The recent Greatest Films of All Time list made by Sight and Sound was obviously controversial, naming Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels,” the greatest film of all time (it’s great, watch it, and just let it be experiential). I tend not to get worked up over these lists cause it’s just voting and math—no one is trying to collectively conspire against you and your taste with some agenda, ok?— and it’s tough to get mad at arithmetic and a democratic process. That said, I was surprised not to see Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Il Conformista” (“The Conformist”) on the list because, personally, it would likely be in my top 10.
A chilling masterpiece about fascism— a weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident—Bertolucci’s 1970 film stars the late great Jean-Louis Trintignant, plus international names you’ll likely know or recognize their faces, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, José Quaglio, Dominique Sanda and Pierre Clémenti.
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It is also shot by the legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (“Apocalypse Now,” and “The Last Emperor”), and it is one of the most haunting-looking films ever, beautiful but cold and oppressive with unsettling chiaroscuro shadow and light. I might argue that seeing “The Conformista,” projected on 35MM in my youth, taught me that a “beautiful” looking film and “gorgeous” cinematography doesn’t just have to be sun-dappled images and radiant colors. In fact, while “The Conformista” does have traditionally cinematic beauty in it, I would argue what’s most stunning about it visually is what’s most outwardly “ugly” about it—how it creates terrifying emotional violence through images like the texture in the browns and beiges of dark secretive corners, the brutalist and harsh framing and compositions, and the cold, unfeeling aesthetic, all of which are breathtakingly rendered, even if it’s not traditionally beautiful to look at.
There’s actually a minor controversy brewing on Film Twitter circles about the 4K restoration version and how colors and tones have been radically changed and, honestly, I haven’t dared look too closely, being a little scarred by recent 4K releases that have altered and sometimes ruined the look of some beautiful films. Regardless, the restoration and re-release of “The Conformist” is something to celebrate. It is a masterwork film of the highest order and one of the greatest films ever made.
Here’s the official synopsis:
In Mussolini’s Italy, repressed Jean-Louis Trintignant, trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode—and murder—joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in. As the reluctant Judas motors to his personal Gethsemane (the assassination of his leftist mentor), he flashes back to a dance party for the blind; an insane asylum in a stadium; and wife Stefania Sandrelli and lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango in a working-class hall. But those are only a few of this political thriller’s anthology pieces, others including Trintignant’s honeymoon coupling with Sandrelli in a train compartment as the sun sets outside their window; a bimbo lolling on the desk of a fascist functionary, glimpsed in the recesses of his cavernous office; a murder victim’s hands leaving bloody streaks on a limousine parked in a wintry forest. Bernardo Bertolucci’s masterpiece, adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel, boasts an authentic Art Deco look created by production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, a score by the great Georges Delerue and breathtaking color cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.
Kino Lorber is presenting a new 4K restoration of Bertolucci’s magnum opus “The Conformist,” opening at Film Forum in New York for a two-week run on January 6. In the lead-up to its run—which will surely run around the nation in different repertory theaters— they’ve also released a new restoration trailer. If you’ve never seen the film, now is the time. It’s an immense work, and it is obviously super relevant to our modern times once again.