1970 - THE CONFORMIST, should have been called The Fascist,

A film with a big reputation, Marcello Clerici played by Jean-Louis Trintignant wants to be part of the Fascist party in Italy during the 1930's.  To achieve this goal Clerici will assassinate a former college professor who is an anti-fascist.  The film flashes back through the life of Clerici as we see how he got to this point.

 

 Frankly the film seems a little weak with the explanations of the past scenes we see of Clerici's life in order to explain why he does what he does.  There seems to be a lot of two bit Freudian analysis for my taste. But I would be negligent to point out that this film is considered one of Bertolucci's best films.  

 

What can't be argued is the film's stunning cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.  Storaro has long been an advocate of photographing film where the use of color can be manipulated to create an emotional response in the viewer. Along with Bertolucci's staging the film certainly has a very stunning look.

 

The film was written by Bernardo Bertolucci and runs 108 minutes.  The Conformist is a flawed film but worth seeing.

2003 - THE DREAMERS, those French the are a naughty naughty bunch.

A French brother and sister and some American kid they pick up,  share their passion for film and lots of dirty stuff in their parent's apartment (the parents are on vacation), while all hell breaks out in Paris during the 1968 student riots.  Lots of kinky and dirty stuff results.

Where were these chicks in film school?

It's nice that some production company gave Bertolucci a bunch of money to indulge himself in this little romp, however you still have to sit through it. The film seems to be some sort of nostalgia wallow for Bernardo Bertolucci about the good old days in Paris attending the Cinémathèque Française, watching old movies "avec Nicholas Ray," and banging hot French girls (that seems questionable).  

The brother and sister live in some sort of semi incestuous relationship, and you have to sit through a lot of film trivia as they play little games where they quote movie lines and scenes to each other (would this even happen in real life?).  Throw in a little anti establishment stuff and you have... really not much.

Another picture of Eva Green.

What the film has to recommend it is well Eva Green, she looks pretty good.  Bernardo Bertolucci is known as a director who examines sensuality and carnal relationships which is code for he knows how to get young women to take their clothes off for his films.

Yet another picture of Eva Gree

A completely pointless film.

Hard to know if academy award winning director (which is plastered all over the DVD cover),  Bernardo Bertolucci was kidding with this film, the bigger concern should be that he wasn't.

112 minutes the screenplay is by Gilbert Adair.