The Conformist
Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AICOne of Vittorio Storaro's earliest attempts at "writing with light in movement," The Conformist benefits from a deft interplay of luminance and darkness that demonstrates the virtuoso cinematographer's exceptional prowess.
Alberto Moravia's Fascist-era novel was adapted for the silver screen by Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, who was barely 30 when he embarked upon the project. The film's oblique narrative traces a philosophy professor's quest for that elusive state of being that often drives men to madness: "the impression of normalcy." Desperate for acceptance, repressed homosexual Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) weds a frivolous woman and joins Mussolini's secret police on an assignment to execute his ex-mentor, Luca Quadri (Enzo Tarascio).
Drawing inspiration from Thirties cinema, Storaro frames exquisite compositions that underscore the subtext of Clerici's existential angst: expansive tableaus of functionalist Fascist architecture that dwarfs citizens; a cat-and-mouse game between sunlight and shadow that mirrors a confrontation between Quadri and Clerici in the teacher's study; Marcello's dispassionate gaze as he peers through a glass pane and spies his wife (Stefania Sandrelli) and Anna Quadri (Dominique Sanda) dancing a tantalizing tango.
Though Storaro had yet to formulate his theories on the significance of various colors — which, he asserts, can reflect symbolic subtexts and emotional states — the imagery in The Conformist illustrates his thematic use of contrast; throughout the picture, the cinematographer creates a visual conflict between reactionary Fascism and democratic freedom. "We wanted to show the kind of conflict [that exists] between a stated reality and a real reality," he asserted in the book Masters of Light. "I wanted to show through light the idea of claustrophobia, of being caged. I used the idea that the light could never reach the shadows, so that there was a distinct separation between the shadows and the light. That's why I was using the kind of technique that would create very sharp shadows and very sharp light in the first half of the picture [which is set in Rome]. Now, when the characters go to Paris — Paris for us was a free nation; it was where everybody was going to escape from the dictatorship — I expressed this sense of freedom by letting the light go into the shadows. I completely changed the style of the light and I gave the audience colors that they hadn't seen before. The Conformist is almost a black-and-white picture in the beginning. But in the last half in Paris, you see differently. You see the light going into shadows. It's like the two sections. . . are united once more."
Coming on the heels of Bertolucci and Storaro's first collaboration (on The Spider's Strategem), The Conformist signaled the blossoming of one of cinema's most fruitful partnerships. The duo had first met some six years earlier on the set of Bertolucci's Before the Revolution, on which the 23-year-old Storaro served as an assistant cameraman. In the 30 years since, the two have produced a string of lushly photographed pictures that include Luna, 1900, The Sheltering Sky, The Last Emperor and Little Buddha.
— Andrew O. Thompson
© 1999 ASC