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Title: Overrated
Review: Having now seen The Conformist again, in "restored" form, I've got to say I think it terribly overrated. Just for a start, one thing I find problematic is the equation of repressed or latent homosexuality, if that's what it is, with fascist tendencies, or guilt about some homosexual exeperience (as indicated at the end of the film) with whatever the central character's pathology. But then this is not sufficiently clearly sketched to make any real sense; it's the kind of thing that can only be taken seriously in the context of a particular kind of left-wing European machismo of the 1960s. Otherwise it's nonsense. Perhaps one's not meant to take it as "realism" but as "symbolism" all the way through the film, but even then it fails to join the dots; certainly, it doesn't work as "realism". Despite some effective scenes (like the final murder), I think that as a whole this movie has a vastly inflated reputation.
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