The Conformist (1970), Bertolucci

For me this film really stood out from the other films that we have watched because of its obvious stylistic differences, and more overt political opinions. In this film Fascism is explicitly stated as being a main theme in the film and is what drives the plot; a Fascist, Macercello must assasinate his anti-Fascist former professor Signor Quadri. Also the words that Marcello's sick father is muttering "I'll never be tired of repeating. If the State doesn't model itself on the image of the individual, how will the individual ever model himself in the image of the State? etc...etc..slaughter and melancholy." While what he is saying is "crazy nonsense," to the characters, Bertolucci is sending a message to the viewer and making a statement about fascism. How can the State and the individual become one? The answer is slaughter and melancholy, meaning that these dreams are impossible and will only end in tragedy.

Bertolucci's stylistic choices become become an intergral part of the plot. The frenzied flashbacks are quite confusing but also reflect the confusion and conflict of the main character of Marcello and his own confusion and conflict with his past as well as his present. For example there is the scene when Marcello is stuck in the middle of the dancing people and the camera zooms in on him in the middle with a look of stress and and panic on his face. The scene is a visual representation of Marcello's internal state; he too feels trapped in his duty to kill his professor, unable to escape. Another scene is when Marcello is in the Professor's office and the professor is shown in shadow as they are talking about shadows.

Something that I found in the reading by Bonadella, is that he says that Anna Quadri is a lesbian, yet in the film, I saw homoerotic leanings, I was not utterly convinced that she was a lesbian just as Marcello's homosexual encounter in boyhood did actually mean he was homosexual. Sexuality is an important part of the film, and vital in the character development, especially when we discover the scene of his homosexual boyhood encounter. The scene is not only powerful but gives a whole new understanding about Marcello. From a psychoanalytic point of view, if personality is developed in childhood, then Marcello has no hope of changing; he is already "damaged goods," and at the end of the film we see just that. Marcello, who had tried to repress his past for so many years finally brings everything to the surface. Along with the fall of Fascism comes Marcello's parallel fall. Unable to escape his past he is a prisoner of fate.