Il Conformista

1938. Well-born Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is an agent in Mussolini's secret police eager to rise in the system by conforming to every accepted Fascist standard. His best friend is Italo (José Quaglio), a blind radio personality who gives inspirational speeches about the grand future of Germany and Italy. Marcello becomes engaged to Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), who has no interest in political matters. He goes to confession to prepare for the wedding, and recalls killing a chauffeur (Pierre Clémenti) who tried to molest him when he was a child. Marcello is given an important assignment to be carried out on his honeymoon in Paris: Assassinate the anti-Fascist philosopher Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), his mentor sent into exile years before. Marcello's mission is complicated by Quadri's young wife Anna (Dominique Sanda), a woman that excites him far more than his own wife possibly can.

The conformist is 1930s Italian Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a coward who has spent his life accommodating others so that he can "belong." Marcello agrees to kill a political refugee, on orders from the Fascist government, even though the victim-to-be is his college mentor. The film is a character study of the kind of person who willingly "conforms" to the ideological fashions of his day. In this case, director Bernardo Bertolucci suggests that Marcello's desire to conform is rooted in his latent homosexuality. In addition to its strong storyline, the film is critically revered for the astonishing production design by Nedo Azzini, which, together with Vittorio Storaro's camerawork, recreates the atmosphere of Fascist Italy with some of the most complex visual compositions ever seen on film, filled with highly stylized uses of angles, shapes, and shadows.

A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

The conformist is 1930s Italian Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a coward who has spent his life accommodating others so that he can "belong." Marcello agrees to kill a political refugee, on orders from the Fascist government, even though the victim-to-be is his college mentor. The film is a character study of the kind of person who willingly "conforms" to the ideological fashions of his day. In this case, director Bernardo Bertolucci suggests that Marcello's desire to conform is rooted in his latent homosexuality. In addition to its strong storyline, the film is critically revered for the astonishing production design by Nedo Azzini, which, together with Vittorio Storaro's camerawork, recreates the atmosphere of Fascist Italy with some of the most complex visual compositions ever seen on film, filled with highly stylized uses of angles, shapes, and shadows.