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Partner (1968); The Conformist (1970)

The Conformist (1970)
November 3, 2012 - 7:30 pm

Partner (1968)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Bertolucci’s most experimental—and rarely seen— feature concerns a theater professor and his murderous double, who emerges from out of nowhere to lead a libidinal assault on the forces of convention. Coinciding with Godard’s influential renunciation of narrative convention, Bertolucci too sought a new idiom to express twin interests in Marxism and psychoanalytic theory. The film foreshadows The Dreamers (2003) in its examination of the politics of 1968.

Red Film. Producer: Giovanni Bertolucci. Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Amico. Cinematographer: Ugo Piccone. Editor: Roberto Perpignani. Cast: Pierre Clémenti, Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, Sergio Tofano, Giulio Cesare Castello.

35mm, color, in Italian and French w/ English subtitles, 109 min. 

The Conformist (1970)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Cowardly Marcello lives for self-preservation, literally conforming to society’s expectations in his secret political activity and his vacant marriage to a fellow bourgeois. Only his lust for the wife of his anti-Fascist former teacher tests his willingness to follow orders and commit murder. Stunningly shot by Vittorio Storraro, the film holds up a mirror to the fear and compromise that are the refuge of so many. Bertolucci received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation.

Mars Film. Producer: Giovanni Bertolucci. Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci. Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia. Cinematographer: Vittorio Storaro. Editor: Franco Arcalli. Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Enzo Tarascio, Gastone Moschin.

35mm, color, in Italian and French w/ English subtitles, 115 min.