the conformist

This was another beautiful movie. It's full of daring symbolism, of shots crammed relentlessly with meaning, of two peoples' faces lit blue because their relationship is blue, of fascists carrying fascist sculptures that take the place of their heads, of a man flashing red in the night. It's still incredibly elegant though.

Though there are big problems when the references get more specific. The invocation of Plato's cave thing was hopelessly clunky and the Caesar murder, if you actually think about Caesar, was a gorgeous thing shoehorned in for the gravitas. And the dream he recounts just before! What strenuously poetic obviousness!

I came out of it reeling, feeling I'd seen an exquisite commentary on the agonies of complicity in an evil world where one simply has to advance in one's career. And it definitely is exquisite and explicit about how Italy hadn't (hasn't) come to terms with its fascist citizenry. But it's also got a lot it doesn't live up to. My mom said that when it came out it was hugely provocative, the sort of thing she was told she wasn't old enough to see. But now, the bisexuality and the inner struggles all seemed pretty contrived to her.

I can't really reject that. A signal drama in the movie, the relationship between the conformist and the blonde one, with all their sadistic, tortured passion, is something I've been taught to believe in by movies like The Night Porter, but perhaps that stuff is better left to metaphors; their relationship is reasonably fleshed out and so ends up begging (beggaring?) belief. But I'm not that kinky (I like to wrestle?), especially not ideologically, so perhaps I'm not one to judge. And that she's bisexual seems like cheap thrills, maybe. But I'm super ready to be persuaded otherwise.

But the dancing! And Manganiello, my happiness! And that scene with the bisexuality IS the sexiest thing I've ever seen! And the ineffable moments by the window of the car! And his confession! And I think his way of dealing with that childhood trauma, that whole last minute saga, was neat and thought provoking. And Italo, the blind man! That guy was a gold mine of jokes about fascism. He was pretty splendid, poor fellow. Yo, this movie's worth seeing.