The Conformist Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Conformist Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 8, 2014

Winner of David di Donatello Award for Best Film, Bernardo Bertolucci's "Il conformista" a.k.a. "The Conformist" (1970) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video USA. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film and visual essay by Italian film critic and historian Adriano Apra, with a filmed interview with the Italian director. The release also arrives with a 28-page illustrated booklet featuring writings on the film and technical credits. In Italian or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The fascist

Rome, 1938. Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant, So Sweet...So Perverse, Le Combat dans l'ile) has started working for the Fascist secret police. His first assignment is to assassinate his old professor (Enzo Tarascio, The Designated Victim), a passionate communist and leader of an influential anti-fascist group who now lives in exile in Paris.

Marcello arrives in Paris with the beautiful but naïve Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli, The Nymph, Seduced and Abandoned), who is under the assumption that the two will be celebrating their honeymoon. He quickly arranges to meet the professor, who admits that he does not remember much about him.

During the meeting, it becomes clear that years ago Marcello was one of the professor’s brightest students. Like him, he also sympathized with the communists but never attempted to join them. Knowing that Marcello has become a fascist, the professor attempts to understand why.

By the end of the meeting Marcello is already madly in love with Anna (Dominique Sanda, A Room in Town, Novecento), the professor’s stunningly beautiful wife, who realizes that she could easily manipulate him if she wanted. Later on, the two meet and make love, but both realize that their lives are heading in completely different directions. Like her husband, Anna is also a communist but willing to compromise with her beliefs if she must.

While Marcello tries to gather the courage to kill the professor, flashbacks from his childhood reveal a disturbing experience with a homosexual chauffeur (Pierre Clémenti, I Cannibali, Belle de jour). The outcome of this experience partially reveals how Marcello’s life philosophy was shaped.

Based on Alberto Moravia’s famous novel, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist is one of the greatest films of the ‘70s. It is an incredibly dark, frightening, remarkably cruel yet indescribably beautiful film.

The film is not so much about Marcello’s mission to Paris as it is about various people caught in a labyrinth of ideas – there are fascists, communists, predators, traitors, idealists, and executioners who try to find a way out of it and in the process discover who they truly are. The film is particularly good at revealing their feelings and moods through beautiful images as they confront and learn about each other.

Marcello, of course, is the conformist, the most dangerous type, a man who joins with the stronger side not because he genuinely supports its cause, but because for the moment it is the only way to conform. Then later on, after Mussolini’s government collapses, he predictably turns his back on it.

From all the legendary films the great Vittorio Storaro lensed during the years, his work in The Conformist is undoubtedly his best. The lensing is so beautiful that at times it actually becomes distracting, and even prevents one from concentrating on the fractured narrative. The use of color, in particular, is incredibly original.

Trintignant is superb as the spiritually paralyzed and consumed by anger Marcello. There are numerous close-ups in the film where the camera looks straight into his eyes, and one immediately realizes how powerful the demons he struggles with are. The beautiful Sandrelli and Sanda are also terrific. Clementi has a small but memorable cameo.

The Conformist is complimented by an outstanding soundtrack courtesy of the great French composer Georges Delerue (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Le mépris, L' important c'est d'aimer).

The Conformist Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with VC-1 and granted a 1080p transfer, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video USA.

The release uses as a foundation a new restoration of The Conformist supervised by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. The restoration work was carried out by Cineteca di Bologna (Italy).

I've done some direct comparisons with Arrow Video's Region-B Blu-ray release and can confirm that there are substantial improvements in terms of clarity and detail. Most well-lit close-ups boast wonderful depth and there is improved shadow definition during the indoor sequences (see screencaptures #4 and 10). There are no traces of problematic filtering corrections. Unsurprisingly, now there is a fine layer of grain that is visible throughout the entire film. To get an idea how much of it was filtered on the Region-B release, please compare screencapture #18 with screencapture #2 from our review of the Region-B release, and screencapture #5 with screencapture #3 from the same Region-B review. This being said, the encoding isn't as convincing as it could have been, and as a result there are areas of the film where the grain isn't as tight and evenly distributed as it should have been (see again screencapture #18). Still, from start to finish the film does have a pleasing organic appearance. There are no traces of problematic sharpening corrections. Furthermore, some stability issues remain. For example, the mentioned in our review of the Region-B release jerky movement is still present around the 15-minute mark (this is the most obvious example). A few more examples are present elsewhere in the film, but they are not as prominent. A couple of tiny specks pop up here and there, but never become distracting. Color reproduction is very good. Color saturation, in particular, is excellent -- there are no traces of color boosting or other digital color corrections. All in all, there is certainly some room for improvement. The encoding definitely could have been better and some image stabilization enhancements could have been applied. However, this is still a very nice organic presentation of The Conformist. In fact, it is the best English-friendly presentation of the film on the global home video market. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

The Conformist Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Italian LPCM 2.0 and English LPCM 2.0. For the record, Raro Video USA have provided optional white English subtitles for the main feature.

The lossless Italian track has a good dynamic range which allows Georges Delerue hauntingly beautiful score to open up the film in all the right places. Clarity and depth are also very good. Some extremely light hiss occasionally makes its presence felt, but it never becomes distracting. The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. Some viewers may notice some extremely small sync/alignment discrepancies (and they are indeed very small), but some actors spoke their lines in different languages (English) and were later on overdubbed. In other words, they are part of the film's original sound design.

The English dub is good to have, as both Jean-Louis Trintignant and Stefania Sandrelli, for instance, spoke lines in English. The Italian track, however, is the one to use when viewing the film.

The Conformist Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• In the Shade of the Conformist - in this visual essay, renowned Italian film critic and historian Adriano Apra takes a closer look at Bernardo Bertolucci's work with Pier Paolo Pasolini on La Commare Secca (Bertolucci's directorial debut) and discusses its poetic qualities and visual style; Before the Revolution, which was inspired by the French Nouvelle Vague; Agony, a segment from the anthology film Love and Anger; the politically charged Partner, with Pierre Clémenti, which was filmed during the '68 student riots; and The Spider's Stratagem. Adriano Apra also discusses The Conformist and its unusual color scheme (using some outstanding graphs), the camera movement, the lensing (while analyzing various shots with equally interesting diagrams), etc. Also included in the essay are clips from a very long interview with the Italian director in which he explains how The Conformist came to exist, and discusses its production history, its script and Alberto Moravia's novel, the casting process, the key conflicts in the film, etc. The interview was conducted in Rome on June 1, 2011. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (58 min, 480/60i).

• Trailers -
  
  1. 1970 U.S. theatrical trailer for The Conformist. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).
  
  2. New, 2014 U.S. theatrical re-release trailer for The Conformist. Music only. (2 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - 28-page illustrated booklet featuring:
  
  1. Introduction by Emiliano Morreale (Il Conformista)/Adriano Apra (Bernardo Bertolucci, Il cinema e i film).
  
  2. Bertolucci Says (interview on French TV/Le Journal du Cinema).
  
  3. Extracts from published reviews and writings on the work of Bernardo Bertolucci: Giovanni Raboni (Avvenire); Pietro Bianchi (Il Giorno); Leo Pestelli (La Stampa); Callisto Cosulich (ABC); Michel Mardore (Le Nouvel Observateur); Henry Chapier (Combat); Gilles Jacob (L'Express); Alexandre Astruc (Paris-Match); Pauline Kael (The New Yorker); David N. Meyer (The Brooklyn Rail).
  
  4. The Collaborators - a collection of interviews which appear in the following order:
  
  a) Ferdinando Scarfiotti, interview by Gabriele Lucci, in Cineasti e scenografi del cinema italiano, L'Aqula, La Lanterna Magica, 1990.
  
  b) Vittorio Storaro, Shadows of Psyche, interview by John Bailey and Stephen Pizzetto, American Cinematographer, February 2001.
  
  c) Stefania Sandrelli, Bertolucci, che amore di regista!, interview by Angelo De Robertis, "Oggi", Spring, 1976.
  
  d) Jean-Louis Trintignant, interview on French TV, "Le Journal du Cinema", ORTF, February 26, 1971.
  
  e) Dominique Sanda, Petit texte sur Bernardo Bertolucci, "La Cinematheque Francaise", n. 27, November 1987.
  
  f) Gabriella Cristiani, interview by Stefano Masi, Nel buio della moviola. Introduzione alla storia del montaggio, L'Auila, La Lanterna Magica, 1986.
  
  5. Bernardo Bertolucci biography.
  
  6. Technical credits.

The Conformist Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have seen all previous English-friendly Blu-ray releases of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist and can categorically state that Raro Video's upcoming release has the best technical presentation. There is some room for improvement, but anyone interested in this film should not hesitate to pick up the upcoming U.S. release. RECOMMENDED.