The Conformist Conforms-Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist  

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

 

The Conformist, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci based on a story by Alberto Moravia, 1970

The social philosopher Hannah Arendt, an intellectual who was forced into exile from Europe to New York by the Nazis in the 1930s so she knew somewhat of where she spoke, famously described the actions of the common clay, those who actively went along with the regime, maybe would have followed any regime, during that Nazi reign collectively as agents of the banality of evil. By this I believe she meant that the human condition, human nature as it had evolved over the relatively short span of human existence had not moved all that far along despite all the efforts from the precept of humankind’s inhumanity to its fellows when backed up against the wall, or even perceived that they had been backed up against the wall. Had either accepted evil regimes as the price for a quiet life, or actively participated in outrageously immoral acts in order to insure that quiet life. In short to conform. That premise can serve as the underlying theme in the film under review Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist. (Bertolucci’s work last seen in this space in a review of his classic study of fascism in Italy down among the masses in the countryside-1900) 

Here is how Arendt’s observation played out in this film. A scion of a wealthy family, an intellectual, Marcello, had been worried about his place in the sun, worried moreover about living the quiet life, the life where he is left alone to do his normal average quiet life thing whatever intellectual qualms he had about such mundane endeavors. But Marcello had been smart enough, had been opportunist enough to know that in the whirlwind of the 1930s in Italy under Mussolini that may not have been enough. So to protect himself, protect his future life with a woman whom he wished to marry, although he seemed indifferent to whatever charms had initially drawn him to her, and settle down with to that quiet life he volunteered his services to one of the Fascist security agencies. That may seem to you or me a hard way to protect the quiet life but, as seen in a series of flashbacks, Marcello had a lot to cover up in his past, or thought he did. Those included an adolescent homosexual experience (a no-no in martial manly Mussolini Italy) with one of the hired help, the murder of that person, and the drug dependency of his wealthy mother. Maybe any one of those, as he confessed them to a Catholic priest confessor would mean little but collectively they weighed on his mind. And hence his service to the state which he had no particular affinity for but was astute enough to see which way the winds were blowing and grabbed onto with both hands.              

So Marcello joined a security service. Assignment: arrange the murder and cover-up of that murder of one of his old college professors, a devoted anti-fascist, who was then living in exile in Paris with his young attractive wife. The central portion of the film, aside from periodic flashbacks to his youth, involved Marcello setting a trap for the professor, and in the process falling in love with that professor’s young wife. Despite his best efforts to save the wife the professor and the wife were killed through his efforts (and those of a bunch of professional “hit men.”). And so as the film wound down after the murders we saw Marcello in a scene of seeming domestic tranquility playing with several years later. The quiet life assured. Problem: in 1943 Mussolini was overthrown by antifascist mostly Communist-led partisans. Marcello felt he was in social danger again. In the dramatic final scenes he was seen denouncing a former Fascist friend and probably anybody else he could throw on the scrapheap to save his silly little quiet domestic life. Yeah, Arendt was right on target with her banality of evil thoughts. Marcello the conformist, the chameleon, ready to take on any coloration no question. See this film that is also no question as well.