The Conformist - Bernardo Bertolucci

(aka 'Le Conformiste' or 'Der Große Irrtum' or 'The Conformist')

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Italy / France / West Germany 1970

One of Bertolucci's best films, THE CONFORMIST makes a provocative connection between repressed sexual desires and fascist politics. It's an intriguing, elegantly photographed study of the twisted Italian character of the 1930s.

***

Like The Spider's Stratagem, a subtle anatomy of Italy's fascist past, but here the playful Borgesian time-travelling is replaced by a more personal drive which heralds the Oedipal preoccupations that haunt Bertolucci's later work. Stripping Moravia's novel of all its psychological annotations except one - as a child, the hero suffered trauma at the hands of a homosexual - Bertolucci presents him simultaneously as a suitably murky protagonist for a film noir about political assassination, and as a conformist so anxious to live a normal life that he willingly becomes an anonymous tool of the state. Juggling past and present with the same bravura flourish as Welles in Citizen Kane, Bertolucci conjures a dazzling historical and personal perspective (the marbled insane asylum where his father is incarcerated; the classical vistas of Mussolini's corridors of power; the dance hall where two women tease in an ambiguous tango; the forest road where the assassination runs horribly counter to expectation), demonstrating how the search for normality ends in the inevitable discovery that there is no such thing.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE.

Posters

Theatrical Release: June 1970 - Berlin International Film Festival

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DVD Review: Paramount - Region 1, 4 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Paramount Home Video - Region 1, 4 - NTSC
Runtime	1:51:12
Video	1.66:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.42 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), DUBs: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Portuguese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, Portuguese, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Paramount Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1 Edition Details: • Original theatrical version • "The Rise of The Conformist: The Story, The Cast" featurette (13:29) • "Shadow and Light: Filming The Conformist" featurette (14:29) • "The Conformist: Breaking New Ground" featurette (11:04) DVD Release Date: December 5th, 2006 Double Lock Keep Case Chapters: 12

Comments:

Well, DVD deal of the year award is obvious - Paramount are offering this Bertolucci masterpiece with three featurettes (with the director and DP Vittorio Storaro) in a strong 1.66 progressive transfer for just over $10 US ?!? I do have one query though - the running time is 1:51:12 - the original US (director cut) was approx. 1:55:00 and the 1995 restoration was 2 hours. We will investigate the time discrepancy and report back here. NOTE: Bill tells us:
"Gary, when I saw The Conformist last year at the Cinematheque it ran 111 minutes (same as this DVD) including the restored scene of the blind wedding." (Thanks Bill!)

For the time being we assume it is the shortness of the exit music which usually runs beyond the Paramount logo.

This release is fabulous. Region coded for 1 + 4 (set to sell in South America as well) - there are subs and dubs in Portuguese and Spanish. The bold yellow subtitle font is a bit garish, but the transfer image is excellent - soft palette colors, crisp detail and very clean. Top marks to Paramount on the appearance.

Supplements include three featurettes - that look to have been filmed at the same time - with interviews from Bertolucci and Storaro interspersed with clips of the film. They are relatively short at less than 15 minutes each but I found them enjoyable and informative. For some nothing less than a commentary is a disappointment, but again we come back to the price - a steal and a must-own for every serious cinophile's DVD library.

Gary W. Tooze

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