Since there is civilization, the society stimulated the conformism and standardization of behavior; even today you are told to buy the "X" product, to watch the "Y" film, or to love your parents, you country, etc, and if you don't, can or will be excluded of many circles. Under a fascist government, in which the State is above everything and the individual is secondary, this is particularly true. What we see in Bertolucci's "The Conformist" is a man's attempt to become just another one, the "ordinary man"; Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Tritignant), haunted by a experience in childhood, marries a bourgeois woman, beautiful but shallow, and joins the fascist party, becoming in the surface the typical Italian. However, he receives a mission from the party: go tho Paris and kill a former professor, a anti-fascist. But the main conflict is not the external, if Clerici is going to kill the professor or not, but his inner one to control his impulses and act in the way he is supposed to. Notice that, despite his seriousness, he is often making faces and even jumping around, when nobody is watching (for instance, when entering the house after telling Manganiello to beat the driver). Trintignant, which is an actor that often seems to be hiding something below the calm surface ( which was used very effectively also in Three Colors: Red), and who was in the peak of his career, after winning the Golden Palm for "Z" and star also in Eric Rohmer's "My Night At Maud's", is the ideal actor for the role, and delivers a truly magnificent performance. Few actress had such a screen-presence as Dominique Sanda, and perhaps none so inexperienced. The supporting cast works very well too. Bertolucci's directing, like Visconti's, is very elegant, but is not afraid of showing sex and violence, although never or doing it just for the shock- which he continues to do even today, in movies like the underrated "The Dreamers". Costumes and art direction are very rich. But any review of this film can not be complete without talking about Storaro's cinematography, one of the greatest of all time, and which can only be completely appreciated on the big screen, like i watched this time (i had already seen it before in terrible conditions); his use of the color and composition and the way it enhances the mood of the movie and of the characters is unique, and creates a lyrical atmosphere that has never been surpassed. It's a shame that few have seen this great work due to being almost impossible to find; it's wonderful in every way possible and ranks among the greatest achievements of this art.
Review of The Conformist
