Upcoming film: “The Conformist”

THE HILLSBOROUGH CLASSIC FILM SOCIETY will present Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970) at 2pm Sunday, 01/25/2026, at the Passmore Center, 103 Meadowlands Drive in Hillsborough. There are English subtitles.

The Guardian ranked the film #13 on its list of the 25 best art house films, and described it this way:
“A repressed upper-class intellectual is hired by Mussolini’s fascist goons to go to Paris and kill a leading dissident who was once his philosophy tutor. Such is the premise for one of the most poetic and influential films ever made. Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg all cite this adaptation of Alberto Moravia’s novel as a profound influence on their films. Coppola even lured Bertolucci’s director of photography, Vittorio Storaro, to the Philippines to bring his talents to bear on Apocalypse Now. … The Conformist is a compendium of virtuosic flourishes: the chilly framing of iconic fascist buildings such as the Esposizione Universale Roma in Rome and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; the expressionist angles when Clerici visits his dotty mother. And, best of all, the ingenious sequence in a Parisian café in which Clerici’s reluctance to participate in a dance leaves him surrounded by a tightening spiral of dancers shot from above, making him appear to us exactly what he is: a conformist alone in any crowd. Rarely has cinema been so daring or freighted.” (Oct. 2010)

There will be an introduction before the film and a discussion afterwards led by Duke Professor Gary Hawkins, who wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film Joe (which, by the way, we strongly recommend to you; it’s free on Prime and on YouTube).

As always, the film is open to the public and free, and the popcorn is free too. If you would like to attend, please sign up before 3 pm Friday, 1/23, by calling the Passmore Center at 919 245-2015 or by going to our website:

Scroll down to the line that says, “PLEASE REGISTER HERE,” and click on the link.

(Please notice: You are not required to register in advance, and you will not be turned away if you don’t, but the Passmore opens its doors and provides help for the Society on the weekend when they are normally closed, and they need to have some indication in advance that the audience will be large enough to justify the expense. Please sign up if you are thinking of coming.)