Il conformista / Конформист

Il conformista / Конформист (2025)

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This two-channel video installation centres on a dialogue between 
two versions of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” (1970): the original release and the re-edited, re-dubbed version created at Gorky Film Studio for distribution in the Soviet Union. Presented as a split-screen video, the two films run side by side in real time. When material is missing from the Soviet edition, the corresponding screen momentarily turns black, producing a rhythm of absence — a visual pulse of erasure. The soundtrack has been transcribed and translated into English, allowing the shifts in language and tone to surface with subtle clarity. 

Rather than treating translation and censorship as isolated acts, the work reveals how the Soviet version becomes an entirely new cinematic body: formally re-cut, narratively redirected, and linguistically reimagined. The intimate and romantic dialogues that once defined the film are strained, reframed, or muted; desire migrates into new registers. “The Conformist” thus becomes a site of doubled memory, where two parallel films negotiate each other across decades. The installation invites viewers to inhabit this unstable space — a space where translation is no longer a neutral conduit but an active force that reshapes story, character, and political meaning.