The “Foreign & Fringe” series that I’ve been co-hosting with Drew Taylor at the Fairfield Library wraps up tonight at 7 p.m. with a screening of Bernardo Bertolucci’s breakthrough film, “The Conformist” (1970), which entranced audiences all over the world and put the Italian filmmaker in a position to get Marlon Brando to agree to do his follow-up movie, “Last Tango in Paris” two years later.
“The Conformist” influenced many American filmmakers during the 1970s, especially Francis Ford Coppola who brought a similar beautiful period style to “The Godfather” (1972) and “The Godfather, Part II” (1974) In the latter film, Coppola “quotes” a shot from the Bertolucci movie.
You can feel the influence of Bertolucci and cameraman Vittorio Storaro in “Chinatown” (1974) as well, in the way that the elegant production design and lighting in the Roman Polanski picture suggested 1930s Los Angeles.
Storaro’s lighting and composition for “The Conformist” were so striking that he was hired to shoot several Hollywood productions including two Coppola films (1979’s “Apocalypse Now” and the gorgeous 1982 flop, “One From the Heart”).
“The Conformist” is much more than a series of luscious visuals, however. It tells a very compelling story of the loyal Fascist assassin, Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who finds himself in a moral quagmire when he is given the assignment to kill a man who was his professor in college.
Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia, the title has more than one meaning. Clerici is conforming to the corrupt political values of his time, in part, as a way to cover-up his secret homosexuality. Marcello is married but in one key scene seems to be pushing his wife into the arms of the sultry young bride (Dominique Sanda) of the man he means to kill.
The film is subtle and enigmatic and rewards multiple viewings.
If you’ve never seen this great Italian film, join me at the library for tonight’s free showing.
(The Fairfield Library is at 1080 Old Post Road in Fairfield Center. For more information, go to www.fairfieldpubliclibrary.org)
