The Conformist

The Conformist (1970)

a film by Bernardo Bertolucci

The images in The Conformist compose the kind of memories that make me want to watch movies again and again. This is a story that talks through images a beautiful and potent way, frame by frame is not just a series of masterful photographies but a visual work of art. And yet it is not just that, this movie is a poetic and stylish portrait of the social chameleon, a moral tale told with dazzling power of cinema at its best.

The Conformist, is the story Marcello Clerici, a character -brilliantly plater by Jean-Louis Trintignant- drifting with the tide, fitting in the scheme of things, letting himself go in a moment of history were moral decisions and conscience meant facing the storm. In the Italy of the 40s, Clerici volunteers with the Fascist Government to assassinate his former college professor, a dissident leader refuged in France, during his honeymoon in Paris.

With great skill Bertolucci composes a story full with flashback that give away more details about the life of The Conformist and set him a human context right before committing his crime, but the movie does not only depends on these thread, it is so rich in characters and astounding visual elements that still after seeing it several times I have the chance to find new elements while some others still remain as a mystery.

This movie has the great ability to deliver a sense of depth beyond the screen, a structure in which the story develops like a labyrinth, not giving away too much, giving lots of space for thinking. Through the masterful composition of sequences with great visual power, this film gets to deliver a story with aesthetic and narrative beauty and strength. Not to miss are the scenes of Clerici in the Fascist ministry, visiting his father in the sanatorium the blind party and the closing scene.

Some of the things I like most on this and other Bertolucci movies is the role of the female characters. This film brings the counterpoint between a beautiful, strong and independent female character that is the professor's wife and the also beautiful but more detached from reality, naive and vane character that is Clerici's wife. Both seem to be trapped in the tide and as in the sensual and stylish scene where both women dance tango, the beauty and independence seem to survive briefly before being captured and crushed stronger and anonymous forces, the same kind of forces driving Clerici's mechanical actions.

This is a movie to watch again and again. Is the kind of movie that provides enough elements to keep finding surprises, the keep thinking and admiring, and why not, watch two really sexy women dancing tango together.