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Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Bertolucci's

Il Conformista / The Conformist (1970)

an Albert Moravia story of Italy in the 1930's.

Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a man who wants to conform and finds too many sides to make a clear commitment to any of them.

As an avowed fascist, he is unable to complete the one task he is given to perform for the movement.

He seems like a real shit but there is a bit of the conformist in all of us. Sometimes, whole nations. Imagine.

The film is layered in memory; taking place in the mind of the un-hero as he rides to his dreaded assignment.

The scenes are lush and the effects extraordinary.

It is a beauty of a film to watch.

This reconstruction is gorgeous. Snowflakes melting on windshields gorgeous.

The emotional impact is also strong even though, at times, one is not totally sure what is going on. The memory we are seeing has fleeting flashes. Time is in bits, sometimes minutes apart. It all comes together but it takes awhile.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.