Il conformista (1970)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers:

Bernardo Bertolucci (writer)
Alberto Moravia (novel)

Release Date:

1971 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Bertolucci's Masterpiece about Sex and Politics [re-release]

Plot:

A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

Plot Keywords:

Fascist | Italy | Honeymoon | Train | Professor

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 7 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Marcello Clerici (as Jean Louis Trintignant)
Stefania Sandrelli	...	Giulia
Gastone Moschin	...	Manganiello
Enzo Tarascio	...	Professor Quadri
Fosco Giachetti	...	Il colonnello
José Quaglio	...	Italo
Dominique Sanda	...	Anna Quadri
Pierre Clémenti	...	Lino
Yvonne Sanson	...	Madre di Giulia
Milly	...	Madre di Marcello
Giuseppe Addobbati	...	Padre di Marcello
Christian Aligny	...	Raoul (as Christian Alegny)
Carlo Gaddi	...	Hired Killer
Umberto Silvestri	...	Hired Killer
Furio Pellerani	...	Hired Killer

Also Known As:

Der Konformist (West Germany)
Der große Irrtum (West Germany)
Le conformiste (France)
The Conformist (USA)

Runtime:

107 min | 111 min (1995 Restoration)

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian | French | Latin

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | West Germany:18 (f) | UK:15 (2007 re-rating) | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Gare d'Orsay, Paris 7, Paris, France

Company:

Mars Film

Trivia:

The poem recited by Marcello while traveling on train is Gabriele D'Annunzio's "La pioggia nel pineto" (1903).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Manganiello is driving Marcello around, the windshield wipers are on in the close shots, but off on the long shots.

Quotes:

Confessor: The one thing you have to do is repent and humbly ask His pardon today.
Marcello: I've already repented. I want to be excused by society. Yes. I want to confess today the sin I'll commit tomorrow. One sin atones for another. It is the price I must pay society. And I shall pay it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Clueless (1995)

Brilliant film making

Brilliant adaptation (and improvement) of the Moravia work, with the entire structure revolving around Plato's Republic added by Bertolucci. As a meditation on both tyranny and the tyrannized, it is unsurpassed in cinema.

The center of the film explicitly discusses the cave image in the Republic (the topic of Marcello's abortive thesis when he was Quadri's student). But that is not all: a reading of the immediately relevant sections of the Plato will make it obvious that it provided Bertolucci with a stream of imagery for the film. A reading of the entire work will reveal an even greater stream, largely taken from the discussions of tyranny and the tyrannic man (who, like the philosopher, is the same both dreaming and awake). In turn, this all ties in nicely with both Spider's Stratagem and Before the Revolution, among others of his films.