The Conformist

In 1938 Paris, Marcello Clerici finalises his preparations to assassinate his former university professor, Luca Quadri, leaving his wife, Giulia, in their hotel room. After receiving a call, Marcello is collected in a car driven by his subordinate, Special Agent Manganiello. A series of flashbacks depict Marcello discussing with his blind friend, Italo, his plans to marry, his attempts to join the Fascist secret police, and his visits to his parents in Rome: a morphine-addicted mother at the family's decaying villa, and his father at an insane asylum. In a flashback to 1917, Marcello is a boy being bullied by his schoolmates until he is rescued by Lino, a chauffeur. Lino shows him a pistol and then sexually assaults him. Marcello partially responds before grabbing the pistol and firing into the walls and at Lino. He then flees, believing he has committed murder. In another flashback, Marcello and Giulia discuss the necessity of his going to confession, even though he is an atheist, in order for her Roman Catholic parents to permit their marriage. Marcello agrees and, in confession, admits to the priest that he has committed several sins, including his rape by and subsequent murder of Lino, premarital sex, and his lack of guilt for these sins. Marcello admits he thinks little of Giulia but craves the normality that a traditional marriage with children would bring. The priest is shocked but absolves Marcello upon learning that he is working for the Fascist secret police. In Ventimiglia, Marcello meets with Fascist officer Raoul, who orders him to assassinate Professor Quadri, an outspoken anti-Fascist intellectual now living in exile in France. Using his honeymoon as a cover, Marcello takes Giulia to Paris to carry out the mission. While visiting Quadri, Marcello falls in love with Anna, the professor's French wife, and pursues her. Although she and her husband are aware of Marcello's dangerous Fascist sympathies, she responds to his advances and forms a close attachment to Giulia, towards whom she also makes sexual advances. Giulia and Anna dress extravagantly and go to a dance hall with their husbands, where Marcello's commitment to the Fascists is tested by Quadri. Manganiello is also present. Having followed Marcello for some time he is now doubting his intentions. Marcello secretly returns the gun he has been given and provides Manganiello with the location of Quadri's country house in Savoy, where the couple plan to go the following day. Even though Marcello has warned Anna not to accompany her husband to the countryside, she makes the car journey nonetheless. On a deserted alpine road, Fascist agents fatally stab Quadri as Anna watches in horror. When the men turn their attention to her, she runs to the car behind for help. On seeing Marcello as the passenger in the back seat and realising his betrayal, Anna begins to scream before fleeing into the woods to escape the agents. Marcello watches as she is pursued through the forest and shot to death. Manganiello walks away from the car for a cigarette, disgusted by Marcello's cowardice in not shooting Anna when she ran to their car. In 1943, amidst Benito Mussolini's resignation and the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, Marcello now has a daughter with Giulia and appears settled in a conventional life. One night, Marcello walks the streets of Rome with Italo as crowds celebrate the fall of Mussolini. Marcello overhears two men flirting with each other. He recognises one of them as Lino, who survived his earlier attack; Marcello then realizes that he never committed the murder he has agonized over since childhood. He starts yelling, denouncing Lino as a Fascist, a homosexual, and the murderer of the Quadris. Lino flees and, in his frenzy, Marcello also denounces Italo as a Fascist. As an anti-Fascist crowd sweeps past, taking Italo with them, Marcello sits near a small fire and stares behind him at the young man Lino had been speaking to, now naked on a bed.

Plot from The Conformist (1970 film)CC BY-SA 4.0