Lucas Versantvoort / January 17, 2015
Director Bernardo Bertolucci was on to something when he directed and
wrote Il Conformista/The Conformist in 1970. It’s a political
thriller of sorts, dealing with the fascist politics of Italy around 1938. More
than that, however, it’s a psychological examination of one man’s mind,
Marcello’s. The film traces the important events of his life, how sexuality and
violence traumatized him, and how it all led to him being desperate to conform
to whatever seems popular at any given time. The desire to be normal is
something we’re all familiar with, but Il
Conformista pushes this phenomenon to its most psychologically extreme
form.
The story begins in
1938 in Paris when Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant), sitting on his hotel bed,
is called by his employer, a member of the Fascist secret police, telling him
the plan’s about to go enter the final stage: the murder of a college professor
who’s fled Italy when the fascists took over. To make matters more interesting,
the professor is an old acquaintance of Marcello’s. He gets in the car with a
colleague and together they chase down the professor. The film then flashes
back to other crucial parts of Marcello’s life to show how he became the man he
is today. Every once in a while, the film goes back to the present, with
Marcello sitting in the backseat while his colleague chases after the
professor. Though to say too much would be spoilerish, flashbacks include an
early one when where Marcello is bullied as a child and saved by chauffeur
Lino. He takes him to a mansion where he shows him a gun and then tries to
seduce him. Marcello seems to give in to his advances, but then takes the gun
and kills Lino in a hail of bullets. Other flashbacks show his attempts to join
the fascist secret police and his attempts to be normal. The only reason he
wants to marry Giulia is because he thinks she’s as plain as can be, a typical
normal wife that all of society can accept. The entire film thus leads up to
the point where Marcello and his colleague give chase to the professor.
I’ve always considered Il Conformista to be more of an
incredibly subtle horror film than a drama or a thriller. Obviously, the film
isn’t a typical horror film, but it is horrifying in terms of its psychological
portrayal of Marcello. This is particularly apparent in the film’s climax in
regard to the professor which even now is hard to stomach. The number of ways in
which that scene is horrifying is something no typical horror film comes close
to achieving, because it’s not about physical violence so much as it is about
the emotional violence inflicted on a fellow human being. It’s hard to explain.
You have to see it to believe it. There’s something quite threatening ingrained
in every single scene which is ironic, because the film looks absolutely stunning.
Here’s where Bertolucci and legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s
achievements come into sharp focus. First of all, they emphasize the Fascist
art style during the scenes where Marcello’s in the vicinity of Fascist
government buildings. The architecture is easily recognizable with its emphasis
on the color white and the sharp angles. It’s very suggestive of old German
propaganda films. On the other hand, the film’s color scheme is very lush which
contrasts with the physical and emotional violence taking place.
The way the story is
set up is absolutely wonderful and there are little things that tie several events
together quite nicely. Consider for instance the notion of the driver, or the
chauffeur. Every time we see Marcello inside a vehicle, he’s never driving
himself, he’s always being driven by someone else. In the same sense, he’s also
driven by others to do their dirty work for them. During the entire chase
scene, Marcello occupies the backseat; when he’s a little boy, he’s chauffeured
by Lino to a mansion; he and his fiancée Giulia occupy a train cabin, etc. It’s
a neat and subtle way of symbolizing how Marcello is not in control of his own
life and tends to follow those that lead. Half the story is basically told
through the cinematography.
Also important is the way in which
Bertolucci links the themes of sex with fascism and violence and the desire to
be ‘normal’ and how this is all intertwined in Marcello’s mind. Marcello
doesn’t care about joining the fascists beyond that it will help him appear
normal in the eyes of others. The themes of sex, violence and fascism are those
that director Bob Fosse would utilize in Cabaret
two years later. While both are successful in doing this in their own ways,
there’s a risk in that by equating the politics of their times with sex, you
simultaneously ignore the other historical factors at play. Obviously, Bertolucci
and Fosse are aware of this and that one film can’t encompass the entire rise
of Fascism, but it’s important to note nonetheless. And it’s peculiar indeed
that these two films which so closely followed one another look at the subject
of fascism through similar lenses.
Either way, Il Conformista is classic cinema in the finest sense. The editing keeps
the audience on its feet with the constant crosscutting between past and
present, constantly promising death is on its way, the cinematography is lush
and suggestive, Delerue’s score is melancholy and tense, Trintignant is
incredibly understated and Bertolucci’s direction is wonderful. A political and
psychological thriller for the ages.
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