Sunday, May 18, 2008

"The Conformist"

This is an old Bernardo Bertolucci film, which was on limited re-release. It tells the story of this guy who gets a job in Mussolini's secret service in the 1930s, and is sent to Paris to befriend and assassinate an anti-fascist exiled professor. It's not really about the story, though, with the art direction, cinematography, and costume design being far more important than any kind of plot summary. I particularly liked the bit where the protagonist's then fiancée is wearing a stripey dress that merges into the horizontal shadow-lines coming from the blinds in her room. There is also the general sense that while Italian fascists might have been thuggish or useless, they did at least know how to dress, even if those who followed fascism were just doing so out of a desire to fit in.

So yeah, recommended.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Heh. Great fashion observations!