Synopsis:
In late 1800s Turin, workers at a textile factory are inspired by a visiting “professor” (Marcello Mastroianni) to collectivize and strike for better conditions.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Historical Drama
• Italian Films
• Labor Movements
• Marcello Mastroianni Films
• Workplace Drama

Review:
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and debuting at the 35th Congress of the Italian Socialist Party, this serio-comedy about disastrous workers’ conditions back before unionization — including 14 hour work days, no accident insurance, unsafe working conditions, and only a half-hour lunch break — tells a sobering yet ultimately uplifting tale of workers coming together to stand up for their rights. We see the harshness of their living and work conditions:

… as well as how intimidating it is to stand up to the dismissive and patronizing bosses at their company:

… and the challenges that arise when a visiting worker in much more dire straits insists he has no choice but to be a scab.

Mastroianni’s role throughout is a crucial one, playing a seemingly meek yet actually headstrong force who knows that he must act with deliberation and relational savvy at all times.

The cinematography, historic sets, and ensemble cast all add to the film’s air of bleak realism, helping us imagine we’re really there during this time.

I was interested to read in J. Hoberman’s essay for Criterion the following about director Mario Monicelli, whose only other film I’ve seen was the featherweight heist caper Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958):

“[He was] the son of a political journalist who moved from socialism to anarcho-syndicalism to fascism (briefly) to antifascism, and who also founded Italy’s first film journal, [and] is best known for his socially aware tragi­comedies. Still, his oeuvre is not easily synopsized. He directed some sixty films and wrote or cowrote more than seventy over the course of a career that began in 1935 with a precocious 16 mm feature based… on Ferenc Molnár’s novel The Paul Street Boys and ended seven decades later, when he was ninety-one, with The Roses of the Desert (2006), a comedy about an Italian medical unit sent to Libya in 1940.”

I haven’t seen enough of Monicelli’s titles to say, but I would venture to guess that this remains one of his most potent — and still relevant — outings. It’s well worth a look. Watch for several familiar faces from Italian cinema of the time, including Renato Salvatori:

… and Annie Girardot (both from Rocco and His Brothers).

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Marcello Mastroianni as the Professor
  
• Fine performances by the ensemble cast
  
• Excellent use of real-life locales
  
• Giuseppe Rotunno’s cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, as a good show on an important topic.

Categories

• Good Show

Links:

• IMDb entry
• DVD Savant Review
• Criterion Essay (by J. Hoberman)
• NY Times Original Review