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The Conformist


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Hey thats great news, it was never commercially available on VHS so there have been a lot of dodgy pirate copies out there and a lot of old beat up prints. I had a 5th gen vhs dub from PBS. As I understood it there was confusion about the ownership of the film and bertolucci has a belief that films don't hold meaning outside of the period of their release. New films for a new generation I guess. A true classic told/directed in an interesting and, surprisingly, never imitated style.

The cinematography seems to have become the basis for the modern style of cinematography. Ive read a couple of digs relating to Storraro colour theories but I remember reading that he didnt think this film fulfilled a lot of those ideas. Truly ahead of its time. The scene in the forest with the handheld at the end is particularily striking as is the use of shadow to reflect some of the themes of the film. Fire light playing on the walls of a cave. One of my favourites.

I would love to know what others think.

 

Sasha

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  • 3 months later...
Transfer is great and there's some interesting interviews with Storaro and Bertolucci. Same with "1900".

 

Hah, I already have "1900" on a 4 disc laser disc box set (double sided) so no need to buy again on dvd. It is strange to think that Gérard Depardieu was a heart throb at one time. Great cast, I forget that donald sutherland was the facist. Good role.

 

Sasha

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Hey, just watched the DVD. Truly is a great transfer. I had some troubles in figuring out the sound, as I know it's a mix of Italian with French, but at times it was Italian being spoken over French moving mouths...so I had to play around a bit to get the right words coming out of the right mouths.

 

Still, as gorgeous as ever...and to think, Storaro considered it more a "learning experience" film for himself. Well, he certainly was given a lot of room to experiment, it seems.

 

The style I think foreshadowed the likes of "Brazil", I saw many similarities both in the cinematography and conceptual "fascist" design.

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Hey, just watched the DVD. Truly is a great transfer. I had some troubles in figuring out the sound, as I know it's a mix of Italian with French, but at times it was Italian being spoken over French moving mouths...so I had to play around a bit to get the right words coming out of the right mouths.

 

Still, as gorgeous as ever...and to think, Storaro considered it more a "learning experience" film for himself. Well, he certainly was given a lot of room to experiment, it seems.

 

The style I think foreshadowed the likes of "Brazil", I saw many similarities both in the cinematography and conceptual "fascist" design.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean in terms of brazil. Does it remind anyone else of the Orson Welles film "The Trial" Which even though its black and white has performance and direction similarities. I imagine a lot of that facist architecture is still around in Italy. I just wish more women like Dominique Swan still turned up in films.

Pretty interesting learning experience, dutch angles, POV, Zooms, handheld. I hope one of the lessons learnt was to tape your gels down properly to the edge of the window so they don't flap. Always made me giggle while I watched it but only because I knew exactly what it was. Its in my online dvd list now aswell.

 

Sasha

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