Elio Petri
La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso

Did the working class go to heaven?
Will the working class go to heaven?

Working class, proletariat, class struggle, bourgeoisie are nowadays part of a terminology outdated like political antiquities, good only for the nostalgic of what once was and today is no more.
Among the whispers of people, however, amidst the fog in our heads, these topics are still discussed, albeit poorly, very poorly; because despite everyone, absolutely everyone, having already digested and defecated communism, it remains the indigestible dish at the table of our rich (?), moderate, and "democratic" useless country.
A ghost, then, that occasionally escapes from the closets of history to "frighten" our dear children sitting in parliament, it "frightens" them all, from right to left; but there's no need to worry, this ghost has been nothing more than the specter of a period, remote and yet so close; now nothing remains of what was, and nothing more will be.

This film by the still much-mourned pair Petri-Volonté tells a piece of that period, we're in the year 1971.
A masterpiece that continues to resonate across decades, dated yet current because the methods change, but the concept of exploitation remains unchanged today as it was then, despite the rapid and profound changes that have traversed the social and economic fabric of our country.

Lulù/Volonté is a metalworker who, thanks to piecework, manages to afford a slightly higher standard of living than his fellow workers, and for this reason, they detest him. One day, he suffers an accident that changes him...

Many union representatives at the time of the film's release hailed it as a tribute to work and union struggle, highlighting how negotiation and reformism were the ideal, if not the only, solutions for the common development of both sides, managerial and working.
However, after a few years, it was understood how this film was actually relentless in its critique of the entire system, no one is spared from the fierce accusations these images convey, it's a defeat for everyone; neither the employer, who was and will remain miserable until the end of times, nor the union, which by negotiating endlessly finds itself today as a declining force, completely subjected and bent, unable to make a minimal decision that is not servile.
Radical and extremist students, who protest outside the factory and initially help Lulù only to leave him alone with "his individual case," also lose; over time, consumed by internal conflicts and countless contradictions, they have devastated themselves over the years, pondering theoretical discussions now covered by the dust of time and history.
Lulù loses, who gains awareness, gets fired, and seems to fall into madness like his companion Militina (a splendid Salvo Randone) but is then rehired thanks to the union that uses him as a symbol.
Lulù finds himself again in the same factory, bearer of alienation, and still on the brink of an already unstable or in any case disturbed mind.

Today, in a period in which the Gramscian concept of cultural hegemony has been realized, and the ruling classes have imposed their models on the working classes, who have adopted them, this film takes on even greater significance and importance; it is bitter because it seems to offer no hope and is perhaps an invitation to become aware, but how can such awareness be achieved?
The disheartening thing is that everything seems to imply that it's only in dreams that one can find their revolution, or it's only in the dreams of the mad that a new class consciousness can be created. Thus, the dream resurfaces with force at the end, with the fog and a wall to tear down to barely glimpse a piece of paradise elsewhere, always elsewhere, and within one's cries of resigned despair.

Timekeeper: "You are below standard, the rhythm is less than 80".
Worker: "Excuse me, Mr. Timekeeper, but I go by the rhythm of my masturbation speed, did I make myself clear?".

Every morning, when with a disdainful and bitter smile, I clock in at my factory, I never fail to remember this phrase.