Product Description

From Bernardo Bertolucci comes this stunning masterwork which explores the rise of fascism in Italy. A young wealthy follower of Mussolini is called on to kill a former college professor forcing him to examine why he associates sex with violence while coming to grips with his own homosexuality. Jean-Louis Trintignant Stefania Sandrelli Dominique Sanda starSystem Requirements:Run Time: 111 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 097360812145 Manufacturer No: 081214

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3208 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
• Released on: 2006-12-05
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 111 minutes

Amazon.com
With The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci delivered one of his signature masterworks and joined the ranks of world-class directors. Based on the acclaimed novel by Alberto Moravia (who greatly admired Bertolucci's adaptation), this milestone of cinematic style concerns one of Bertolucci's dominant themes--the duality of sexual and political conflict--in telling the story of Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a 30-year-old Italian haunted by the memory of a sexually traumatic childhood experience. As an adult with repressed homosexual desires, Marcello wants nothing more than to conform to the upper-crust expectations of Italian society, so he marries the dim-witted, petit-bourgeois Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), and willfully joins the Italian Fascist movement, traveling from Rome to Paris with an assignment to assassinate his former academic mentor, Prof. Quadri (Enzo Tarascio). As he grows attracted to Quadri's bisexual wife Anna (Dominique Sanda), who is in turn attracted to Giulia, Marcello's path of duplicity parallels that of Mussolini's inevitable downfall. He's on an irreversible course of self-destruction, on which his troubled past and morally corrupted present will collide in a soul-crushing heap of personal contradictions.

While the psychosexual aspects of Bertolucci's Oscar®-nominated screenplay remain dramatically compelling, The Conformist is now better known as a dazzling stylistic breakthrough, with sweeping camera moves, oblique angles, and innovative editing brilliantly applied to Bertolucci's rich themes of internalized conflict. In close collaboration with master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, Bertolucci crafted one of the greatest films of the 1970s, offered here with its richly relevant "Dance of the Blind" scene fully intact. This five-minute scene was cut from the original American release, then restored for the film's 1994 re-release. It's a welcome enhancement of the film's suspenseful historical context, which is fully explored in three bonus featurettes in which Bertolucci and Storaro discuss the story, production, and innovative style of The Conformist in fascinating detail. For serious collectors of important films, The Conformist is absolutely essential. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Overrated
Having now seen The Conformist again, in "restored" form, I've got to say I think it terribly overrated. Just for a start, one thing I find problematic is the equation of repressed or latent homosexuality, if that's what it is, with fascist tendencies, or guilt about some homosexual exeperience (as indicated at the end of the film) with whatever the central character's pathology. But then this is not sufficiently clearly sketched to make any real sense; it's the kind of thing that can only be taken seriously in the context of a particular kind of left-wing European machismo of the 1960s. Otherwise it's nonsense. Perhaps one's not meant to take it as "realism" but as "symbolism" all the way through the film, but even then it fails to join the dots; certainly, it doesn't work as "realism". Despite some effective scenes (like the final murder), I think that as a whole this movie has a vastly inflated reputation.

Tense and psychological drama/thriller
The Conformist is by far a well made and original film, though I can easily say that it is not for all taste, and it may confuse some people. Its not an easy viewing experience, and may take a couple viewings to really understand. Worth it none the less.
I'd like to comment that some viewers (and Mr. Maltin) were led to believe that the main character had repressed homosexuality, which seems to be false because if one watches the film closely, it should be clear that as a young boy, he was sexually led and molested by a young homosexual man who was at first just being a friend to Marcello. Marcello is unconfortable with what is happening and out of fear he shoots at the homosexual man. The incident left its mark on Marcello for the rest of his life, complicating the childs mind forever. It is clear to me that Marcello desires women. He hides behind the mask of a fascist conformist because he wants to be comfortable and live a normal life within the society. He doesn't have a good relationship with his parents or good memories of childhood so he is trying to escape. With the two women he is involved with in this story, are the only times we see any happiness expressed by Marcello. He is a tortured mind of confusion and angst and he does have many fears and repressed emotions. At the end when the fascist goverment seems to have fallen we see Marcello and his blind friend walking the street, seeing the reaction of the city. He overhears a homosexual mans pickup conversation with another man, and then discovers that it is the man who molested him as a child who wasn't actually killed by the bullet he had shot. He then expresses some inner turmoil to the man who then runs away. In other words, Marcello flips out.

Classic!
It is a year of Bernardo Bertolucci's revival. Everyone was talking about "The Conformist" this year and I have decided to see the film again. Based on Moravia's book, film depicts young man, in his early thirties, doing his best to fit in society of the fascist Italy of the pre world war II era. The entire film is symbolism of man's search for himself and discovery of one's true identity. Marcello, the main character of the story, is a member of the secret fascist group in charge of hunting down and eliminating exiled intellectuals. In the course of the assignment, which incidentally takes place during Marcello's honeymoon in Paris, Marcello reconnects with his former philosophy professor he is tasked to eliminate. With flashbacks from his childhood and completion of the assignment, Marcello finally uncovers that behind the facade of happily married man and a father, he is damaged homosexual whose denial led him to a life of professional assasin whose life is full of treason, murder and misplaced ideals. This is a masterpiece of a film. Everything is pure perfection: the actors, costumes, colors, symbols, music. Bertolucci gets credit for not only presenting the story in all its complexity but for assembling great cast both in front and behind the camera. This film is a classic masterpiece. One of the fims that stays in one's personal library.