What Is Walter Benjamin's Response To The Conformist

Response
essay
on
'the
conformist'

What
raised
my
interest
in
Both
the
film
“The
conformist”
and
the
article
by
Walter
 Benjamin
“The
Work
of
Art
in
the
Age
of
its
Mechanical
Reproduction”,
is
the
reference
to
 the
concept
of
“Normality”.
Obviously,
what
was
once
“normal”
is
not
considered
as
such
 now
days.
The
inconsistence
of
what
that
term
means,
is
what
creates
the
paradox
in
the
 importance
society
grants
it.
 “Normality”
is
a
concept
that
contains
a
human
necessity
which
is
communicated
 through
all
walks
of
life.
Whether
in
politics,
art,
literature,
people
find
their
way
of
 expressing
their
need
to
be
“normal”,
to
belong.
The
protagonist
of
the
movie,
Clarici,

 aspires
to
be
defined
by
society
as
a
normal
man
with
a
normal
home
and
a
normal
life,
 he
aspires
to
that,
because
all
his
life
This
is
what
Sartre
referred
to
as
the
“hell
of
other
people”,
our
constant
need
of
being
 approved
is
also
our
torture.
This
is
the
need
that
brought
people
to
join
the
fascism
and
 other
political
movements
of
the
time.
The
individual
basically
decays
in
the
mass
 culture
because
of
the
constant
need
to
feel
a
part
of
something. At
the
end
of
the
movie,
when
the
fascist
dictatorship
falls,
the
definition
of
normal
 changes
as
well,
leaving
Clarici
lost
and
alone
at
the
final
scene.
The
irony
is
that
he
 seemed
just
as
lost
when
surrounded
by
a
crowded
circle
of
people
in
a
party,
for
he
 does
not
really
feel
as
one
of
them. There
is
no
coincidence
in
the
fact
that
the
time
of
the
mechanical
reproduction,
as
 referred
to
in
the
article,
is
the
same
time
in
which
rose
the
totalitarian
regimes.
Benjamin
 raises
the
connection
between
the
process
of
technology
development,
the
political
 processes
of
the
time,
and
the
different
art