The Conformist is my first taste of Italian new wave films. After recently watching the brilliant documentary on cinematography "Visions of Light", which featured the Conformist quite a bit, I decided to take a look at this movie based on the brilliant scenes that they showed.
It didn't disappoint. Every scene is perfectly photographed and lit (an example of which is the scene that this image is taken from), with the camera being used brilliantly to guide the viewer around this rather complex tale of Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a possible homosexual and member of the Facist secret police.
The story constantly plays with the chronology, moving back to his childhood to explain why he is the way he is, moving to a scene in a car which makes no sense at the beginning but becomes far more important later on. The bulk of the story is about his first murder, that of his former Philosophy Professor. He is also engaged to be married and brings his rather interesting wife Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli).
The title also explains one of the key parts of this story, which is that Marcello is weak-willed and, as a result of his past, is desperate to be perceived as normal, despite not knowing what normal people do. This is shown many times through the movie, but none quite as potent as the final scene, where he guides a blind friend down an alley only to out him as a Facist and run away.
The actors in this movie are very good, and create a sense of chemistry between each of them which helps make some of the more emotional points of the movie ring very true. The performances are very low-key and don't overdo dramatic scenes in the way that people are accustomed to.
The people who really shine in this movie though are director Bernardo Bertolucci and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (who would later go on to photograph Apocalypse Now). Bertolucci, who also adapted the novel by Alberto Moravia, really is able to make all aspects of this film function without a hitch in bringing his vision to screen.
Having lived in Italy for two years (from when I was 8 to 10, though in Milan, not Rome where the film is largely set) Bertolucci really conveys the mentality of the Italians very well, and gets the feeling of the period perfect (based on what I read and was told). A large part of successfully bringing this to the screen is the breathtaking cinematography.
Storaro does some really lavish and brilliant shots through the movie, using pretty much everything done in cinematography up to this point, including the recent (at the time) technique of hand-held cinematography used extensively by French new wave films. Every shot serves a purpose and particular styles are used to convey emotion, such as the hand-held camera to disorientate and crane shots to give a feeling of grandeur and space.
The shots are complimented by some great lighting, that shows that playing with shadows isn't just for black and white films and the changes in lighting often are used to suggest where in the chronology of the film this is set. For example the dawn scene of the eventual murder of the professor is a different colour to the scenes of Marcello's childhood. This easily conveys different time periods without the inter-titles used by so many movies to tell you that the time has changed.
This is one of the all-time great films, and assumes that you are able to keep up with the very dense story at all times, seldom repeating a point. I have yet to see Bertolucci's other work, but this makes me think it should be a high priority.
What else can I give it but a 5 out of 5, a perfect film that seems to be often neglected by people, though I guess an inclusion in "Visions of Light" isn't to be sniffed at.
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