By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
A Masterpiece, and Then Some: The Conformist and George Fasel
Couple weeks ago, the 67-year-old George Fasel, keeper of the compulsively readable “A GIrl and a Gun” website wrote about Bertolucci’s best movie; Wednesday, he passed away. The entire piece, the next-to-last he posted, is worth reading. Here’s a little: “Let us put aside for a moment that The Conformist (1970) is the most magnificently photographed, scored, choreographed, and costumed film made–ever, anywhere–because while those are not insignificant achievements, there is more to this work by Bernardo Bertolucci, who finished it when he was just short of 30.� It is also the most evocative and stirring political movie of the post-World War II era, a framing of the emptiness and deindividualization which was the goal of fascism and how that experience played out in one particular life.� I first saw it more than 30 years ago and was deeply moved and impressed; this time around, I was floored with admiration and astonishment… In every scene, the camera slips about into unlikely places, then quickly emerges into conventional setups, then again edges around a corner and sneaks a look from a revealing angle, but does it all on the fly.� Nobody moves a camera like Bertolucci, and nobody moves one for him like Vittorio [Storaro], the greatest color cinemtographer of our age.�.. The Conformist is not meant to be summarized verbally, and cannot be: it is a succession of images, often staggering: long vistas, camera moving a ground level parting fallen leaves as it progresses, huge rooms empty except for one person (again, the visualization of fascism), views from outside in through windows, and the reverse.� Nor are these simply compositions.�.. I don’t know of a picture which handled atmospherics better after The Conformist until Wong Kar-Wai came along with In the Mood for Love, also placed in the hands of a genius DP, Chris Doyle.� Sadly, I have the impression from hearsay that the film has dropped into the deepest circle of distribution hell.� To say this is a pity is like saying that it would be unfortunate if all the scores and recordings of The Marriage of Figaro or The Magic Flute were somehow lost or destroyed…” [More at the link, including memorials to Mr. Fasel, whose words will be missed.]