The Conformist

“A dazzling movie.”

Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a mid-level functionary in Mussolini's Italy who wants nothing more than to look like everyone else. He is sent to Paris with his new wife Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli) to arrange the death of his old professor, an anti-Fascist now living in exile. Bernardo Bertolucci frames the ministries in towering marble and the Paris streets in cold, empty light, and Marcello walks through them in a dark overcoat and a hat pulled low.