great director at an early age.

[This review pertains to the 2014 US Blu Ray edition only.]I love this film. I have previously owned it on VHS and DVD and I've watched it at least 50 times. I couldn't wait for Blu Ray and it does not disappoint. To be sure, the original material is subject to the limits of production that existed at the time it was made. Much of the movie is shot in softer focus than we are accustomed to these days. The titles still suffer from some color bleed and the soundtrack is still a bit tinny. But this is an art house movie. No one is ever going to underwrite a complete Blu Ray remaster and overhaul.Instead, you can expect a HD transfer of a pristine print, giving you access to more of the cinematography, as it was intended for the big screen. This turns out to be very important, since this is universally acknowledged to be a masterpiece of cinematography. The images acquire a remarkable depth of field, and I found myself noticing details I'd never seen before. I found the extent to which this change alone amplified the film's drama and pathos quite remarkable.The translation is also very, very good. Previous subs and dubs have failed to capture the literary nuance of the script, adapted from Alberto Moravia's masterpiece of the same name. Somehow the English dub here has been improved dramatically over it's incarnation in DVD, and a LOT more of the book comes through. It's not clear to me exactly what they did to fix it. The voices sound identical, and the memorable lines have been translated in the same way, but the speech fits the action much, MUCH better than the DVD sub did. Watching the English dub with Italian subtitles (and vice versa) gives access to much more of the Italian script than was possible with previous editions. One problem: the dub was missing from several scenes on my copy. I don't really care, but it is a little disappointing, mostly because the new dub is unusually good.The Blu Ray edition also eliminates the abrupt between-scene cuts that featured prominently in older editions. I always found these jarring, and it's nice to learn that they were artifacts of a bad edit, and not a sour note by Mr. Bertolucci.

Bertolucci`s beautifully stylish psychological study of a middle-class intellectual`s attempt to conform under the fascist regime in Italy in the 1930s; Marcello, aware of his feelings as an outsider, volunteers to join the fascist secret police as an act of commitment; the film unfolds through a series of flashbacks as Marcello and Manganiello – an accomplice sent to shadow him – are on the way to assassinate Marcello's teacher, an anti-fascist intellectual living in Paris.Visually stunning, this is regarded by some as the director`s masterpiece; it was released with different soundtracks (Italian/French/English) and all of these options – with appropriate subtitles – are available on this region 1, US Import DVD edition.This also features the full version of the film with a restored 5-minute scene cut from the American theatrical release; extras are three short featurettes averaging 10-15 minutes each on aspects of the making of the film.

This is a review of the 2013 Region B2 Blu-ray, from Arrow Academy. This 1970 film has been superbly restored in HD, supervised by the original Director Of Photography, Vittorio Storaro. The beautifully clear, bright, picture appears in 1.66:1, with the original mono 2.0 sound, excellent English subtitles, and masses of extras. As usual with Arrow, this is a fabulous product.Director Bernardo Bertollucci also wrote the screenplay, based on a novel from 1951, by fellow Italian Alberto Moravia, a journalist and novelist. Moravia’s book follows the exploits of Marcello Clerici, a young man with a troubled but privileged upbringing, who is fixated on achieving a normal life, with a normal family. His efforts are considerably hampered by the fact that he is growing up in pre-War Italy, as it comes under the influence of fascist politics, and the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini; and also that Clerici constantly confuses ‘normality’ with ‘conformity’ ~ hence the title.Bertollucci’s clever script keeps very closely to Moravia’s plot, but he employs a considerable number of flashbacks, to demonstrate Clerici’s emotional and moral journey. There were times when I found it tricky to comprehend exactly where and when we were, in the story. It was really only towards the end that I found myself able to grasp Bertolucci's intent. He does not set out to make it easy for you! I have to confess however, that my husband followed things rather more easily than I did!The film looks absolutely gorgeous. Storaro is one of the great, and most influential, Cinematographers, the winner of 3 OSCARs, including for ‘Apocalypse Now’(1979) and Bertollucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’(1987). This early film was his first major success. He uses colour and light to capture memorable shots: the interiors of vast, empty, echoing, Fascist-inspired marble buildings; snowy hillsides in a conifer forest; dead leaves blowing across a winter garden. He also shoots at strange angles, emphasising uncertainty, instability, everything in flux. We noted influences and references also highlighted in the literature, such as Lang’s expressionist masterpiece ‘Metropolis’(1927) and Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi epic ‘Triumph of the Will’(1935). The film has been described as an "expressionist masterpiece” by The ‘Guardian’.Bertolucci was a self-confessed Marxist, and he used the film to launch a powerful attack on fascism, especially on the yobbish, anti-intellectual variety found in Italy. He is particularly critical of those who, although they understood the horror of what was happening, allowed it to prosper by turning a blind eye (such as the Roman Catholic Church), who used it to further their own advancement, or who just acquiesced and went along with it.He employed, in the role of Clerici, the French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant. Trintignant, still relatively young, was already successful on the international stage, and he is very good here. His female co-stars, Italian Stefania Sandrelli and Frenchwoman Dominique Sanda, are superb. Trintignant learned and spoke his Italian script phonetically, but the part was dubbed afterwards, as was common at the time.So, gorgeously filmed, beautifully acted, impressively scripted, but tough and demanding. No ‘easy’ watch, this. 5 memorable and influential Stars.

Bertollucci at the very top of his game, but where oh where is the almost equally as brilliant 'The Spider's Stratigem'?, made just before but for television RAI which might explain why it is the only, I think, of his films not released on DVD. There was a Contemporary or Connisseur video release many years ago. Problem with rights?A beguiling, intoxicating, delerious mixture of Vitorre Storraro's visuals (by turns Futurist and Impressionist) and Georges Delarue's (by turns Romantic and dramatic) music, edited to perfection and orchestrated by Bernardo. It's sexy and chilling and shows the dangerous allure of fascism, more convincingly than Visconti's Wagnarian, camp account of the period, in The Damned, where the stars are unconstrained and are either encouraged or allowed to chew the furniture, whereas Bertolucci orchestrates everything to perfection.Wonderful touches abound everywhere, in every shot or scene. Far too many ever to list. The countless echoes of cinema history, from Vigo and Renoir to von Sternberg and Laurel and Hardy. Best counterpoint of blond and brunette ever.The art direction is perfect, with well chosen, evocative Parisian locations , like the Trocadero and the old Gare and Hotel before they became the Musee d'Orsay.Bertolucci was in something very nearly approaching a complete state of grace for a year or two and , despite making some wonderful films.never produced anything better.

The Region 1 DVD I received is of high picture quality and impressive for a feature released (then) thirty six years earlier. An Italian production that has obviously been influenced by Nouvelle Vague Cinema la France, that emerged from 1960 onwards. (French New Wave Cinema.) However, it is a slightly weak offering, compared to the best examples from French Directors, that Jean-Luc Goddard and Jean-Pierre Melville originally provided international Cinema Audiences with, during a twelve year period to 1972. For a story with a villainous plot, the portrayal of it, is too much in the background, instead of being up front and sharp edged. Viewed decades after its1970 release, The Conformist does not quite qualify for the best historical drama concerning Italy and Mussolini. (On that score, contrast the 1999 British/American offering 'Tea with Mussolini', with a much more up front historical reflection.) This Italian offering has borrowed the 1960s French New Wave fashion of presenting the story in a surrealistic and dream like evolution. Fashionable at the time, especially with an Art House Cinema crowd, but never sure about it years later ! Particularly as it risks eclipsing the main story and historical circumstances! Viewed forty six years after its original release, The Conformist comes across as an entertaining period piece, including the music style, of an earlier Cinema era.

For my money Bertolucci's very best film. It combines many hisrecurring themes; politics (especially fascism in Italy and it'seffects), sexuality and identity, the need to belong, the struggle tobe an individual.The film perfectly walks a knife's edge between realism and surrealism,supported by Vitorio Storraro's breathtaking and unique cinematography.The film works brilliantly on a simple realist level. A sort ofpolitical thriller and character study (much like Coppola's 'TheConversation') we follow an agent of Mussolini's secret police (a greatperformance by Jean-Louis Trintignant, even dubbed into Italian) ashe's sent to assassinate one of his old professors, now teaching inexile in Paris. On that level the film is filled with odd twists andturns as Marcello tries to carry out his mission.But there's also something larger and more mysterious being exploredhere, from the constant not-quite-realistic images, to Marcello'soccasionally very odd (and sometimes funny) behavior, to the flashbacksto an early homosexual encounter, we are trapped, with the character,in a sort of Kafkaesque dream world. It's as if somehow Bertolluci haspulled off the very neat trick of making a film that' simultaneouslyobjective and subjective, a dream and a reality, surreal andhyper-real. And he makes the two dance together to create a biggerwhole.My only tiny quibble;, a few moments seem a little too on the nose intheir symbolism for a film of such subtlety, but that's a tinycomplaint about a great film.The Blu-Ray isn't a perfect transfer, but is very good, certainly thebest looking version of the film I've seen.