Il Conformista

Seen as a modern classic, Bernardo Bertolucci's 1970 'study' of a fascist.
It feels strange accusing a film of formalism, but that is the immediate reaction. Along with the slnating colours, there are the non-180 cuts that one suspects is deliberate alienation. There is very self-consciously artistic framings, and huge, sweeping, pans in and out. There is a sense here that Bertolucci is deliberately making fascism look beautiful, to test the audience. In this horrible scene (the seduction on the train, i.e.), can we still 'like' it, just, because he makes it look good? This is not put across simply; the jumps across time, and interior memories, make make for a complicated study.The empty fascist headquaters, the huge buildings, clearly are part of this alienating procedure. Bertolucci certainly knows how to grab attention, to fill up a set.
When the plot settles down slightly, we still have the surrealist elements running through. Pettiness, ridiculousness. A few metaphors so clunking (blindness, carnival, a trap, etc) they must be there to deliberately waylay the audience, and yet if there can be said to be a central 'strand', of conformism and difference, remains oddly opaque. This may require more views. Is this whole piece one long excercise in alienation?
This makes this whole film a struggle on the questions of morals. Of, is aetheticizing, formalism, always wrong for this subject? No. Is that what Bertolucci really doing? Perhaps not. There are some moments we struggle to find acceptable; the blaming for the personality on childhodd trauma. But is Bertolucci's point that this is indeed inadequate? One thing one do know; the attitde toawards women is pretty vile.... or perhaps it is the fascist world's? There are some moments of a kind of crazy beauty, of suspicion and paranoia, of the netherworld of the psche of a fascist. This film is utterly fascinating.