The Conformist
Where the DNA of The Conformist travels
Films that shaped it
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We also watched The Damned [1969], a wonderful picture directed by Luchino Visconti
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It’s a film [The Conformist] that owes a great deal to German Expressionism, to films like Murnau’s Nosferatu and Lang’s M, but also to Welles’s Citizen Kane.
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When I was young, the French New Wave was everything. Godard was like a god. Breathless was a revelation.
Films it shaped
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I think it’s not really a secret that ‘Far From Heaven’ shares stylistic affinities with films like ‘The Conformist,’ 'Death in Venice,’ even ‘Blow-Up.’
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Paul Thomas Anderson has described Werner Herzog as a defining influence, specifically Aguirre, the Wrath of God, which is also about a monomaniacal man consumed by an impossible vision in an unforgiving landscape. Daniel Plainview is Klaus Kinski's Aguirre transplanted to California oil fields. Herzog showed Anderson that you could build an entire film around the terrifying spectacle of a man losing his humanity to obsession. Aguirre is on Criterion Channel and is one of the great performances in cinema history.
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Coogler cited Bernardo Bertolucci’s 'The Conformist' (1970) as an influence on 'Wakanda Forever,' noting the Italian film's strong sense of place: 'You can feel that city in that movie... And so much of our movie is taking you to these two very distinct cities and having you feel them. One of them is a fictional city, and the other one is a real city in the Bahamas that we spent time in.' He specifically appreciated its ability to capture a specific sense of place and time.
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It’s a film [The Conformist] that owes a great deal to German Expressionism, to films like Murnau’s Nosferatu and Lang’s M, but also to Welles’s Citizen Kane.
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Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Atlas note
Christopher McQuarrie made his crew obsess over Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï, the quiet precision, the icy professionalism, the trench-coat silhouette of the assassin. Ilsa Faust is Alain Delon's samurai remade as a woman. The Vienna opera sequence pulls from Bernardo Bertolucci's visual sophistication. McQuarrie documented this in the DVD commentary, understanding that spycraft requires the aesthetic of European cool. Both films are on Criterion Channel.
