Der Weg der Arbeiterklasse ins Paradies

Elio Petri is one of the most important Italian directors: he made some wonderful films about mafia, politics, justice and social equality. Gian Maria Volontè is, in my opinion, the best actor of the last decades of Twentieth Century in Italy: hot-tempered, brutal, passionate, he infuses these traits to his characters. Together, they are an explosive duet. LA CLASSE OPERAIA VA IN PARADISO tells the story of Ludovico "Lulù" Massa, a workaholic machinist who loses his finger in a machine: with his finger, he loses himself, he suffers from alienation and tiredness. But I don't want to spoil anything. The actors are wonderful: Gian Maria Volontè and Mariangela Melato as Lulu's mistress, Lidia, are like a time-bomb, absolutely perfect, both forceful characters. The dirty and denatured cinematography by Luigi Kuvellier, the monotonous and dreary production design by the future Academy Awards winner Dante Ferretti and the repetitive and disturbing score by Ennio Morricone help to build the alienating life of a worker in a big, inhuman factory. And then there's the nervous and indignant direction by Petri that blends everything. It should be screened more often, especially in the schools, but I'm pretty sure that modern Italian boys and girls won't understand this film and, as a result, won't appreciate it.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven is a film full of loud, abrasive people but set in a world where being loud and abrasive is how to get to people - whether for positive or negative results (or a mix of "well... now I'm out of work and hanging out with some loonies at the asylum"). I was always impressed by the energy and ferocity of Gian Maria Volonte here, though early on I wondered if the energy level had already reached a peak - I'm talking in the first major set piece where we see Lulu, the "Company Man" so to speak who is super productive and is all about work-work-work he is already pitched so high. But this is by design since by minute 30 he loses a finger in an accident with the machine, and then he is left out to dry by his employers - how come he isn't productive and is slipping, the guy in the lab coat coming around to needle him points out, you only lost *one* finger, after all - and realizes he should join the Union organizers and student protesters.

It is almost like it isn't just the character but the film itself that is at a high temperature, like the blood pressure is 300 over 150 and it barely gets down. But this is a story that you may go in thinking will be a polemic or of sociological interest mostly and instead reveals itself, thank goodness, as a character study of a man who comes to realize he actually, really, does not enjoy working. That is something hard to get into Lulu's mind, and like any hot-blooded creature he takes out his stresses on his girlfriend (he has a biological child who is with his mother in another family) and just at his co-workers at large. It's a film that seems like it is at a high velocity, yet it isn't until Lulu is let go by his employers - staying on the hood of one of the bosses's cars and not getting off till he is dragged away in a frenzy may do that - that director/co-writer Elio Petri shows what change is happening to Lulu: without work... who is he?

Not unlike Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Working Class hits its richest moments when, comparatively at least to early on and especially in the middle, it quiets down and we see Lulu in his desperation in his apartment (his girlfriend and son leave him after he brings over demonstrators to his place at night as they plot their next moves) going through his closet, or as he calls it his "museum" to throw things out. He gets some news right after this and the story and character deepen even more, in particular there is that look in Volante's eyes that shows that despite getting what he supposedly wants by the end it doesn't cure a much greater unhappiness.

Indeed the film is really about that most of all: are you happy or unhappy with what you have in your life? There is a scene midway through where Lulu and a co-worker have a sexual tryst in his car, but since it is, well, the size of a small 1970's Italian car, it is extremely difficult to maneuver and painful and, of course, it is over far too quickly (the food is terrible - such small portions, that old joke). This is what Lulu has put blinders over himself early on, even as there is this desperation in his eyes about what he is doing at that factory and having that crazy out-put (one piece, ass piece, something along those lines he says to keep up his momentum), and by near the end he has a victory in a sense but fails to change himself on an emotional level, and that is the tragedy shown here.

Not a great film, but a very good one and featuring a performance that once again shows how versatile Volante was as a performer; extra kudos for Melato as the frustrated partner who gets as fiery as he does.

The movie has a great power, first of all he gives to Lulu a mechanical soul, the camera follows his unhuman movements caused by too much work and let us understand something strange like madness. Then we have the political part: outside the factory people are pemanently screaming verses against owners like another machine that creates words, but the real impressing moment is inside the factory where man and machine became the same things so that the camera let us see the hidden mechanical part and the human movements togheter; the music too (by Ennio Morricone) adds a sense of robotic condition.

The efficient and productive Lulu Massa (Gian Maria Volontè) is an exemplary and beloved worker for his employers and hated by his coworkers. During a period of turbulence in the factory between the union and the radical students against the owners, Lulu accidentally loses one of his fingers. He changes his behavior and joins the movement of the students that wants to stop the factory with a strike as part of the fight of classes while the union wants a partial strike to reclaim benefits to the working class. When Lulu is fired, and gets confused with the new situation. But the union includes his readmission as a subject to be discussed with the owners and Lulu is hired again.

When I saw "La Classe Operaia Va in Paradiso" in the movie theaters many years ago, the fight between capitalism and socialism was in the top in the world and this movie depicted actually the fight between ideology, represented by the movement of radical students, and the reactionary mass without political conscience and formed by explored workers. Lulu represents the servitude of the working class to the monopoly of the capitalist class. Presently this important movie is dated and youngsters may not understand its importance in the 70's. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Classe Operária Vai ao Paraíso" ("The Working Classe Góes to Paradise")

This film is both fantasy and complete reality at the same time. Gian Marie Volonte plays an extremely efficient worker doing piecework in a factory, not even sure what the parts he produces are used for. At the same time, Volonte's precise rhythm and total concentration make him an object of hate amongst his fellow workers, all of him are continually time managed by snidey supervisors who mostly hide behind a yellow screen in an observation box. A large hand, index finger pointing down oppressively, is printed on the wall above the workers.

Volonte is a good worker but not good at anything else. His son lives with his ex-wife and fellow worker. He can't get it up for his girlfriend, and her little boy spends his time totally consumed by television. Exhausted from working all day, Volonte's only break from routine is to visit and colleague who has ended up in an asylum. Soon enough, Volonte begins to think that what this man is saying is making sense...

Outside the factory, radical communists screams slogans through megaphones and clash with the unions as the workers trudge in to start their shift. Volonte gets to work right away, but his fellow workers are grinding him down, and a lapse in concentration means that Volonte loses a finger and his whole world outlook changes.

Be warned, this film has so many scenes of people screaming into microphones, or crowds of people screaming at each other, that if you're not careful you'll end up with a headache. I'm guessing that might be part of intention of the film to a certain extent. With the loss of the finger Volonte loses his urge to be the best worker and starts to see how his life in the factory may not be a life at all, but all those folk screaming about smashing the system or how unity can get better rights, are they any less self-serving than those in charge at the factory?

Petri does everything he can to make the factory look like some sort of prison, continually filming through bars and even doing the same thing later with a school. Ennio Morricone's soundtrack also enforces the idea of some kind of industrial trap where the self is wiped away in place of production. The film is run down and grey on purpose, but there are a few bits of Petri's weird visuals here and there - like the strange diagram Volonte faces while getting psychologically tested.

The main reason for watching this is for Gian Marie Volonte, who comes across as a guy who isn't that smart, a man who makes an arse of everything and in losing the only thing he was good at starts unravelling. In the Italian language version you can hear how fragile and hysterical Volonte sounds. He seems to mess up just about every conversation and even when he thinks he's made the wrong choice, it dawns on him that he's not the only one that's shallow.

Good film this. Nearly two hours long though!