A man named Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) attempts to escape his emotional past by subscribing to totalitarianism in Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece of Italian cinema. But when Clerici is asked to kill a leftist professor to show his loyalty, he finds that the decision to become a "conformist"--to live by society's rules--requires him to ignore his morals.
The film that made Bernardo Bertolucci's international reputation, THE CONFORMIST (based on Alberto Moravia's novel) is equal parts film noir, Freudian melodrama, and political commentary. The hero, Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), joins Italy's fascist party, marries a simpering bourgeois woman, and agrees to assassinate the university professor who once acted as his mentor, all to become a "normal" member of society. As his psyche unravels--a homosexual encounter at age 13, his father's illness, his desire for the professor's wife, Anna (Dominique Sanda)--Bertolucci gradually shows that Clerici wants to become a robot in order to forget the messiness of life. But Clerici is moral enough at heart to begin putting off the murder in true Hamlet fashion. Bertolucci evokes the antiseptic fascist bureaucracy, the charming circle of the professor, and the bloody outcome of moral bankruptcy with equally arresting visuals. The narrative is nonlinear, but the arc is clear; as Clerici's smug, self-satisfied air comes undone, Bertolucci wants every Italian to answer for their own behavior when the fascists came.
Gaffe in the film: a radio tower is seen in a flashback to 1917.
Review 1:
"...An Oedipal story of enormous complexity, both thematically and stylistically..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.53-4 04/01/1994
Review 2:
"...Extravagant and haunting....[A restored print] shows why Bertolucci is a master of extravagantly visual and resonant storytelling..." -- Critic's Choice
Source: New York Times
p.C10 09/16/1994
Review 3:
"...Through the swirling steps of its intricate flashback structure, THE CONFORMIST sustains its evasive, downbeat and sometimes absurdist mood with a remarkable intensity..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.34 11/18/1994
Review 4:
"Bertolucci combines the bravura style of Fellini, the acute sense of period of Visconti, the political commitment of Elio Petri..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.E13 07/15/2004
Review 5:
"[A] gritty and gorgeous 1971 masterpiece, THE CONFORMIST is a cause for celebration."
Source: Rolling Stone
p.100 11/30/2006
Review 6:
"Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is exquisite..." -- Grade: A-
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.66 12/08/2006
Review 7:
"[T]he real stars are behind the camera. Bertolucci, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti and editor Franco Arcalli achieve a well-nigh perfect balance of form and content."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.89 04/01/2007
Review 8:
5 stars out of 5 -- "A visual masterpiece thanks to Storaro's keen eye....[An] affecting cautionary tale..."
Source: Empire
p.53 03/01/2008
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