The Conformist · reception & legacy

1971 · Bernardo Bertolucci

How The Conformist has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Acclaimed on arrival in 1970 but trimmed for its US release, it was fully restored decades later and has since climbed from 'great Bertolucci film' to 'possibly the most beautiful film ever shot' — a canonisation driven as much by cinematographers as by critics.

What's debated

The perennial fight is style vs. substance: is Vittorio Storaro's ravishing light the whole point, or does all that beauty risk aestheticizing the fascism the film is dissecting?

Its footprint

It's the ur-text of modern cinematography — Coppola famously screened it while making The Godfather, Storaro went on to shoot Apocalypse Now, and the tango between Stefania Sandrelli and Dominique Sanda plus the swirling-leaves shot are among the most gif'd, mood-boarded images in cinephile culture.

Where it stands

A 'you must have seen this' pillar — film-school scripture, a Sight & Sound regular, and a Letterboxd favourite whose reviews are basically a competition to describe the lighting.

★ Did you know? Bertolucci modeled the professor on his own mentor Jean-Luc Godard — and mischievously gave the character Godard's real Paris address and phone number.

Named by the director

Influences Bernardo Bertolucci has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Jean-Luc Godard — Bertolucci openly said the film was about killing off his master Godard, on whom he based the professor character.