The Conformist ending explained

What happens

In 1943, as Mussolini falls, Marcello learns the man he thought he killed as a boy is alive. In panic he denounces that man, and his blind friend Italo, to a crowd as fascists. It shows his loyalty was only ever to safety.

The last image

Marcello sits alone and half-naked, staring at a young man in the street, still unsure of himself.

Two readings

1 · Desire he deniesHis long look at the young man suggests the nature he spent his life hiding was never erased.

2 · A man still adriftNothing is resolved: he has lost his regime and his story, and he has no self to return to.

What it says

Marcello changes sides the moment power does, which shows conformity was never belief, only flight from himself. The film ends with him exposed and unresolved, so the escape he chose gets him nothing.