Verified Document

Film: The Conformist Research Paper

¶ … Conformist Explicating Conformity

The Conformist, which was directed by the noteworthy Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, is a notable film on two fairly exceptional accounts. Not only does it manage to combine a meaningful plot with elements of psychology, politics, and social issues, but it also is visually entrancing and features astute cinematography and sumptuous scenes. At the heart of the issue that the film evaluates is the need and actual effect of conforming. The conclusion hints that there is a degree of futility in human lives, and that regardless of how much one chooses to conform or to not conform, he or she only has limited influence on the world around him or her.

Set during the turbulent years preceding and encompassing the Second World War, The Conformist depicts the journey of its protagonist, Marcello Clerici, through the various stages of his life in a series of flashbacks that regularly cut into and intersect with the present time. It does not take the viewer long to realize that this young man is making every attempt possible to conform to his contemporary society to help make up for an...

In many ways, this sole fact drives the remainder of the plot -- or at least the desire of Clerici to conform to fascist Italy standards. As such, he has married an enormously dull wife -- in the attempt to be normal -- and has also dedicated himself to fascism, which was certainly more normal in the pre- and during- World War II years Italy experienced.
Still, the most interesting part of the film for this particular observer is the lengths that Clerici was willing to go to conform, none of which seemed very normative. One might understand a young man marrying a woman who is immensely boring and pedestrian in able to fit into bourgeoisie society -- so long as one does not have to do it oneself. However, conforming to the country's fascist party and attempting to murder someone certainly seems a little extreme for simply trying to fit it with the rest of society. What emphasizes this fact even more is that the person that Clerici travels to France to kill, Professor Quadri, is his former teacher. Clerici knows him personally. Yet he is willing to attempt to murder him just so he can properly exorcise the negative experience he had as a child when he was nearly raped. It is also significant to note that the young man accepts this assignment to Paris while he is on his honeymoon, which is another point of extremity. Additionally, he also becomes…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Film Analysis of Double Indemnity
Words: 2445 Length: 9 Document Type: Term Paper

Cain (afterward coupled by Mickey Spillane, Horace McCoy, and Jim Thompson) -- whose books were also recurrently tailored in films noir. In the vein of the novels, these films were set apart by a subdued atmosphere and realistic violence, and they presented postwar American cynicism to the extent of nihilism by presuming the total and hopeless corruption of society and of everyone in it. Billy Wilder's acidic Double Indemnity

Commercial and Art Film a
Words: 1837 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Proposal

The way that the director deals with the response of the various characters to the disaster is also filled with psychological depth and intrigue. The film also deals with the way that people respond to situations of life and death. Others would argue that the depth and intellectual range of a film like Titanic is not nearly as intensively "artistic" as Wild Strawberries. In other words, the suggestion is

Cool Hand Luke the Film
Words: 1118 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

How should one interpret the final escape attempt? There are definitely more sides to it. First of all, Luke is trying to escape his prison condition and, in conformity with everything that has been shown so far, battle authority and manifest his disobedience against rules and order. However, it is also an attempt to escape his own human condition, also a similar type of prison to the one he is

Leadership Film Project: Dead Poets
Words: 2105 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

"An older, more experienced teacher questions whether 15- to 17-year-old kids are really ready yet to handle Keating's brand of freedom. 'Gee, I never pegged you for a cynic,' says Keating. 'I'm not,' says the other teacher. 'I'm a realist.'… Although there's a carefully placed scene in which Keating tries to make the distinction between unfettered self-expression and self-destructive behavior, the principles behind the re-formation of the Dead Poets

Analysis of Deepa Mehtas Fire
Words: 944 Length: 3 Document Type: Film Review

Movie "Fire" Production Details/Background Fire is a film that was unveiled in the year 1996 and directed by Deepa Mehta (Bedi and Mehta, 1996). Fire is the first movie of the trilogy of movies directed by Deepa Mehta and set in India. The second film in the trilogy was Earth and was unveiled in the year 1998 and finally the last film Water was unveiled in 2005 (Wijegunasingha, 2000). Plot Summary The plot of

Scarface- Latin American Culture Scarface
Words: 4742 Length: 14 Document Type: Term Paper

Both films irritated their relevant critical establishments, and in this way, De Palma's remade was truest to its source. Scarface 1983 savagery and energy united with its political portrait of the illicit drug trade form a memorable and powerful evocation of 1980s narco-corruption (Prince 231). One of the most striking disparities amid the 1932 Scarface and 1983 Scarface is between Tony Camonte, who makes a fortune through selling bear, but

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now