Marcello a homosexual
He is homosexual. That was the whole point of the film, he was living a lie, to conform, to get married, hence the title, Il Conformista but at the end, he returned ( the look back).
God is Dead.
Nietzsche
That to me was one of the key themes. It's the one thing he mentions to the priest in his first confession, that encounter with the chauffeur whom he thought he had left for dead after their brief dalliance.
It links in with another key theme of the film, that of Plato's musings on what people take to be reality. The act of turning around, that is to tear yourself away from what you think to be real and suddenly realise all you've been doing is watching shadows, comes up at least a couple of times. The main occasion of course is at the end, when the symbolism is emphasised by the dappled shadows being cast by the small fire, just as in the cave Plato describes.
But I also recall the scene at the ballet school when he is alone with Anna and she forces him to turn away from the window. It's like he has one thing on his mind and she is hoping to snap him out of it, but he is too conflicted it seems.
In all honestly I did not realise Marcello was a homosexual till The Conformist's final moments. Once I reflected back on earlier moments of the film such as Marcello's Superiors bafflement as to why Marcello was a Fascist and his fiance asking why they hadn't made love since arriving in Paris. It all came together once I had reflected, The Conformist certainly is a film for multiple viewings.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
Marcello and his wife had not slept together because Marcello was bored by her and enthralled by Anna. Marcello and Giulia do sleep together the morning of the murders (one presumes, since Giulia is naked when Marcello answers the phone). And they must continue to sleep together since at the end of the movie, the couple has a daughter. When Marcello avoids sex with Giulia after the scene in the train, it is because she represents conformity, unlike her opposite, Anna, who marries activist professors and gets crushes on women. Until Marcello actually makes the decision to choose the time of his former professor's death, he has not chosen Giulia/conformity, so there is no sex.
Marcello is not strictly gay. Judging from the way that he touches Lino's hair, Marcello does seem to have an attraction to the man. And he seems to feel significant shame around both his attraction to the man and the "murder" that he commits. Nevertheless, Marcello is obviously sexually attracted to Anna and probably to Giulia--at least at times (even if his choice of her as a wife is motivated in part by her status as a beautiful, sexually aggressive and very feminine woman and a way for him to "prove" his heterosexuality).
Agreed. He is a conformist cause of the social rejection as a kid
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