Der große Irrtum (1970)

Der große Irrtum: Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio. A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

“I have been a fan of Bertolucci for quite a while now – his recent films like u0026quot;Stealing Beautyu0026quot; and u0026quot;The Dreamersu0026quot; make my all-time favouritesu0026#39; list, while his acclaimed u0026quot;The Last Emperoru0026quot;, which I saw years ago, didnu0026#39;t make me a great impression: it was definitely a well-made epic, just didnu0026#39;t fascinate me like some of his other films. Same thing with his controversial u0026quot;Last Tango in Parisu0026quot;: other than Marlon Brandou0026#39;s devastating performance, which will always be a must-see for those who admire raw acting, the filmu0026#39;s daring (for its time) approach to sexuality is now outdated, and the film is rather dull in its apparently liberal speech (the fact that Iu0026#39;m not exactly a Maria Schneider fan doesnu0026#39;t help). And last night, I finally watched the extraordinary u0026quot;The Conformistu0026quot;, arguably his masterpiece and undoubtedly one of the greatest films ever made.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBased on a novel by Italian author Albert Moravia (who also wrote the novel that inspired Godardu0026#39;s u0026quot;Contemptu0026quot;), u0026quot;The Conformistu0026quot; is the story of a closeted homosexual, Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who becomes a fascist yes-man, marrying a clueless girl, Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli) and going to Paris for their honeymoon. Marcellou0026#39;s bosses ask him to kill his old college mentor, Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), an anti-fascist who fled Italy to live in Paris with his young, beautiful and idealistic wife, Anna (Dominique Sanda). Anna and Marcello are former lovers, but thatu0026#39;s not the only pitfall in Marcellou0026#39;s plan, nor is it stronger than his tragic conformism to an exacerbated political regime and the fear of living as a u0026quot;pederastu0026quot;/having his homosexuality made public.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe political factor is an open part of the plot, while Marcellou0026#39;s sexuality is very ambiguous (he seems to have real feelings for Anna, yet a childhood trauma and a homophobic attitude show his tragic character formation). u0026quot;The Conformistu0026quot; works as a riveting political thriller and a haunting character study, and itu0026#39;s impossible to praise this film without mentioning Vittorio Storarou0026#39;s breath-taking cinematography, possibly his greatest (and thatu0026#39;s saying a lot) and certainly one of the very best in film history. The whole film is so beautifully shot that every scene seems to be taken out of a painting; it could perfectly be photographed now rather than 38 years ago and it wouldnu0026#39;t look any better. The performances are all magnificent, particularly Trintignant, Sandrelli and Sanda, each perfectly portraying blind rage, ignorance and idealism, respectively. All in all, as close to perfection as film-making gets, and as timeless as its main themes (politics, conformism and sexuality) – if you think this couldnu0026#39;t happen today, take a look around and tell me how many gay Republicans you know? u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e10/10.”