Elio Petri is pretty much a forgotten figure nowadays but in his day made enough of an impact to share a Grand Prix at Cannes for this and to win an Academy Award for his earlier Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. Like that, Working Class stars Gian Maria Volonté, who gives here the ultimate portrayal of Alienated Labour in a full-blooded performance that’s still subtle enough to show clearly how Volonté’s character, factory pieceworker Lulù Massa, is barely conscious of the degree of exploitation he’s suffering, even when the loss of a finger pushes him to radical action. Petri’s film is expressionistic, histrionic, cacophonous, in stylistic tune with Lulu himself as he is buffeted by the forces around him, the speeded-up production line of the factory floor, the oppressive supervisors, the conformist union officials, the solipsistic student radicals, literally hemmed in within the frame by the narrow confines of the apartment he shares with his partner and her young son. What’s wrong with this society is made abundantly clear but the film hardly offers much hope for change: when at the end of the film Lula retells his dream of workers knocking down the walls around them it’s stirring stuffÑexcept that his co-workers can barely hear him over the din of the factory. So, we’re rather left with the image that Petri repeats throughout of the workers, having passed through the factory gates, trudging down the long road, expanses of snow on either side, towards the factory buildings. That, presumably, is “Heaven”.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Medusa DVD
01 Feb 2010 7:51 PM | Comments (1)
A Quiet Place in the Country (Un tranquillo posto di campagna), made in 1969, is very much worth checking out, if you haven’t already seen it. I wish Petri’s films were more widely available in the US.
Cullen Gallagher
1 February 2010
9:31 PM
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