Il Conformista (aka The Conformist) (1970)

An ambitious Fascist (Jean Louis Trintignant) joins the secret police. Yet he also aspires to a "normal" life and to this end marries a bourgeois girl (Stefania Sandrelli). He is assigned to assassinate his old university professor (Enzo Tarascio), an anti-Fascist. He appears to have conflicts when he falls in love with the professor's wife (Dominique Sanda). Based on the novel by Alberto Moravia, the director Bernardo Bertolucci (who also wrote the Oscar nominated screenplay) has created an opulent and sensual tapestry of an aggressive if maladjusted patrician who desperately wants to be accepted. Trintignant's character doesn't seem so much committed to Fascism as much as wanting to belong to the "in" group. So much so that when he has an out, he can't accept it. He's a weakling and belonging to such a group essentially covers up his basic cowardice, his moral rot. The narrative would be no where near as compelling if it weren't for luxurious lensing by the great Vittorio Storaro. The acting is uniformly excellent. The lyrical score is by Georges Delerue. With Pierre Clementi and Gaston Moschin.