The Triangle Indie Film Meetup Group

(Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970, 111 min, Italy, Italian w/ English Subtitles, DCP)
"One of the most visually ravishing films ever made, Bernardo Bertolucci’s international breakthrough was this landmark political thriller starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as a tormented intellectual in Mussolini’s Italy who is hired to assassinate his leftist college professor in Paris. Bertolucci wraps a psychosexual inquiry into the roots of fascism in a baroque palette of art deco design, expressionistic color, and dramatic noir lighting." -- Brooklyn Academy of Music
"Adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia, The Conformist (Il conformista) is a luminous, political thriller that explores political violence, eroticism, and social conformity in Mussolini’s Italy."
-- Cornell Cinema
"Few films feel more suited to a 4K restoration than Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist. The influence of its vibrant colours, competing light and shadow, and inventive framing can be seen in works from The Godfather series to The Sopranos. Francis Ford Coppola’s admiration was so great, he recruited the film’s cinematographer Vittorio Storaro for Apocalypse Now (which won Storaro a Best Cinematography Oscar)." -- Toronto International Film Festival
-- Winner: Best Director & Best Cinematography, 1972 National Society of Film Critics Awards (USA)

A lesser known of the only five films - all nominated for a Best Picture Oscar - in which John Cazale (a.k.a. Fredo) starred in a supporting role in his short seven-years career before his untimely death at the age of 42. The other four being: Godfather and Godfather Part II, The Conversation, and Deer Hunter.

(Sidney Lumet, 1975, 125 min, USA, English, DCP)
"[Al] Pacino gives one of his greatest performances as desperate crook Sonny Wortzik in Lumet’s epochal New York crime drama, based on the bizarre true story of a 1972 bank robbery staged blocks from the movie’s Brooklyn location. An anti-establishment thriller that perfectly captures the anarchy of 1970s New York, the film is remembered primarily for Pacino’s increasingly unhinged work, but the actor is given crucial support from the always poignant Cazale, whose slow-burn turn as Sonny’s unpredictable accomplice, 'Sal' Naturile, is a highlight of the underappreciated actor’s legendary run through 1970s American cinema." -- Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI)
-- Pacino’s performance as Sonny Wortzik, an unemployed Vietnam veteran, earned him his fourth Oscar nomination in consecutive years and the Best Actor award.
"One of the best 'New York' movies ever made." -- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
"By turns manically funny, slyly terrifying and strangely provocative, it somehow reaches beyond its format to make startling comment on the rampant panic of contemporary life." -- Kevin Kelly, Boston Globe