The Fleeting Image #1
If you freeze Bertolucci’s THE CONFORMIST at just the right moment, Jean-Louis Trintignant’s reflection seems to merge with Dominique Sanda’s face to form a Janus-like monstrosity. Just sayin’. The effect lasts just a few frames but I still wouldn’t count on it being accidental.
Stopping the film mid-dissolve is also rewarding here, where “Bert” (as Peter O’Toole called him) mixes from a painting of a seaside scene, to the scene itself. The various objects, particularly the boat, don’t match up perfectly, but I love the way the stylised clouds seem to hover in the actual sky.
April 14, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Perhaps it’s just me…but doesn’t every image of Dominique Sanda feel like “a fleeting image”? However long you point a camera at that woman, it just isn’t long enough!
My best friend and I were obsessed wth Dominique when we were growing up. On the basis of this obsession, my friend was convinced she’d grow up to be a lesbian. I was equally convinced I must be straight. Guess what? Both of us were wrong.
You see how a glimpse of Dominique can mess with your head?
April 14, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Well that’s what she’s there for — to mess with out heads. After all she started her career by messing with Robret Bresson’s head. He thought she was just another “model.” But she escaped.
In an interview puboished in “Interview” a numebr of years back she said that years after Une Femme Douce he used to call her up and say nothing. She knew it was him from the way he breathed.
Imagine — getting “breather” phone calls from Robert Bresson!
Sanda has for many years been married to filmmaker Benoit Jacquot. She has retured from acting (alas.)
April 14, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Has anyone seen Maurice Cloche’s PEPPINO E VIOLETTA?
April 14, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Just realised that the mid-disovle from painting of a seaside scene to the scene itself is quite Proustian.
My favourite Bertolucci is probably Prima della rivoluzione. Speaking of Italian films, I’ve been watching a fair bit of Ermanno Olmi recently. He has made some great films.
April 14, 2011 at 5:49 pm
Prima della Rivoluzione is currenly touring the UK in a restored print.
Nothing’s likely to displace the spot Il Conformista holds in my heart and head. An amazing collection of talents on top form, with an approach that’s both smart and exciting.
The idea of Bresson breathing down the phone has just blown my mind. Transcendental heavy breathing.
April 15, 2011 at 10:19 am
The painted sky becoming an actual is a perfect expression of Bertolucci’s eclectic talents. My current favourite BB movie is NOVECENTO but nearly everything he did is a major work even PARTNER and Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man.
IL CONFORMISTA and LAST TANGO though were among my favourite movie experiences, the latter more than the former. And with them you have two of the single most influential films of the 70s.
April 15, 2011 at 10:48 am
After The Last Emperor, I’m not sure how many of them are major. Well, Sheltering Sky, maybe. I don’t know if it was winning the Oscar, the fall of communism, or what, but there’s a kind of floundering sets in. I’d love to read Rudy Wurlitzer’s script for Little Buddha, the movie seems to have several trailing plot strands unsuccessfully amputated.
Lots of movies (notably Schrader’s) steal visual ideas from The COnformist. I wish more of them borrowed its APPROACH.
April 15, 2011 at 2:07 pm
I think Dominique and Benoit Jacquot separated quite some time ago. Last I heard, she was living in Buenos Aires with her new Argentine love.
She has acted in several Argentine movies (I, THE WORST OF ALL, THE VOYAGE, GARAGE OLIMPO) and appeared recently on the stage in Spanish. I don’t think she has retired from acting, but is probably quite happy to be out of the ‘international star’ rat race – which, I suspect, simply wasn’t her scene.
April 15, 2011 at 7:15 pm
The Coens had The Conformist running on a continuous loop in their office while making Miller’s Crossing. All they seem to have taken from it is tracking shots and hats, sadly. No matter how many times I watch the Bertolucci I can never quite get a handle on it, which is why I love it so much.
April 15, 2011 at 7:22 pm
The Third Man was the other one they showed their crew. So, hats and funerals and tracking shots and trees.
April 16, 2011 at 1:10 am
Ferdinando Scarfiotti, the Production Designer of THE CONFORMIST and other BB masterpieces, became a major collaborator of Schrader in his films. Especially MISHIMA. Also a movie of a man on a mission with flashbacks spliced in on a car ride.
Vittorio Storaro, of course, has become an international star working with the likes of Coppola, Warren Beatty and Elaine May. But his best work is with Bertolucci.
Like Wenders, Bertolucci has had a decline since the 90s. But that doesn’t take away from the genius of their work at their prime. I would say the fall of the wall, Berlusconi and age, and of course a back problem, has a great deal to do with it. Anyway his next film is in production and since Skolimowski, Coppola and Hellman have made comebacks in the past decade, no reason why he can’t dazzle us as well. Especially since it seems to be a contemporary Italian setting.
April 18, 2011 at 9:40 am
BB was once a brilliant film-maker. A pity he’s such a horrible man!
April 18, 2011 at 11:01 am
I really must watch The Dreamers. I’ve found even his weakest films to be of some interest — he can’t help but try unusual shots, so even when the film is collapsing, his eye for beauty provides pleasure in places.
April 18, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Moments of pleasure are few and far between in THE DREAMERS. In my view, the total ruination of Gilbert Adair’s brilliant novel!