March 16, 2007

The Conformist

So one of the Netflix discs I watched this week was so-so at best. The first disc of season 9 of South Park includes Best Friends Forever, and that's a pretty great episode - the Schiavo stuff, the Last Starfighter-ish PSP, utilizing the BFF concept - but I'm not a big fan of any of the other four episodes included on that disc. And the season premiere, Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina, is one of the worst episodes in the entie run of the series.

However, while the offerings of Parker and Stone were rather disappointing, the same can't be said of Bertolucci and Storaro's The Conformist (1970). Wow. Structurally it could have been made yesterday. The intercutting of the different time periods works well in this tale of a Fascists desperate desire to be a normal member of society, and I imagine it was rather unusual for the time (and influential). But of course what really makes the film stand apart from so many others is the way it looks. It's beautiful, and the way it's shot launched Storaro's celebrated career as a cinematographer (he won Oscars for Apocalyse Now, Reds, and The Last Emperor). The lighting concepts and the colors ... the colors! ... and the use on Italian 1930's architecture, it's a great-looking film. I wouldn't say I loved it or will watch it over and over - but it definitely held my interest throughout, and is very well made.

Posted by armand at March 16, 2007 04:28 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies


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