Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

George Orwell's famous 1949 novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was given its mainstream celluloid representation by writer-director Michael Radford. It begins on a rather startling note, and for the uninitiated it might prove to be a taxing job registering what exactly is going on in the depressingly dark world the audience is led to via Radford's envisioning of Orwell's dystopian nightmare. 

We are welcomed to a visibly unwelcome sight of hordes of people dressed in blue uniforms who appear to be prisoners but not in the conventional sense. Via some media clips on a large screen TV, they are subjected to an education about the totalitarian society they are a part of. Their state is called Oceania and it is governed by The Party, headed by Big Brother (Bob Flag) who appears as a menacing face all around buildings and streets, at homes and on desks. The Big Brother's steady gaze watches each individual in Oceania. In other words, every person is under constant surveillance. It is a state that seems to be constantly at war with the fictitious nations of Eurasia and Eastasia. 

The captured enemy is executed publicly amid cheer and fanfare. What the society lives by however, is the thought imposed by the government or Big Brother! Any individual thought or attempt to change/modify/question is subject to persecution at the hands of the powers that be! Natural sex is prohibited and the concept of a family is slowly being eradicated! Males and females are made to refer to each other as brother or sister! Anyone who thinks outside of this system is deemed a thought criminal and the entity patrolling the environment to detect and do away with such thought criminals are the thought police! In the end, the goal of The Party is to change the mindset of any individual that dares to dissent, by means of mind control and brainwashing.

In such an atmosphere of total desensitization, one individual, Winston (John Hurt) dares to rebel by falling in love with Julia, an outer party member who seems to be selling herself in exchange for genuine food and goods that are a thing of the past for a normal citizen. Winston maintains a secret diary in which he pens his rebellious thoughts, thus becoming a thought criminal! Does love triumph over a rule of oppression?

Radford's film paints a very scary picture of a dystopian future in which the ruling government takes complete control of its subjects' minds and hearts. This is a place where bombings are commonplace, an atmosphere of war is perennial and power is established through pain and fear. People live in crummy apartments that are falling apart yet, hi-fi surveillance equipment is an important part of the design of any dwelling! The thought police can read one's mind and monitor one's actions. A possible threat in any form is immediately subjected to brainwashing and torture in order to eliminate any chance of a revolution or disagreement with the principles of The Party. It is a dark city where buildings are falling apart; any piece of decorative furniture is a historical souvenir. 

Winston's character is of a physically weak, haggard exterior, but of a spirit that is undying and independent. He is perpetually perturbed with the scheme of things, what with his job full of lies, that of working for the press and rewriting history! He simply can't find himself coming to terms with how language and emotions are gradually being destroyed. 

He questions the happenings as words become unwords, the size of a dictionary is seasonally reduced, dissenters become unpersons, and real food is substituted for some replica edible stuff! Nevertheless he dares to fall in love, and his optimistic face shows signs of some happiness amid fear while the rest of the folks around him continue to live under constant fear and paranoia. The object of his desire, Julia already appears to be a desensitized individual although some kind of strange attraction draws her to Winston's enigmatic personality. Both are held together by a strong bond, resilient to the conflicting forces around them; forces that do not approve of their relationship. Winston believes that betrayal by a forced confession is one thing, but what would really make them cease to be human beings is the betrayal of their feelings for each other!

Whether the authoritative forces of Oceania are capable of winning this battle of fear versus freedom (the individual freedom to say that two and two equals four, and the freedom to choose feelings over their worst fears), eventually forms the crux of this terrifying story. Playing a soft-spoken antagonist in this conflict of emotions and power is the great Richard Burton in his last film role. He personifies betrayal as you see him turn from a man of comforting words to a deadly oppressor. 

"Nineteen Eighty Four" unfolds at a slow pace in the first half and in a sharp manoeuvre, takes a significantly disturbing turn in the last one-third. While it is commendable on the director's part to make the viewer quite uncomfortable watching what follows, it also appears to be a wrap-up exercise of sorts, especially owing to a limited development with regard to both characters and plot, leaving a clueless viewer deciphering what actually ensued eventually. 

As some heavy dialog full of dictatorial jargon is exchanged, we are left wondering how did it suddenly come to this! Whilst the protagonist drifts in and out of dreams of a lush green utopia behind the notorious Room 101 (a term made famous by this very novel, by the way, among other terminologies and concepts, like Big Brother, 2+2 = 5, Newspeak), amidst turbulent moments of destruction, a disturbing third act comes to an abrupt halt with an ambiguous ending that could mean one of two things. This is still fine in the context of the events that just precede. However, a more fleshed out plot or chain of events carried forward with a steady pace, albeit with a longer length to encompass the evidently broader scope of the novel, could've given the film a more tangible shape.

Radford's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" works well, nevertheless, despite a slightly lacking screenplay, and credit goes to a tremendous act from an ever dependable John Hurt, a frightening manifestation of a bleak, apocalyptic future of humankind as we know it, and a hypnotic electronic soundtrack featuring the forgotten pop duo, Eurythmics.

Score: 8/10

The Conformist (Il Conformista) (1970)

It would be too shallow to call Bernardo Bertolucci's magnum opus "The Conformist" (1970) a political thriller. It goes way beyond, further beneath its multiple layers and themes, as Bertolucci, in his terrific screenplay adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel weaves a meticulous, highly complex web of deceit and betrayal while presenting us a character study of a protagonist so extremely ambiguous and unpredictable, yet one we can all relate to as human beings.

At the center of this almost Shakespearean tragedy is Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) a seemingly ordinary man involved with the Fascist Secret Police under the regime of Benito Mussolini in the 1930s Italy. He is the textbook example of a reluctant (anti-) hero drawn into something he doesn't really believe in. Is he really fascist by nature? As one superior official says, most of them are in it either because they are afraid or because they are in it for the money! Are there really people who believe in the ideology of Fascism? Clerici has his own strange reasons to be in the group. He wants to live a normal life. He wants to conform. And for that, he is turning over a new leaf. He is getting married to his sweetheart, a cute but dimwitted socialite Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli). Being in matrimony, having a family, being accepted by society and having a feeling of being belonged are the criteria for leading a normal life, they say!

Marcello is sent on a mission to perform a task for his Fascist cause, pertaining to a certain Professor Quadri (Enzo Tarascio) a staunch anti-fascist who exiled to Paris. Only Professor Quadri happens to be Clerici's teacher from Graduate school, one who regarded Clerici very highly as a student. Does Marcello betray his professor? Is he able enough to bear the cross of the betrayal?

These questions act as devices to drive the plot forward. However, Bertolucci is more concerned about the dynamics of his characters rather than the progression and conclusion of the plot at hand. And therefore, in his extremely intelligent screenplay, he twists Moravia's story in a fashion so as to take us deeper into the psyche of Marcello and give more prominence to his character rather than concentrate on the political intrigue of his Fascist mission. 

Marcello's family life is rife with tragedy. Marcello's father is now an old lunatic who previously worked for the Fascist party. His mother is a loner who finds solace in morphine and sleeps with any guy who gets her the stuff. Bertolucci's screenplay, in its very carefully structured non-linear arrangement, presents snippets of the crucial moments in the life of Marcello; life-altering events, including a disturbing childhood trauma involving a chauffeur (Pierre Clementi), which may have shaped him as the person he has now become. It is no surprise then, that Marcello is doubly cautious when Special Agent Manganiello (the magnificent Gastone Moschin) follows him around in a car, and Bertolucci, in an ingenious filming move, tilts the camera at an angle, an oblique suggestion that something about this scene is somewhat off-kilter! 

Marcello wants to bring order in his life, but of all things he chooses the Fascist Secret Police and matrimony! But given Marcello’s confused state of mind (even pertaining to his sexuality!), indecision and lack of confidence, will he be able to pull it off? After all, it isn’t difficult to see, that despite his pseudo-fascist inclinations, the man has a conscience! In one of the film's best scenes, we see Marcello have a face-off with a priest he confesses to. Being an unbeliever, the confession is of course, just to satiate his would-be wife Guilia. Bertolucci, in a work of fantastic writing, brings out the hypocrisies of the church, and the mindset of a society in general about what constitutes a normal life.

Bertolucci also uses this opportunity to launch a scathing attack on Fascist ideologies and the shallowness of its politics. However, in a very cunning move, he refrains from taking sides and distances himself from either belief! Take for instance that almost surrealist angle of Marcello’s friend Italo (Jose Quaglio), a blind Fascist, also a part of the secret police. He and his blind comrades throw Marcello a party to wish him well for his upcoming married life. 

It may seem odd that all of them are literally blind, but perhaps they are emblematic of the sad truth of how politics is usually blindly followed and that these members of the fascist party are actually blinded by their political leaders into believing something that is extreme and absurd! The celebration is somewhat awkward with two people picking a fight and eventually Italo having a talk with Marcello. Italo mentions to him that they are two of a kind, different from others, and insists that he is never wrong. In a sharp jab at his claims, Bertolucci concludes this scene by shifting focus to Italo’s shoes, which are both of different colours, indicating they are each from different pairs! 

Marcello eventually comes face to face with his old professor. As soon as Prof. Quardi and Marcello get reacquainted, despite their differing political views, Quadri’s faith in Marcello is reignited. They discuss the allegory of Plato’s cave and in the dialog that follows, the theory that "illusions that are the shadows of reality" are akin to the current mindsets of fascist Italians is established. There are two spectacular shots in this scene, brought about by the use of well thought out lighting effects, which corroborate the theory of blinding by deception and also at the same time not entirely vindicating the other side that makes these claims! Blink and you will miss, how Marcello is demonstrating with the motion of his hands a huge wall in the discussion of Plato’s cave and how his shadow cast behind him resembles the classic pose of a particular Nazi dictator! 

Blame it on the rapid editing, but Bertolucci is in no mood to spoon-feed. Grasp it or move on! And on the flipside, it is surely not a coincidence that throughout the scene, we only see a silhouetted professor Quadri, akin to a shadow, no less! Marcello’s reluctance and deviance from a normal fascist nature is rather obvious and the professor refuses to believe Marcello is what he says he is. To further confirm his belief, he even puts him to the test in yet another fantastic piece of writing.

With professor Quadri, Marcello also comes face to face with Anna (Dominique Sanda), the beautiful young wife of the professor who he remembers from some previous encounters (could they be visions from dreams?). Anna is yet another devious character who works in her own strange ways. With what aim, isn't very particularly clear. But we can only infer what could possibly be going on in her mind when she attempts to seduce Guilia as well as Marcello who has very obviously taken an instant liking to her. A weird game of sexual politics begins, as at one point, even professor Quadri appears to be propositioning Guilia! So much for normalcy!

While the astounding cinematography, with fantastic use of lighting and rich colours, by Vittorio Storaro, greatly beautifies the film, it also serves as a symbol for the protagonist’s true state of mind; the changing colours perhaps allude to his inability to conform in any given situation, let alone his personal life. Georges Delerue’s original music is spellbinding and it is especially noteworthy how a somber score that engulfs the atmosphere every time Marcello is in the frame, and changes to a more flamboyant and fanfare-like, just as his partner in crime Manganiello appears on screen!

A remarkable theme in the narrative is also that of doubles and repetitions. Dominique Sanda who makes a prominent appearance as Anna appears at least twice in the film before in scenes you might miss in the initial viewing. And then there’s the ubiquitous chauffeur, a dreaded figure, that makes Marcello rather uncomfortable, be it the man from his childhood memories or Manganiello or his mother’s Japanese chauffeur! 

In the film’s barbaric climax and the shocking epilogue that follows, we get to witness something totally unexpected and that makes Bertolucci’s film all the more devastating in its final few minutes. It makes a powerful impact and leaves you emotionally drained, thanks to Bertolucci’s potent storytelling that is complemented by the bravura, realistic performances by all of the cast. Special mention though is reserved for Jean-Louis Trintignant in a tour-de-force acting performance that is possibly one of the greatest in film history, followed closely by Gastone Moschin as the sly, cold, mocking special agent who sometimes reminds of his famous Don Fanucci character in The Godfather Part II. 

But that’s just one of the things that remind us of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic sequel. One can’t miss the famous image of autumn leaves blowing in the wind, a strikingly similar image seen in The Godfather sequel.

Bernardo Bertolucci’s "The Conformist" is a miraculous piece of filmmaking, albeit one that may require multiple viewings to fully grasp and appreciate its finer nuances so carefully embedded within. It carries an important message amidst all the chaos; one that urges to beware of the deception of the shadows; learn to see what’s real and what is merely an illusion. 

If you haven’t seen "The Conformist" yet, you don’t know what you are missing.

Score: 10/10