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a narrative focus means that the developing action is perceived as something stationary yet
simultaneously mobile, thereby increasing the viewers' sense of cognitive uncertainty
regarding where and when actions are happening, and what could result.
Extended alignment without allegiance
The viewer's intellectual engagement with the social, political, and moral issues raised by
Bertolucci is sustained by the fact that The Conformist has few mechanisms to induce close
emotional identification and empathy between viewers and characters, apart from the scene
of Anna Quadri's death. If the narration guides viewers to recognize the characters' traits and
allows them access to the characters' thoughts and actions, it impedes the formation of
allegiance. Besides, viewers are prevented from establishing Smith's notion of hierarchies of
preference, since all the film's characters are represented as ambiguous to some extent, the
only exception being Manganiello who represents a class of individual destined to follow and
obey. The lack of allegiance and emotional attachment towards Marcello Clerici - from
whom viewers are estranged almost in an act of self defence - enhances the possibility of
reflecting on the socio-political issues raised by the film, given that viewers have already
been positioned in a specific reception situation by a narrative that presupposes an existing
knowledge of the film's historical subject.
Conclusion
This analysis of the film has illustrated how it articulates a discourse on the importance of
individual responsibility, which appears more complex than merely connecting 'reactionary
brutality' and 'repressed homosexuality' as some critics have done (Jameson, 1992: 146).
Individual responsibility and the extent to which external determinants can be held
responsible for people's actions arise in several elements that Bertolucci introduced into the
film; the invention of Italo, whose blindness is metaphorically extended to the entire
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