The Conformist

I rented Il Conformista from Lovefilm recently. 

It's the story of Clerici (played by the wonderful Jean Louis Trintignant), a repressed official who agrees to assassinate his former anti-fascist professor to conform in the Fascist society he belongs to.  The story is told in a series of flashbacks depicting Marcello's memories which have led him to the journey he takes towards the assassination of the dissident professor and his wife Anna.  From his morphine addicted mother to his father who is in an asylum to his relationship with a blind friend and his vacuous fiancee who he uses to plan a honeymoon in Paris so he can carry out his assignment under the watchful eye of Manganiello who is played by Gastone Moschin who Coppola would later use as Fanucci in The Godfather Part II.

The Conformist has just been released on DVD and I was looking forward to seeing it again.  I first saw it in June 1979 when I was 18 years old. Watching it again (several times), I'm amazed at how much it has influenced a generation of filmmakers.  Coppola and Scorsese and particularly the Coen brothers.

Miller's Crossing has long been one of my top ten films and the influence that Bertolucci's film has on it is really remarkable.  Not merely the 30's setting, but the costumes, set decoration, lighting and in some cases direct lifts from the film are referenced by the Coens. They surely are heavily influenced by 'the hat' here!

The cinematography in this film is simply fabulous, the huge buildings with cavernous interiors, the room in Guila's house  where the light through venetian blinds is copied in the various stripes in the scene, Guila's dress, the radiator, the sofa.  The use of colour is notable too - the warm tones and bright colours in the scenes with Quadri the professor and his wife (played with assurance by the 18 year old Dominique Sanda) which contrast with the cold blue tones of Marcello's memories of his honeymoon in Paris.

There is so much to admire in this film and it's brilliantly directed by Bertolucci.  The performances are first class, Trintignant plays the repellent Marcello with a coldness but also with touches of surreal comedy.  The two women in his life, his "all bed and kitchen" wife Guila played by Stefania Sandrelli, and the Professor's sexually ambiguous wife Anna played by Sanda are both equally as good.  The themes of identity, conformism, blindness and betrayal have never been portrayed better than here.  A masterpiece.