ITAL 152 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Present Tense, Cinema Paradiso
17 May 2018
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ITAL152 Lecture #13 - The Conformist and La Dolce Vita
Lecture - The Conformist
●Has the narrative structure of a dream
○Organizing logic of the narrative is Marcello’s mind
■Always inside his head
○Set in 1938
■Fascist dictatorship
○Epilogue: 1943
■The day of Mussolini’s deposition
○Protagonist: Marcello Clerici
●Structure of the Film
○Plotline - Car journey from Paris to Savoy
■Present tense of the film
■Main plotline
■Repeatedly interrupted by a number of flashbacks that pop up in
Marcello’s mind
●They are unrealistic
○Have an impressionistic, dream-like quality
●His memories
●Repressed desires
●Our mind plays tricks
●Freud has talked about certain mechanisms in our mind during
dreams
○*Condensation: Squeeze different things together
○*Symbolic Association: Your mind projects things
○Transgression of Neorealism compared to the other Neorealist films
■Subjective perspective
●Projection of the main character’s mind
■Final transgression of the rules of Neorealism
●Not a rough, gritty style
●Cinematic image is polished and beautiful
●Mesmerizing camera quality and angles
■Look back
●The Title
○Search for normality
■Reference to the predicament/dilemma of the protagonists who wants to
be seen by the rest of society as a normal
person
●This is because he sees himself as different
○Says this to Italo
Document Summary
Ital152 lecture #13 - the conformist and la dolce vita. Has the narrative structure of a dream. Organizing logic of the narrative is marcello"s mind. Plotline - car journey from paris to savoy. Repeatedly interrupted by a number of flashbacks that pop up in. Freud has talked about certain mechanisms in our mind during dreams. Transgression of neorealism compared to the other neorealist films. Final transgression of the rules of neorealism. Reference to the predicament/dilemma of the protagonists who wants to be seen by the rest of society as a normal person. This is because he sees himself as different. He does this by becoming a fascist, getting married, embracing middle class life, and killing his ex-professor. The logic here is that a killing atones from a previous killing. The period was marked by his research on psychoanalysis. Keeps under control and repress the desires and urges of the id so they do not come to surface.
