Liliputin -5796

A Procrustean bed as an arbitrary standard of enforced or self-enforced conformity is deeply embedded in history of mankind ... "
Bernardo Bertolucci


Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2025/03/08/5867

***
A Procrustean bed is an arbitrary standard to which exact conformity is forced. The term comes from Greek mythology, where the giant Procrustes would capture people and then stretch or cut off their limbs to make them fit into his bed. In modern usage, it refers to forcing someone or something to fit or conform, often through violence.

***
Conformity is a social influence that causes a change in belief or behavior to fit in with a group. Conformity can be motivated by real or imagined group pressure, such as the presence of others or the expectations of social norms. Conformity can affect an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, and make them align with those of the people around them.

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The Conformist (1970 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Conformist

Theatrical release poster
Italian Il conformista
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Screenplay by Bernardo Bertolucci
Based on The Conformist
by Alberto Moravia
Produced by Maurizio Lodi-F;
Starring
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Stefania Sandrelli
Gastone Moschin
Enzo Tarascio
Fosco Giachetti
Jos; Quaglio
Dominique Sanda
Pierre Cl;menti
Cinematography Vittorio Storaro
Edited by Franco Arcalli
Music by Georges Delerue
Production
companies
Mars Film Produzione
Marianne Productions
Maran Film
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures (Italy)
Cinema International Corporation (France and West Germany)
Release dates
1 July 1970 (Berlin)
7 October 1970 (Italy)
17 February 1971 (France)
16 April 1971 (West Germany)
Running time 108 minutes
Countries
Italy
France
West Germany
Language Italian
Budget $750,000[1][2]
Box office
;207.3 million (Italy)[2]
570,149 admissions (France)[3]

The Conformist (Italian: Il conformista) is a 1970 political drama film written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the 1951 novel by Alberto Moravia. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, Jos; Quaglio, Dominique Sanda and Pierre Cl;menti. Set in 1930s Italy, The Conformist centers on a mid-level Fascist functionary (Trintignant) who is ordered to assassinate his former professor, an anti-Fascist dissident in Paris. His mission is complicated after he begins an affair with the professor's wife (Sanda).

An international co-production between Italian, French and West German companies, The Conformist opened at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. It received widespread acclaim from critics, and appeared on several lists of the best films of 1970. Among other accolades, it won the David di Donatello for Best Film, the Sutherland Trophy, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The cinematography, by Vittorio Storaro, was also highly praised and launched his international career.[4]

Retrospective reviews have been equally positive, both towards the film's cinematic merits as well as its political content.[5] The film was highly influential towards later works, including Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy,[6] and has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time.[7][8]

In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[9]

Plot
In 1938 Paris, Marcello Clerici finalises his preparations to assassinate his former university professor, Luca Quadri, leaving his wife, Giulia, in their hotel room. After receiving a call, Marcello is collected in a car driven by his subordinate, Special Agent Manganiello.

A series of flashbacks depict Marcello discussing with his blind friend, Italo, his plans to marry, his attempts to join the Fascist secret police, and his visits to his parents in Rome: a morphine-addicted mother at the family's decaying villa, and his father at an insane asylum.

In a flashback to 1917, Marcello is a boy who is humiliated by his schoolmates until he is rescued by Lino, a chauffeur. Lino shows him a pistol and then sexually assaults him. Marcello partially responds before grabbing the pistol and firing into the walls and at Lino. He then flees, believing he has committed murder.

In another flashback, Marcello and Giulia discuss the necessity of his going to confession, even though he is an atheist, in order for her Roman Catholic parents to permit their marriage. Marcello agrees and, in confession, admits to the priest that he has committed several sins, including his rape by and subsequent murder of Lino, premarital sex, and his lack of guilt for these sins. Marcello admits he thinks little of Giulia but craves the normality that a traditional marriage with children would bring. The priest is shocked but absolves Marcello upon learning that he is working for the Fascist secret police.

In Ventimiglia, Marcello meets with Fascist officer Raoul, who orders him to assassinate Professor Quadri, an outspoken anti-Fascist intellectual now living in exile in France. Using his honeymoon as a cover, Marcello takes Giulia to Paris to carry out the mission.

While visiting Quadri, Marcello falls in love with Anna, the professor's wife, and pursues her. Although she and her husband are aware of Marcello's dangerous Fascist sympathies, she responds to his advances and forms a close attachment to Giulia, towards whom she also makes sexual advances. Giulia and Anna dress extravagantly and go to a dance hall with their husbands, where Marcello's commitment to the Fascists is tested by Quadri. Manganiello is also present, having been following Marcello for some time and doubting his intentions. Marcello secretly returns the gun he has been given and provides Manganiello with the location of Quadri's country house in Savoy, where the couple plan to go the following day.

Even though Marcello has warned Anna not to accompany her husband to the countryside, she makes the car journey nonetheless. On a deserted alpine road, Fascist agents fatally stab Quadri as Anna watches in horror. When the men turn their attention to her, she runs to the car behind for help. On seeing Marcello as the passenger in the back seat and realising his betrayal, Anna begins to scream before fleeing into the woods to escape the agents. Marcello watches as she is pursued through the forest and shot to death. Manganiello walks away from the car for a cigarette, disgusted by Marcello's cowardice in not shooting Anna when she ran to their car.

In 1943, amidst Benito Mussolini's resignation and the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, Marcello now has a daughter with Giulia and appears settled in a conventional life. While walking the streets of Rome one night, Marcello and Italo overhear a conversation between two men; Marcello recognises one of them as Lino, who survived his earlier attack. Marcello publicly denounces Lino as a Fascist, homosexual, and the murderer of the Quadris. In his frenzy, he also denounces Italo as a Fascist. As an anti-Fascist crowd sweeps past, taking Italo with them, Marcello sits near a small fire and stares behind him at the young man Lino had been speaking to, now naked on a bed.

Cast
Jean-Louis Trintignant as Marcello Clerici
Pasquale Fortunato as young Marcello
Stefania Sandrelli as Giulia
Gastone Moschin as Manganiello
Dominique Sanda as Anna Quadri
Pierre Cl;menti as Lino Semirama
Enzo Tarascio [it] as Professor Luca Quadri
Jos; Quaglio as Italo Montanari
Fosco Giachetti as the colonel
Yvonne Sanson as Giulia's mother
Milly as Marcello's mother
Giuseppe Addobbati as Marcello's father
Antonio Maestri as Don Lattanzi
Alessandro Haber as a blind drunk
Christian Aligny as Raoul
Pierangelo Civera as Franz
Orso Maria Guerrini as an assassin
Marta Lado as Marcello's daughter (uncredited)
Benedetto Benedetti as the minister (uncredited)
Joel Barcellos as a student (uncredited)
Themes

Marcello seduces Giulia during their train ride to Paris.
The film is a case study in the psychology of conformism and fascism: Marcello Clerici is a bureaucrat, cultivated and intellectual but largely dehumanized by an intense need to be "normal" and to belong to whatever is the current dominant socio-political group. He grew up in an upper class, perhaps dysfunctional family, and he suffered a major childhood sexual trauma and gun violence episode in which he long believed (erroneously) that he had committed a murder. He accepts an assignment from Benito Mussolini's secret police to assassinate his former mentor, living in exile in Paris. In Trintignant's characterization, Clerici is willing to sacrifice his values in the interests of building a supposedly "normal life".[10]

According to the political philosopher Takis Fotopoulos, "This psychological need to conform and be 'normal' at the social level, in general, and the political level, in particular, was beautifully portrayed" by The Conformist, as well as Eug;ne Ionesco's 1959 play Rhinoceros.[11]

According to the 1992 documentary Visions of Light, the film is widely praised as a visual masterpiece. It was photographed by Vittorio Storaro, who used rich colours, authentic wardrobe of the 1930s and a series of unusual camera angles and fluid camera movement. Film critic and author Robin Buss wrote that the cinematography suggests Clerici's inability to conform with "normal" reality: the reality of the time is "abnormal".[12] Also, Bertolucci's cinematic style synthesises expressionism and "fascist" film aesthetics. Its style has been compared with classic German films of the 1920s and 1930s, such as in Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).[13]

In 2013, Interiors, an online journal concerned with the relationship between architecture and film, released an issue that discussed how space is used in a scene that takes place on the Palazzo dei Congressi. The issue highlights the use of architecture in the film, pointing out that in order to understand the film itself, it is essential to understand the history of the EUR district in Rome and its deep ties with fascism.[14]

Production

The entrance hall of Palazzo dei Congressi

Sant' Angelo Bridge

Gare d'Orsay
The Conformist was filmed in locations throughout Rome and Paris.[15] Roman locations included the Palazzo dei Congressi, the Museum of the Ara Pacis, Sant' Angelo Bridge, Santa Marinella, the Theatre of Marcellus and the Colosseum. Parisian locales included Gare d'Orsay, Palais de Chaillot, and Joinville-le-Pont. The studio scenes were filmed at Cinecitt;.

Bertolucci, production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro made heavy use of the 1930s art and d;cor associated with the Fascist era: the middle-class drawing rooms and the huge halls of the ruling elite.[6][12] The EUR district of Rome, which was commissioned by Benito Mussolini as a model city, and its rationalist architecture serves as one of the film's key locations.[16]

Lead actor Trintignant learned his Italian-language lines phonetically, and per common practice in the Italian film industry at the time, was later dubbed over by another actor, Sergio Graziani.[17][18][19] Other actors in the dub cast included Arturo Dominici, Rita Savagnone, Giuseppe Rinaldi and Lydia Simoneschi.[20]

Bertolucci's first choices to play Giulia and Anna were Florinda Bolkan and Brigitte Bardot, but the former was busy shooting The Last Valley, and the latter disliked the script. Anouk Aim;e was offered a role.

The use of in media res and non-chronological storytelling was not in the original script, but determined by Bertolucci and his editor Franco Arcalli during post-production.

Music
The soundtrack composed by Georges Delerue was originally released on LP in Italy in February 1971 by Cinevox.[21] On 5 February 2013, Music Box Records released a limited edition of the soundtrack on CD, containing 15 previously unreleased songs.[21][22][23]

Release
The film premiered at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival on 1 July 1970,[24] where it competed for the Golden Bear. However, due to a controversy surrounding the participation of Michael Verhoeven's anti-war film o.k., the festival was closed down three days later and no prizes were awarded.[25]

The film had a staggered release in Italy, opening in major cities in the early months of 1971: Milan on 29 January, Turin on 5 February and Rome on 25 March, for example.[26] In the United States, the film screened at the New York Film Festival on 18 September 1970[27] and was given a limited release in select cities the following spring, opening in New York and Los Angeles in April 1971,[28][29] and Chicago and Washington, D.C., in May 1971.[30][31] The first American release of the film was trimmed by five minutes compared to the Italian release; the missing scene features a group of blind people having a dance. They were restored in the 1996 reissue.[32]

Home media
The film was released in the United States on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on 5 December 2006. The DVD includes the original theatrical version (runtime 111 minutes); The Rise of The Conformist: The Story, the Cast featurette; Shadow and Light: Filming The Conformist featurette; and The Conformist: Breaking New Ground featurette.

In 2011, the Cineteca di Bologna commissioned a 2K restoration of The Conformist, supervised by Storaro himself (and approved by Bertolucci),[19] which screened in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival on 11 May 2011, in conjunction with the presentation of an honorary Palme d'Or to Bertolucci.[33][34] The restoration was done by Minerva Pictures–RaroVideo USA and L'Immagine Ritrovata (laboratory of the Cineteca di Bologna).[35] In 2014, the digital restoration was released theatrically by Kino Lorber at New York City's Film Forum on 29 August and on Blu-ray by Rarovideo USA on 25 November.[36][37]

Reception
Critical response
Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, praised Bertolucci's screenplay and his directorial effort, and wrote, "Bernardo Bertolucci ... has at last made a very middle-class, almost conventional movie that turns out to be one of the elegant surprises of the current New York Film Festival. ... It is also apparent in Bertolucci's cinematic style, which is so rich, poetic, and baroque that it is simply incapable of meaning only what it says ... The movie is perfectly cast, from Trintignant and on down, including Pierre Clementi, who appears briefly as the wicked young man who makes a play for the young Marcello. The Conformist is flawed, perhaps, but those very flaws may make it Bertolucci's first commercially popular film, at least in Europe where there always seems to be a market for intelligent, upper middle-class decadence."[27]

A review in Variety stated, "For those who appreciate its subtleties, but also its subsurface power and great evocative qualities, it's a gem."[38] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "much more of a show than a story," with its narrative themes "all but lost amid Bertolucci's splendid recreation of the era. In other words, if you are looking for fashion and furnishing hints, this is the place."[30] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "places young Bernardo Bertolucci in the front ranks of Italian directors and among the finest film-makers working anywhere. In this dazzling film, Bertolucci, 30, manages to combine the bravura style of a Fellini, the acute sense of period of a Visconti and the fervent political commitment of an Elio Petri (Investigation of a Private Citizen) with complete individuality and, better still, a total lack of self-indulgence."[29]

Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film was "an extraordinarily beautiful and spellbinding picture," but "what's below the surface doesn't stand up to much analysis. I think this is true and that it amounts to a terrible flaw. The dramatic material, while intriguing, isn't adequately developed: many connecting or explanatory scenes appear to be missing (reading the original novel by Alberto Moravia restores some of these), the psychology of the most complex characters is murky, and the climactic and concluding scenes are positively trite."[31] Jan Dawson of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "In his screen adaptation of Moravia's novel, Bertolucci has eliminated all explanations or analysed motivations, as well as any allusions to Marcello's life before the moment he first sees Lino ... The effort of these changes, in purely psychological terms, is to reduce Marcello's story to a model Freudian case history."[39]

In 1994, critic James Berardinelli wrote a review and heralded the film's look: "Storaro and Bertolucci have fashioned a visual masterpiece in The Conformist, with some of the best use of light and shadow ever in a motion picture. This isn't just photography, it's art – powerful, beautiful, and effective. There's a scene in the woods, with sunlight streaming between trees, that's breathtaking to behold – and all the more stunning because of the brutal events that take place before this background."[40]

In a 2012 article in The Guardian, John Patterson defined the film as an "expressionist masterpiece", which "offered a blueprint for a new kind of Hollywood film", inspiring New Hollywood filmmakers.[41]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 60 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A commentary on fascism and beauty alike, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist is acclaimed for its sumptuous visuals and extravagant, artful cinematography."[42] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[43]

Trintignant considered The Conformist one of the best films he acted in.[citation needed]

Accolades
Wins

Berlin Film Festival: Interfilm Award - Recommendation and Journalists' Special Award, Bernardo Bertolucci; 1970.
David di Donatello Awards: David; Best Film, Maurizio Lodi-Fe; 1971.
Belgian Film Critics Association: Grand Prix; 1972.
National Society of Film Critics Awards: NSFC Award; Best Cinematography, Vittorio Storaro; Best Director, Bernardo Bertolucci; 1972.
Satellite Awards: Satellite Award: Best Classic DVD; 2006.
Nominations

Berlin Film Festival: Golden Berlin Bear, Bernardo Bertolucci; 1970.
Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Bernardo Bertolucci; 1972.
Golden Globes: Golden Globe; Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film Italy; 1972.
Legacy
The film was influential on other filmmakers; the image of blowing leaves in The Conformist, for example, influenced a very similar scene in The Godfather Part II (1974) by Francis Ford Coppola.[44] Coppola also cast actor Gastone Moschin in the same film, based on his role in The Conformist.

Additionally, the scene in which Dominique Sanda's character is chased through the snowy woods after her husband has been murdered, is echoed with mood, lighting and setting in a third-season episode of The Sopranos, "Pine Barrens" (2001), directed by Steve Buscemi.

Canadian artist Alex Colville was influenced by the same scene in The Conformist to paint his 1976 work In the Woods. Colville had both seen the film and read Moravia's 1951 novel.[45]

References
 Spilker, Eric (23 September 1970). "A Hit At N.Y. Fest, Bertolucci Wins A Sandwich And Paramount". Variety. p. 5.
 Credits (booklet). RaroVideo. 2014. p. 4. BRRVD 088.
 Soyer, Renaud (10 June 2014). "Jean Louis Trintignant Box Office". Box Office Story (in French). Retrieved 26 February 2018.
 Sachs, Ben (13 October 2017). "In praise of The Conformist, one of the greatest-looking movies ever made". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
 Ebiri, Bilge (14 January 2023). "It's Time to See The Conformist Again". Vulture. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
 Sommerlad, Joe (26 November 2018). "How Bernardo Bertolucci inspired The Godfather and The Sopranos". The Independent. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
 Jeffries, Stuart (20 October 2010). "The Conformist: No 13 best arthouse film of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
 "The 100 greatest foreign-language films". BBC. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
 "Ecco i cento film italiani da salvare Corriere della Sera". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 28 February 2008. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
 Scott, A. O. (31 July 2005). "The Week Ahead: July 31–Aug. 6; Film". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 Fotopoulos, Takis (2009). "Recent Theoretical Developments on the Inclusive Democracy Project". In Best, Steven (ed.). Global Capitalism and the Demise of the Left: Renewing Radicalism Through Inclusive Democracy (PDF). The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy. p. 231. ISBN 978-960-98038-5-4.
 Buss, Robin (1989). "Il conformista/The Conformist (1971)". Italian Films. New York: Holmes & Meier. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-8419-1275-5.
 Klein, Jessi (1996). "The Conformist". Vassar College. Archived from the original on 9 March 2013.
 Ahi, Mehruss Jon; Karaoghlanian, Armen (15 April 2013). "The Conformist". Interiors (16): 4 – via Issuu.
 The Conformist at IMDb.
 "The Conformist (1970)". Interiors. April 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
 Khan, Imran (2 December 2014). "'The Conformist' Is a Political Thriller Washed in the Hues of a Thousand Psychosexual Dreams". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 7 December 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
 "La pagina di SERGIO GRAZIANI". AntonioGenna.net (in Italian). Retrieved 20 February 2018.
 O'Hehir, Andrew (28 August 2014). ""The Conformist": An unsettling political masterpiece returns". Salon. Retrieved 20 September 2014. There are various substandard prints of The Conformist available on DVD or the Internet, but this new release is the result of a 2011 restoration from original source materials, supervised by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and approved by Bertolucci. The differences may be subtle in any given scene, but the film as a whole is far more intense, and seems less like an artifact of a bygone era.
 Credits (booklet). RaroVideo. 2014. p. 3. BRRVD 088.
 "Conformista, Il (1970)". SoundtrackCollector. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 "Le Conformiste / La Petite Fille en velours bleu Soundtrack (1970, 1978)". Soundtrack.Net. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 "The Conformist • Little Girl in Blue Velvet". Music Box Records. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 Kuhlbrodt, Dietrich (1982). Bernardo Bertolucci (in German). Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag. pp. 238–239. ISBN 978-3-446-13164-4.
 "Prize & Honours 1970". Berlin International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 14 January 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
 IMDb Release Dates for The Conformist
 Canby, Vincent (19 September 1970). "The Conformist (1970)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 Canby, Vincent (11 April 1971). "Red, Hot & Bertolucci". The New York Times. p. D1. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 Thomas, Kevin (28 April 1971). "'The Conformist' Opens Run". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 11.
 Siskel, Gene (31 May 1971). "The Conformist". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 9.
 Arnold, Gary (21 May 1971). "'The Conformist': Ravishing Beauty". The Washington Post. p. B1.
 Erickson, Hal. "The Conformist (1970) – Bernardo Bertolucci". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
 "Cannes Classics 2011". Cannes Film Festival. 4 May 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
 Vivarelli, Nick (7 May 2011). "Cannes fetes a non-conformist". Variety. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
 "Il Lumi;re riapre con 'Il conformista'" (in Italian). Cineteca di Bologna. 1 September 2011. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
 "Film Forum Presents THE CONFORMIST – NEW RESTORATION". French Embassy in the United States. 2014. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
 "The Conformist Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
 "Film Reviews: Il Conformista". Variety. 8 July 1970. p. 15.
 Dawson, Jan (December 1971). "Il Conformista (The Conformist)". The Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 38, no. 455. p. 238.
 Berardinelli, James (1994). "Review: The Conformist". ReelViews.
 Patterson, John (22 February 2012). "Why Bertolucci's The Conformist deserves a place in cinema history". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
 "The Conformist". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
 "The Conformist". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
 Visions of Light at IMDb
 Burnett, David (1983). Colville. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. pp. 137, 205. ISBN 978-0-7710-1778-0.
Further reading
Tibbetts, John C.; Welsh, James M. (2005). The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film (2nd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0-8160-6381-9.
External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Conformist (1970 film).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Il conformista.
The Conformist at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
The Conformist at Metacritic Edit this at Wikidata
The Conformist at Rotten Tomatoes Edit this at Wikidata
The Conformist at the TCM Movie Database Edit this at Wikidata
The Conformist at RAI International
The Conformist film clip on YouTube (this scene is reviewed in documentary Visions of Light)
The Conformist at DBCult Film Institute (in Italian)

***
Movie Characters That Don’t Conform to the Norm

Outsiders, non-conformists, those that like to live in the shadows of society rather than following the well trodden path of the masses. Cinema is littered with instances of these rebellious, alternative, sometimes socially awkward character types. Some are inspirational figures whose actions can lead to us question our own existence, whereas some we can just associate with in the ways they go about interacting, or not interacting with the world.

Here’s The MALESTROM’s list of our favourite movie characters that don’t conform to the norm, for those who haven’t seen some of the films here, be warned spoilers lie ahead.

Peter Gibbons – Office Space (1999)

 

Office Space from the genius that is Mike Judge is essentially about conformity, people going to work doing jobs they hate for bosses they want to throttle. The protagonist of the film Peter Gibbons is one of those workers, commuting daily to sit in a little cubicle, being harangued by his nightmare employer about the most minute of problems at every turn.

It’s only after he undergoes hypnosis by his therapist, who dies mid-session, that he is left him in a newly found blissful state that lets him boss his boss, turn up to the office when he wants, wearing what he wants and not give one single f**k. His new found state of carefreeness leads him to finding love and even being fast tracked onto a management scheme when all his colleagues look to be getting the boot.


A stirring life lesson to us all about not taking life too seriously and most importantly not letting our jobs define us.

“So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realised, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.” – Peter Gibbons

Withnail & Marwood – Withnail & I (1987)

 

Cult films by their very nature tend to be outsider movies. Often delivering genre-defying journeys that aren’t easily pigeon holed, with little in the way to please popcorn swollen blockbuster fans. Films that may not land at first but eventually find an army of fans loyal to their cause. Withnail & I is a cult classic.

Two out of work actors, the ever anxious Marwood (Paul McGann) and the crazed alcoholic Withnail (Richard E. Grant) temporarily escape their lives of unemployment and squalor in Camden by driving to The Lake District to visit the country house of Withnail’s flamboyant gay uncle, Monty (the late, great Richard Griffith).

The diet of booze and pills that the leading pair consume throughout the film only help further their distance from what might be considered normal behaviour, with most interactions in pubs and most famously a tea shop in Penrith end in only confusing or angering the public they encounter. And they aren’t the only ones on societies fringe, Monty too is an outsider, being a gay man in the not yet very tolerant environment of late 60s Britain.

Being set in this time frame it feels like we’re seeing the dying embers of a more liberal hippy utopia, ushering in more emphasis on rules and conformity as our lead characters push back against the system, only for one in Marwood to ultimately conform and become responsible by getting a job near the end of the film, leaving a visibly scared Withnail alone in the rain.

I: “I wouldn’t drink that if I was you.”
Withnail (holding a bottle of lighter fluid): “Why not?”
I: “Because I don’t advise it. Even the wankers on the site wouldn’t drink that, that’s worse than meths.”
Withnail: “Nonsense. This is a far superior drink to meths. The wankers don’t drink it because they can’t afford it.”

Travis Bickle – Taxi Driver (1976)

 

It’s often said big cities with their millions of inhabitants can be the loneliest of places. New York is the setting for the case of urban isolation at the heart of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Robert DeNiro plays antihero Travis Bickle, a fringe player in the game of life, a loner cabbie who only has fleeting personal connections with others, but rarely feels any genuine kinship.

Whether it be with other fellow taxi drivers or any of the life happening around him day-to-day, he struggles to communicate with these other people in a way that we’d accept as socially normal, added to this Travis acts inappropriately around the people he likes, such as with a girl he asks on a second date, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who he takes to the salubrious surroundings of a porn cinema for their meet up.

He often feels invisible, especially with the customers he picks up in his cab who rarely acknowledge his existence. No surprise then with his disdain for the people who walk the streets, or scum as he sees them, Travis takes the law into his own hands with a cleansing mission of his own. Bickle is perhaps the ultimate social outsider in movies.

“Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.” – Travis Bickle

Rebecca & Enid – Ghost World (2001)

 

Fellow high school social outcasts can find plenty of comfort in this adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel. Ghost World focusses on two teenage girls, outsiders in their American town, with a love for all that is creepy and obscure in life who are facing summer after high school.

Edith is an cynical alternative artist who is bitter and loathes most things including herself. Rebecca is the more mainstream of the pair, yet still hates her job and revels in partaking in their favourite past time of mocking those around them.


Ghost World is all about people finding their own identity, which the film proves can be a fluid process regardless of whether you’re a teenager or in your later years.

Enid: “God! How can you stand all these assholes?”
Rebecca: “Some people are OK, but mostly I just feel like poisoning everybody.”

The Dude – The Big Lebowski (1998)

 

When we think of those on-screen heroes that don’t fit into the norm it’s hard for the iconic figure of Jeff Bridges’ ‘The Dude’ from The Big Lebowski not to pop up in the mind. The character shows general indifference to normal notions of success and masculinity, playing to the beat of his own drum. He’s more than happy living in his own bubble of smoking weed and going bowling with his friends, which is disrupted by the kidnap plot the film centres around.

Because of his lifestyle choices The Dude is called a bum by a wealthy man, has cups thrown at him by police and is drugged by a local photographer. None recognise him as a contributor to society and treat him in the only way they see fit, with disdain. Does all this flack bother him?

It doesn’t seem so, top of his list of worries is the whereabouts of his precious missing rug. The dude is a zen-like inspiration to us all that life isn’t all about career paths and five-year plans, but rather about living in the moment, a moment which probably includes a game of bowling.

Maude Lebowski: “What do you do for recreation?”
The Dude: “Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback.”

Bobby Dupea – Five Easy Pieces (1970)

 

A great cinematic example of a character who at all costs wants to deviate from the mainstream is Bobby Dupea, played by Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces. A year after featuring in the iconic counterculture piece Easy Rider, Jack stars as a blue-collar oil field worker who has turned his back on his privileged upbringing and musical talent as a pianist. He’s a selfish outcast with serious commitment issues in all departments of his life, primarily with kind-hearted girlfriend Rayette.

He’s barely tolerant of those around him and childlike in his expectation of all he meets to bend around his own iron will. No greater example of this comes in the diner scene where he tries in vain to order off menu with a waitress who’s having none of it. One of the least likeable in this list, yet you can’t help but respect this complex character who’s without doubt his own man.

“My life, I mean… Most of it doesn’t add up to much that I could relate as a way of life that you’d approve of… I’d like to be able to tell you why, but I don’t really… I mean, I move around a lot because things tend to get bad when I stay.” – Bobby Dupea

Bernadette, Mitzi & Felicia – Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)

 

As challenges go to the dominant Aussie male stereotype Priscilla Queen of the Desert is about as strong as they come. The story follows Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Felicia (Guy Pierce), two drag queens traveling across Australia on a lavender bus with their transsexual pal Bernadette (Terrance Stamp), taking their cabaret show on a tour of the desert, bringing their unique brand of entertainment to an often bewildered crowd of local drinkers who make up the audience.

The film revels in the confrontation that occurs when the group interact with others, as they set out to challenge the norm, showing that gender can be fluid, helping people understand about celebrating and embracing diversity all with a big, glamorous costume filled song and dance show.

“A desert holiday, let’s pack the drag away. You take the lunch and tea, I’ll take the ecstasy. Fuck off you silly queer, I’m getting out of here. A desert holiday, hip hip hip hip hooray!” – Felicia

Donnie – Donnie Darko (2001)

 

Jake Gyllenhaal plays the films titular character Donnie Darko, an isolated teenager, who may or may not be suffering from mental health issues, living in 8os America suburbia. Troubled Donnie lives in direct juxtaposition to the picture postcard perfect environment that surrounds him, and it jars.

He sees a psychotherapist and is prescribed medication to help him become more ‘normal,’ but Donnie is a square peg in a round hole and despite the efforts of those around him, continues to not fit in. His life gets more complicated when Donnie sleepwalks out of his house one night, where he meets Frank, a large demonic-looking rabbit named, who explains the end of the world is nigh in twenty-eight days.


The following morning when he returns home, a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom burning most of his house down.

These momentous effects lead to escalating questionable behaviour from our lead as Frank encourages destruction. The movie questions the thin veil of sanity that exists within us all and examines what we define as normal.

It also perfectly highlights that difficult period transitioning into adulthood where things seem strange enough, regardless of whether you’re seeing a big evil looking rabbit around every corner.

“I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.” – Donnie

Thelma Dickinson & Louise Sawyer – Thelma & Louise (1991)

 

The Ridley Scott directed Thelma & Louise flips the script right from the start. Social conventions and gender expectations of mild mannered women are thrown out of the window with our aggressive female protagonists. Both are living dull lives, one as a waitress, the other in a controlling relationship, when they decide to break from the norm and hit the road.

On their trip a man who attempts to rape Thelma is shot dead by Louise, leaving them fleeing to Mexico. Their journey sees the duo continue to challenge conventions, showing bravery, standing up to injustice and being general badasses. At the time the film was groundbreaking for its portrayal of women in a stereotype dispelling manner that put the ladies firmly in the driver’s seat.

“You said you and me was gonna get outta town and, for once, just really let our hair down. Well, darlin’, look out, ’cause my hair is comin’ down!” – Thelma