IMDb plot summary: A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, and Gastone Moschin.
The Conformist follows an Italian man in 1938 who is tasked by the fascist authorities to assasinate a former teacher of his. He reluctantly goes along with the plan, though it becomes clear he makes a poor government flunky. I really struggle to connect with the New Hollywood films of the 1970s. Even when I'm tangentially interested in the themes, such as this one, they speak a very different cinematic language than I do, and most of what they show me distances me rather than bringing me into what they're trying to say. I like the idea of this film in theory, but in practice I found it mostly tedious. I did find the ending scene by far the most interesting, and if I had been more engrossed in the rest of the movie I could see it having a very powerful effect on me, but as it is, it fell flat. I actually had to go look up the plot on Wikipedia to remind myself what happened in it aside from that ending scene because the rest of it had so little impact on me. I understand people connecting to this, but it's not for me.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Conformist < Bad Education
The Conformist > Faust: A German Folk Legend
The Conformist < Boogie Nights
The Conformist > Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
The Conformist > Touch of Evil
The Conformist > Ready Player One
The Conformist > Firecreek
The Conformist < Star Trek Into Darkness
The Conformist < Hancock
The Conformist < Matchstick Men
The Conformist > Hitchcock
The Conformist < Sideways
Final spot: #2389 out of 3779, or 37%.
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