The Conformist

The Conformist is a 1970 political drama film written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Alberto Moravia. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda and Gastone Moschin. Set in 1930s Italy, The Conformist centers on a mid-level Fascist functionary (Trintignant) who is ordered to assassinate his former professor, an antifascist dissident in Paris. His mission is complicated after he begins an affair with the professor's wife (Sanda). An international co-production between Italian, French and West German companies, The Conformist opened at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. It received widespread acclaim from critics, and appeared on several lists of the best films of 1970. Among other accolades, it won the David di Donatello for Best Film, the Sutherland Trophy, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The cinematography, by Vittorio Storaro, was also highly-praised and launched his international career. Retrospective reviews have been equally positive, both towards the film's cinematic merits as well as its political content. The film was highly influential towards later works, including Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, and has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."