Bernardo Bertolucci's Il conformista (The Conformist) (1970), a political drama set in Mussolini's Fascist Italy, is widely recognised as a masterpiece of post-war cinema, a classic of Italian and European cinema and an inspiration for many other film-makers, particularly those of the American New Wave. Christopher Wagstaff's illuminating study of the film traces its pre-production and production history, considering how Bertolucci adapted Alberto Moravia's source novel for the screen. He provides a careful analysis of Il conformista's formal, stylistic and aesthetic strategies, paying close attention to editing, lighting and mise en scène, and their contribution to the film's impact. Wagstaff also addresses debates about the sexual politics of the film and its place in a wider political and cultural debate about the legacy of fascism.

Il Conformist has mesmerised audiences by Bertulocci's mastery of the telling, the beauty of the images, the camera work, its soundtrack, and the intensity with which the characters convey powerful psychic energies. This unique European film classic deserves no less the unique perspective brought to it here by Christopher Wagstaff's expert eye.

Secrecy and Silence are second nature to Marcello Clerici, the hero of The Conformist, a book which made Alberto Moravia one of the world's most read postwar writers. Clerici is a man with everything under control - a wife who loves him, colleagues who respect him, the hidden power that comes with his secret work for the Italian political police during the Mussolini years. But then he is assigned to kill his former professor, now in exile, to demonstrate his loyalty to the Fascist state, and falls in love with a strange, compelling woman; his life is torn open - and with it the corrupt heart of Fascism. Moravia equates the rise of Italian Fascism with the psychological needs of his protagonist for whom conformity becomes an obsession in a life that has included parental neglect, an oddly self-conscious desire to engage in cruel acts, and a type of male beauty which, to Clerici's great distress, other men find attractive. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Giorgio Bertellini examines the historical and aesthetic connections of some of Italy's most important films with both Italian and Western film culture.

"A political tale about an Italian anti-Fascist and the encounter he has with a German girl. The story takes place in 1934 on a boat ride to Capri. It details the relationship between an Italian anti-Fascist - Lucio - and a scared, suicide-seeking German girl. It addresses large philosophical questions like the meaning of life, love and death, through the author's art."--