Review of The Conformist (1971) by Nick A — 16 Jun 2008

**** out of 5 stars.

Directed By: Bernardo Bertolucci.

Starring: Jean-Louise Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli and Gaston Moschin.

Language: Italian with English subtitles.

Released: 1970.

Synopsis:

The backdrop of this movie is Mussolini's Italy in the 1930s. This is the story of Marcello (Trintignant), a man who has a life long affliction with sticking out in a crowd and is desperately trying to find normality in his life. Every action he is taking is an effort to blend in and be accepted. He is constantly regarded as an oddball because of his general demeanor and lack of emotion. He joins a group of secret fascist police, assigned to carry out assassinations and other dark deeds to individuals that are hurting their political cause. He even goes so far as to marry someone he regards as an unintelligent and mediocre young woman, Giulia (Sandrelli) in an attempt to further his ability not to attract unwanted attention.

He is taking his new bride on their honeymoon in France when he is given his assignment. A former professor has defected from fascist Italy and is now considered an intellectual dissident. It is Marcello's job to eliminate him.

Soon, we learn from flashback scenes why Marcello has lived his life in constant fear of being noticed and why his life has been anything but ordinary.

Review:

This film is one of the best I've seen in a long time, although I may be partial to the philosophically charged theme the setting. I couldn't help but compare this film to Costa-Gavras' Z (1969), another European film with a similar feel and subject matter. While I don't regard this film as the same level of masterpiece as Z, it did prove to be superior in a few areas. One of these areas was the cinematography. This film had some awing and very beautiful shots along with a variety of camera angles that gave it a more artsy edge. Watching it, definitely gives the impression that the filmmakers were ahead of their time and put forth an extra effort to keep the audience intrigued.

The only character we really get to know throughout the story is Marcello and although Jean-Louise Trintignant's performance was great, I felt as though the development of him as a personality was a little lost. I thought the filmmakers could have done more to clue the audience in as to why he turned out the way he did and why he was an interesting candidate for the job selected.

As I said before, I am typically biased for any film that deals with this subject matter. I am especially biased when the film takes a philosophical approach to convey the story. That being said, I still think this was a very powerful and important film that should be watched by anyone who has an interest in this important piece of the world's history.