Bernardo Bertolucci has described The Spider's Strategy [released in the United States as The Spider's Stratagem], one of the two films he completed in 1970, as 'a sort of psychoanalytical therapy, a journey through the realm of pre-conscious memory.' But even without this hint, and without the knowledge of Bertolucci's recent interest in and exploration of psychoanalysis, it would be evident that both The Spider's Strategy and The Conformist are linked by more than their 1930s settings and their concern with the problem of Fascism.

Since both films are based on literary works, the surest key to Bertolucci's preoccupations is in the changes he has made in his originals. The Spider's Strategy is based on a short story by Borges, Theme of the Traitor and the Hero…. The Borges story is only a few pages long; and it is in what Bertolucci has added that the true significance...