“The Conformist” Excessive stylistic beauty that highlights The Truth of humanity *Note! Contains spoilers.

Fascism as a political metaphor

Light and shadow, representing consciousness and unconsciousness, also function as political metaphors for anti-fascism (light) and fascism (shadow).

For example, the scene in which he first meets Professor Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), his teacher from university and a leader of the anti-fascist movement. "Do you remember? The teacher used to close the window when she entered the classroom," Marcello said as he rolled down the window, and the room was enveloped in darkness. Quadri can be seen as a silhouette illuminated by the light coming in from the other window, but Marcello's figure can no longer be discerned as he blends into the darkness. It is obvious that the ideologies of Quadri = anti-fascism (light) and Marcello = fascism (shadow) are visually complemented.

Then there's the scene where Marcello and his bodyguard Manganiero (Gastone Mosquin) talk in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. When Marcello hesitates to kill Quadri and Anna (Dominique Sanda), Manganiero chides him, saying, ``This is war. Anyone who gives up is a deserter.'' At this moment, the shade hanging from the ceiling swayed from side to side, illuminating the two of them. Storaro brutally exposes Marcello, an "indecisive fascist" who is torn between fascism (darkness) and anti-fascism (light).

“The Conformist” (c)Photofest / Getty Image

The story doesn't tell the theme; the images do. ``The Conformist'' sublimates this ideal that every filmmaker would dream of. Let me quote Bertolucci's comment.

``Movies are much closer to literature and poetry than theater.I agree that many movies are just illustrations of a story.The biggest challenge you face when making a movie based on a novel That's the problem, and that was the problem when I made The Conformist, which is based on a Moravian story, because a lot of filmmakers use the script as if they were starting with a novel, It's simply because they're illustrating the script and making it into a movie.'' ( Quoted from an interview with Bernardo Bertolucci )

Plato's "Prisoner of the Cave"