Alberto Moravia - [The Conformist]
Bernado Bertolucci - [Il conformista]
My last read of a book published in 1951 in the year 2020; proved to be one of the best reads of the year and I got to see an impressive film to boot. Facist Italy in 1937 forms the backdrop to much of Moravia's The Conformist although there is also a sojourn in Paris. The novelist focuses on Marcello who works for the state and drifts into espionage, but this is a story of Marcello's voyage of self discovery as he scrutinises his own actions in an attempt to fit in; to achieve a much sought after normalcy after believing himself to be abnormal. Moravia shows us everything through Marcello's eyes and yet the writing keeps just a little distance from him, because of Marcello's tight control of his emotions and one wonders if he is a character without a soul; perhaps a character like Meursault in Camus L'etranger. It has a feeling of an exercise in existentialism although Moravia does not stray into absurdism. The novel bristles with themes and ideas as we follow Marcello's journey through life; the grimy world of espionage, homosexuality, desire, religion, a tightly controlled police state and the inevitability of reactions as a result of actions taken.

In a prolog to the main action of the novel we meet Marcello as an innocent thirteen year old who is bullied at school and whose father is well on the way to his insanity and his mother has her own issues. Marcello takes pleasure in killing lizards and to his surprise discovers that his behaviour is seen as abnormal by his friend next door. He is picked up while walking home from school by a man driving an impressive car and bargains with him to obtain a hand gun. He avoids being raped by shooting his adversary Lino (a defrocked priest) and escapes any consequences. This incident remains with him all his life. We pick up Marcello's story in his early thirties; he has graduated and is a government employee, a member of the facist party and about to get married. He concentrates his efforts into being a good husband and model employee, but his enthusiasm to do what is expected of him is derailed by his selection to carry out a clandestine operation by his employers and the sexual desire of his fiancé.

His acceptance of his part in a mission to kill his old and revered professor who is making anti-fascist waves in Paris and his attraction to the professors wife (Lina) leads to further complications, but Marcello's psychopathic tendencies enable him to find his way through. It is a complicated situation made more so by the professor's young wife wanting to seduce Marcello's fiancé Giulia and the professor himself refusing to acknowledge the machinations of the fascist plot. There are some brilliant set piece incidents in the book which make great subject matter for the film: Marcello must go to confession before his marriage and decides to confess to the murder of Lino, the professor and his wife take Marcello and his wife who are on their honeymoon to a lesbian club in Paris, the fall of Mussolini and Marcello's flight to the countryside. These incidents along with the earlier one of Marcello's seduction by Lina are used by Bertolucci's to create a sort of cut and paste cinema style. Marcello just appears to move on to the next thing he must do, hardly questioning anything, sleepwalking almost in his desire to be seen as normal. He enjoys the regularity of life as a government employee, he looks forward to a settled marriage, but must exert an almost iron willed control on his emotions and feeling that threaten to disrupt his life. This is a tightly controlled novel with sinister overtones that is unsettling in its depiction of Marcello as a man just on the outer edge of normalcy.

The film released in 1970 is an impressive piece of artwork. The director uses a backdrop of modernist monumental architecture with its impeccable clean lines and grandeur that dwarf the human characters. It lends an added depth to the character of Marcello who is a character with a vital something missing. It expresses the would be power of the fascist state and its overriding feeling of control permeates throughout. It is also a good backdrop to the decadence of the principal characters, both morale and physical. Like the book the film has an unsettling edge to it enhanced by the performance of Jean-Louis Trintignant as Marcello. I think it is a visual masterpiece; a delight to the senses. I viewed the film just after finishing the book and although the film is not exactly faithful to the book I found my imagination bouncing around between the two. You can hardly have a better compliment to the film maker.

There is no doubting the erotic charge to the book which the film does not quite capture in all its complexities but here is an example:

In Lina, was the purity he seemed to perceive there - mortified in the prostitute, triumphant in Lina. He now understood that only the radiant light emanating from Lina's forehead could dissipate the disgust for decadence, corruption and impurity that had burdened him all his life and which his marriage to Giulia had in noway mitigated.

The eroticism is set by the female characters, they make the decisions, they make the first move, they look to satisfy their desires. They threaten Marcello's ideal world of order and conformity, but they don't threaten his inviolable inner world. This is a novel that would benefit from a re-read and it would go back on my shelf, however I note that I have got the kindle version, my old penguin orange and white cover hard copy must have bitten the dust some time ago - 5 stars. ( )

Questo è il terzo libro che ho letto di Moravia (dopo La vita è gioco e La ciociara) e quello che mi è piaciuto di più. Gli altri li avevo trovato per caso, ma un mio amico mi aveva detto que Il conformista è il migliori di Moravia, quindi ho deciso di comprarlo. Sebbene Moravia forse non sia un maestro della sottilezza in quanto alle sue idee (il romanzo è, secondo me, pieno di spiegazioni superflue), ha una certa arte di scegliere i detagli precisi e le immagini giuste. A differenza di La ciociara, libro che mi è sembrato forse un po' essaggerato nella sfilza di scene violente e tristi, Il conformista mi pare un libro molto equilibrato, veramente ben fatto. Non ti stanchi di leggerlo, ma ha anche una profondità è una bellezza che a volte ti sorprendono. Un libro veramente bello.

Another book on my list of Italian classics to read, recommended by a friend who lists Moravia as one of the best Italian authors of the 20th century. The Conformist is a book that it relatively simple and quick to read, but with a certain profundity and even beauty despite the decidedly ugly things that take place. Moravia is, as usual, a bit heavy-handed on the explanations in order to drive his point home, but in the end the book comes off as very well put together. Moravia has a way of writing scenes that stick with you for a long time, as I am sure will be the case with this. Overall, I would highly recommend this book. ( )

the novel upon which Bertolucci's film was based. A remarkable piece of work!