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The Conformist

7.4

3,791

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Original title

Il conformista

Year

1970

Running time

108 min.

Country

Italy

Director

Bernardo Bertolucci

Screenwriter

Bernardo Bertolucci. Novel: Alberto Moravia

Cast

Music

Georges Delerue

Cinematography

Vittorio Storaro

Producer

Co-production Italy-France;

Mars Films Produzione, Marianne Productions, Maran Film

Genre

Drama | 1930s. 1940s. Gay & Lesbian

Movie Groups

Alberto Moravia Adaptations

Synopsis

This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where Marcello has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello's mind.

Rankings Position

Awards: 1971: Nominated for Oscar: Best Adapted Screenplay

1971: Golden Globes: Nominated Best Foreign Film

1971: New York Film Critics Circle: Nominated for Best Director

1970: Berlin Film Festival: Interfilm Award (Recommendation)

1970: David di Donatello Awards: Best Film (ex-aequo)

1971: National Society of Film Critics (NSFC): 2 awards.

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Critics' reviews

"Bertolucci's boldest and most expressive film"

Calum Marsh: Village Voice
"The Conformist is celebrated for cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's tumbling autumn leaves, but its emotional impact involves a tumbling soul."

Joshua Rothkopf: Time Out
"There are excesses in the film, but they are balanced by scenes of such unusual beauty and vitality that I couldn't care less."

Vincent Canby: The New York Times
"It's one of the most pivotal and influential films of all time, and yet it remains like nothing you've ever seen before"

Bilge Ebiri: Vulture
"A beautifully imagined portrait of moral and political cowardice."

Anthony Quinn: The Independent
"Bertolucci's film has the compelling quality of a bad dream."

Peter Bradshaw: The Guardian
"A visual masterpiece thanks to Storaro's keen eye and Bertolucci's assured direction."

Glen Ferris: Empire
"Juggling past and present with the same bravura flourish as Welles in Citizen Kane, Bertolucci conjures a dazzling historical and personal perspective."

Tom Milne: Time Out

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Ranking Lists Position

61 My Favorite Italian Movies (33)

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The Conformist

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