Non-linear Storytelling

Not so much the chauffer sexual abuse scene. It seemed an appropriate place for such a flashback.
The first half of the film (or so) shows events out of order.
For example, the man who drives the adult Marcello around and speaks to him is Gastone Moschin's character Manganiello. Yet later on they are shown meeting for the first time outside of Marcello's mother's residence.
Or take Marcello's fiance' and later wife Giulia. They obviously have a very sexual relationship at the beginning of the film. Yet later on in the train scene she confesses to him that she is not a virgin like he thought. They then make love for the first time.

The film presents scenes in not the order that they happened. Rather than going from A to B to C, the film sometimes goes from C to A to B.
This is what I mean by The Conformist not telling the story in a linear fashion.

By the second half of the film, with the meeting of the Professor and his wife, I would say that the story starts going fairly linearly.

I don't have a problem with the non-linear story telling. Yes, it's jarring, but it would seem that that's intentional. The character himself is jarred by what's happening to him and the non-linear storytelling lets us ask if we're seeing this as a memory of Marcello's. We may not be, but I think it's a good possible reason.

Another is very simply the stylistic nature and climate of the 70s. This is not the only film to utilize non-linear editing (a weak example being Easy Rider, which predating this film, used very similar editing technique: flash back for a bit, flash forward, then back to the scene, etc.)

Again, the jarring effect, to me, seems to reflect this time of incredible change in the world (not so much Italy as America I suppose) but it also reflects the time period in which the film takes place. A time of fear, distrust, and confusion.

And a complete aside: I think the girl in the beginning that Marcello had sex with if not his wife, is a random affair. At least, that was my impression after only 1 viewing. But if I'm not mistaken, he gets the phone call at that time calling him to the minister. Also, his wife could have meant that he thought her a virgin when they met, it's not really made clear.

bad poetry? ohhh noetry!

But I THINK I know why it is more jarring than a lot of other non-linear films: the cinematography, and the visual style, were not planned with the time-shift in mind. So essentially we are watching a film that was shot in sequence, and then jumbled up in editing later.

That is pretty ridiculous. How a film was shot has very little do with how it would be edited in later especially for a director like Bernardo Bertolucci who is known to flout conventional rules of film grammar even before Il Conformista, in films like Prima della Rivoluzione, Partner and La Strategia del Ragno.

Many films in classic hollywood of the 40's were shot out of sequence and they had a straightforward narrative. In fact most films are shot out-of-sequence. Shooting in sequence is highly time consuming.

Then think of the warehouse stuff: there's hardly any color, it takes place in one location, the costumes are indicative of the shift.

But it takes place in one location for very obvious plot reasons. And even then the palette is hardly desaturated. In any case every film with a non-linear narrative isn't the same. In Reservoir Dogs, the flashbacks don't serve any othe purpose than to establish select characters.

With Il Conformista, the colours are indicative of place and mood. The visual style changes with each new location Marcello goes. Much of the colour seeps in when he leaves Rome. Rome is shown either in decay or in sparse, gray office interiors.

We essentially start off with a morally weak character and end up with one who knows why he is morally weak.

In other words, a character that implicates the audience instead of a character the audience passively identifies with. The main character as the title indicates is a "conformist", moral strength arises from not conforming.

p.s. for all the young filmmakers in here: it's absolutely INSANE that Bertolucci made this at 28. It makes me feel old at 25.

Orson Welles was 25 when he first made Citizen Kane.

But Bertolucci is impressive in that before that he had already made films like Prima della Rivoluzione, Partner, La Strategia del Ragno and his first feature, La Commare Secca is damn good as well. Il Conformista brought worldwide attention on this great talent. And then he went on to Last Tango in Paris.



"Ça va by me, madame...Ça va by me!" - The Red Shoes

I've seen the film for the first time just last afternoon. What I thought made the nonlinear plotline effective was how the flashbacks were presented as memories Marcello has while being driven to the assassination spot. This frame sequence turns the majority of the film into an intense moment of introspection for a man who is helplessly being led towards tragedy. One of the major themes is the loss of free will - how Marcello becomes a drone for an ill-fated government which he cannot refuse to obey.

I was similarly disoriented at the first screening, but the narrative will obviously be clear on subsequent viewings so hopefully you might give it another shot down the road. As has already been mentioned, most of the film is essentially a series of flashbacks, perhaps suggesting Marcello's introspection. This structure adds more tension throughout the film than simple linear storytelling would, as you understand that Marcello is on his way to the hit.