Review of The Conformist (1970) by Indi V — 15 Dec 2014
A man who wants to be "Normal" whatever that means in Fascist Italy, tries to be come that as he is told to carry out an assassination. Good plot, but it seems to be a bit... muddled in this film.
Infuriating, might be a good word to use. The film doesn't really make us care about the plight of our protagonist. He wants to be normal, fit in, and while the film does a fairly solid job of showing us that performing an assassination might not be the most "normal" of things, it completely fails to show us how abnormal this view of normality is.
Our man, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, does a solid job with what he's given, but what he is given isn't really enough. You would think a guy who wants to conform would be a grade A pushover, but he isn't, not to the extent one would believe. It's implied his character was molested as a child and that this is part of the reason he's such a conformer, but those two dots are never really satisfactorily connected. This actually leads to a curious scene towards the end where Trintignant meets his accuser, and calls him out for a critical action in the plot, but how the hell does Trintignant know it was his molester in the first place?
It's pretty to look at, and maybe it demands multiple viewings, but for a first time viewing, it's a bit of a letdown.
This review of The Conformist (1970) was written by Indi V on 15 December 2014.
The Conformist has generally received very positive reviews.
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