BRATTLEBORO — The downtown arts venue Epsilon Spires will host an evening of Italian wine and film on Sunday, Feb. 26, featuring a tasting of four selected wines sommelier Rob Forman describes as “non-conforming” and a screening of Bernardo Bertolucci's early film The Conformist.
“The Conformist is the one Bertolucci film you shouldn't miss,” writes film critic Aja Romano on Vox, even though the renowned Italian director is more widely known for classics such as Last Tango in Paris.
She elaborates that the film “isn't notable merely for its aesthetic and filmmaking techniques. Rather, it's a case study in how to build a deep narrative using all the elements of cinema to tell an unforgettable story.”
The Conformist was released in 1970, but it is set during the height of Italian Fascism in the late 1930s. Bertolucci “combines historical detail with the striking and seductive cinematography of the 1970s - The Conformist was a significant influence on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather - to create a world that is as visually sumptuous as it is morally bankrupt,” say organizers.
The film follows a man named Marcello, who attempts to bury shameful and dangerous elements of his past beneath his performative dedication to the Fascist party. When Marcello's loyalty is tested, his sense of self begins to fragment in a fascinating and complex allegory of the personal and the political.
Although The Conformist was released more than fifty years ago, Romano argues that its relevance hasn't faded, suggesting that “Marcello is for all intents no different than the modern ironically detached internet troll who starts out parroting alt-right memes for the lulz but inevitably finds himself sincerely disseminating white supremacist rhetoric.”
The wines for the event include a Lambrusco from the Emilia-Romagna region, which Forman describes as “light-bodied, dry, bracing, and tart, representing the new, artisan approach to the traditionally sweet and mass-produced Lambrusco wines.”
He will also be pouring a white wine from Puglia - known primarily for its rich reds - that he describes as “a rare example of a fresh, delicate, and aromatic white wine from the region.”
The tasting will also feature a biodynamic Schiava, which is a grape variety native to the Italian border with Austria that produces a bright and dry red that can be enjoyed chilled.
The final wine will be a Carménère, which is often thought of as a Chilean wine, but Forman explains “this 'lost' red has actually been grown in the area between Verona and Venice since the mid-19th century.” He describes it as “an herbaceous, spicy, rich, dry red of refinement.”
All tickets can be purchased at epsilonspires.org or at the door on the night of the event. Tickets for the film, popcorn, and wine tasting are $25, and tickets for the film and popcorn only are available on a sliding scale from $5 to $12.