The Working Class Goes to Heaven

1971 Italian film

The Working Class Goes to Heaven

Italian film poster

Directed by| Elio Petri
Screenplay by| Elio Petri
Ugo Pirro
Produced by| Ugo Tucci
Starring| Gian Maria Volonté
Mariangela Melato
Gino Pernice
Luigi Diberti
Donato Castellaneta
Salvo Randone
Cinematography| Luigi Kuveiller
Edited by| Ruggero Mastroianni
Music by| Ennio Morricone

Production
company

Euro International Films

Distributed by| Euro International Films[1]

Release dates

* 1971 (1971) (Italy)[1][2]
* 11 May 1975 (1975-05-11) (New York)[3]

Running time

| 125 minutes
Country| Italy
Language| Italian

The Working Class Goes to Heaven (Italian: La classe operaia va in paradiso), released in the US as Lulu the Tool, is a 1971 Italian satirical[4] political drama film directed by Elio Petri. It depicts a factory worker's realisation of his own condition as a simple tool in the process of production. The film was awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the 25th Cannes Film Festival,[1][5] sharing it with Francesco Rosi's The Mattei Affair.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

Lulù Massa, 31 years old, has been working in the same factory for 15 years. Because the management uses his efficiency to justify their demands for higher output, he is disliked by his colleagues. Lulù cares neither for the unionists who demand higher pay rates and reduced working hours, nor the students outside the factory gates who appeal to the workers to rise up against the factory owners. From time to time, he visits his former colleague Militina who has been interred in a mental institution after collapsing under the working conditions. Militina fantasizes about militant actions and "breaking the wall".

When Lulù loses a finger in a working accident, his attitude changes drastically. He joins a radical fraction among the workers who call for a strike, has an affair with a female co-worker and invites the students to move into his flat. As a result, his lover Lidia leaves him together with her son. After the unionists have reached an agreement with the management, the employees return to work, except Lulù who has been fired for his agitational behaviour. Lulù goes to see the student protestors, who declare that he is of no use for them because he is an individual case.

Lulù, now on the verge of madness, only vaguely realises that Lidia and her son have moved back in and that the unionists have convinced the management to rehire him. Back in the factory, working in an assembly line with other colleagues, he recounts a dream in which he broke a wall, finding himself and his co-workers emerge from a fog.

## Cast

[edit]

Gian Maria Volonté as Lulù.

* Gian Maria Volonté – Ludovico "Lulù" Massa
* Mariangela Melato – Lidia
* Gino Pernice – the syndicalist
* Luigi Diberti – Bassi
* Salvo Randone – Militina
* Donato Castellaneta – Marx
* Giuseppe Fortis – Valli
* Corrado Solari
* Flavio Bucci – Operaio
* Luigi Uzzo
* Giovanni Bignamini
* Ezio Marano – the timekeeper
* Adriano Amidei Migliano – the technician
* Antonio Mangano
* Lorenzo Magnolia
* Federico Scrobogna Pinuccio

## Production

[edit]

The factory scenes in The Working Class Goes to Heaven were shot in a factory in Novara, Piedmont, which had shut down and been occupied by its former workers, with many of the personnel serving as extras in the film.[2][6] Other shooting locations included the Ospedale Maggiore di Novara and the Istituto Tecnico Industriale OMAR.[6]

## Release

[edit]

The Working Class Goes to Heaven premiered at the 1971 Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Libero ("International exhibition of free cinema") in Porretta Terme, Emilia-Romagna.[7] Petri later claimed that, after the screening, filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub demanded that the film be burned.[8] Other sources attribute this statement to film critic Pio Baldelli [it].[9]

## Reception

[edit]

The film's reception by the Italian press was mixed. The Segnalazioni cinematografiche lauded its "solid cinematographic language" and the precise portrayal of its central character, but criticised the "overabundance of themes and some long-windedness".[1] Natalia Ginzburg in La Stampa accused the film of being superfluous and confusing, held together only by Gian Maria Volonté's presence.[2]

In the Spring 1973 volume of Film Quarterly, James Roy MacBean compared The Working Class Goes to Heaven to the prison drama The Brig as a "jarringly abrasive" portrayal of factory work.[10] The New York Times critic A. H. Weiler called the film "both fascinating and sobering" upon its 1975 New York premiere.[3] Contrary to this, author Mira Liehm referred to it as a "weaker" Petri film and "heavy-handed" in her 1986 book on Italian Cinema.[11]

## Awards

[edit]

* Grand Prix du Festival International du Film,[1][5] Special Mention Gian Maria Volonté,[12] 25th Cannes Film Festival, 1972
* David di Donatello Award for Best Film, 1972[1]
* Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress (Mariangela Melato) and Best Supporting Actor (Salvo Randone), 1972[12]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f "La classe operaia va in paradiso". Cinematografo (in Italian). Retrieved 7 January 2024.
2. ^ a b c "La classe operaia va in paradiso" (in Italian). Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema. 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
3. ^ a b c "Screen: 'Lulu the Tool,' Italian Drama". The New York Times. 12 May 1975. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
4. ^ "Elio Petri: Satire, Italian Style". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
5. ^ a b "La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
6. ^ a b "La classe operaia va in paradiso. Retroscena di un film novarese" (in Italian). Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema. 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
7. ^ "Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Libero". Festival del Cinema di Porretta Terme (in Italian). Retrieved 9 January 2024.
8. ^ Curti, Roberto (2021). Elio Petri: Investigation of a Filmmaker. McFarland. p. 296\. ISBN 9781476680347.
9. ^ Lang, Simon (2023). Ästhetik und Politik im Werk des italienischen Filmregisseurs Elio Petri. edition text + kritik. p. 10\. ISBN 9783967078770.
10. ^ MacBean, James Roy (Spring 1973). "The Working Class Goes Directly to Heaven, without Passing Go: Or, the Name of the Game Is Still Monopoly". Film Quarterly. 26 (3): 52–58\. doi:10.2307/1211346. JSTOR 1211346.
11. ^ Liehm, Mira (1986). Passion and Defiance: Italian Film from 1942 to the Present. University of California Press. p. 254\. ISBN 0520908120.
12. ^ a b "La classe operaia va in paradiso". Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema. 2005. Retrieved 22 June 2017.

## External links

[edit]

* The Working Class Goes to Heaven at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Elio Petri filmography

Films directed|

* The Assassin (1961)
* His Days Are Numbered (1962)
* The Teacher from Vigevano (1963)
* High Infidelity (segment "Peccato nel pomeriggio", 1964)
* The 10th Victim (1965)
* We Still Kill the Old Way (1967)
* A Quiet Place in the Country (1968)
* Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
* The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971)
* Property Is No Longer a Theft (1973)
* Todo modo (1976)
* Good News (1979)

Written only|

* A Husband for Anna (1953)
* Angels of Darkness (1954)
* Days of Love (1954)
* Sunset in Naples (1955)
* The Wolves (1957)
* The Road a Year Long (1958)
* Train Without a Timetable (1959)
* The Employee (1960)
* Vento del sud (1960)
* La garçonnière (1960)
* I mostri (1963)

Awards for The Working Class Goes to Heaven

* v
* t
* e

Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or

1939–1975|

* Union Pacific (1939)
* No festival held (1940–1945)
* Brief Encounter (1946)
* The Last Chance (1946)
* The Lost Weekend (1946)
* María Candelaria (1946)
* Men Without Wings (1946)
* Neecha Nagar (1946)
* Pastoral Symphony (1946)
* The Red Meadows (1946)
* Rome, Open City (1946)
* Torment (1946)
* The Turning Point (1946)
* Antoine and Antoinette (1947)
* Crossfire (1947)
* The Damned (1947)
* Dumbo (1947)
* Ziegfeld Follies (1947)
* No festival held (1948)
* The Third Man (1949)
* No festival held (1950)
* Miracle in Milan (1951)
* Miss Julie (1951)
* Othello (1951)
* Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952)
* The Wages of Fear (1953)
* Gate of Hell (1954)
* Marty (1955)
* The Silent World (1956)
* Friendly Persuasion (1957)
* The Cranes Are Flying (1958)
* Black Orpheus (1959)
* La Dolce Vita (1960)
* The Long Absence (1961)
* Viridiana (1961)
* O Pagador de Promessas (1962)
* The Leopard (1963)
* The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
* The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965)
* The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966)
* A Man and a Woman (1966)
* Blowup (1967)
* Festival cancelled while in progress (1968)
* if.... (1969)
* M*A*S*H (1970)
* The Go-Between (1971)
* The Mattei Affair (1972)
* The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1972)
* The Hireling (1973)
* Scarecrow (1973)
* The Conversation (1974)
* Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975)

1976–2000|

* Taxi Driver (1976)
* Padre Padrone (1977)
* The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
* Apocalypse Now (1979)
* The Tin Drum (1979)
* All That Jazz (1980)
* Kagemusha (1980)
* Man of Iron (1981)
* Missing (1982)
* Yol (1982)
* The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
* Paris, Texas (1984)
* When Father Was Away on Business (1985)
* The Mission (1986)
* Under the Sun of Satan (1987)
* Pelle the Conqueror (1988)
* Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
* Wild at Heart (1990)
* Barton Fink (1991)
* The Best Intentions (1992)
* Farewell My Concubine (1993)
* The Piano (1993)
* Pulp Fiction (1994)
* Underground (1995)
* Secrets & Lies (1996)
* The Eel (1997)
* Taste of Cherry (1997)
* Eternity and a Day (1998)
* Rosetta (1999)
* Dancer in the Dark (2000)

2001–present|

* The Son's Room (2001)
* The Pianist (2002)
* Elephant (2003)
* Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
* L'Enfant (2005)
* The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
* 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
* The Class (2008)
* The White Ribbon (2009)
* Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
* The Tree of Life (2011)
* Amour (2012)
* Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013)
* Winter Sleep (2014)
* Dheepan (2015)
* I, Daniel Blake (2016)
* The Square (2017)
* Shoplifters (2018)
* Parasite (2019)
* No festival held (2020)
* Titane (2021)
* Triangle of Sadness (2022)
* Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
* Anora (2024)
* It Was Just an Accident (2025)

* v
* t
* e

David di Donatello Award for Best Film

1970–2000|

* Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion / Metello (1970)
* The Conformist / The Garden of the Finzi-Continis / Waterloo (1971)
* This Kind of Love / The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1972)
* Alfredo, Alfredo / Ludwig (1973)
* Amarcord / Bread and Chocolate (1974)
* Conversation Piece / The Murri Affair (1975)
* Illustrious Corpses (1976)
* An Average Little Man / The Desert of the Tartars (1977)
* In the Name of the Pope King / Il prefetto di ferro (1978)
* Christ Stopped at Eboli / To Forget Venice / The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1979)
* I'm Starting from Three (1981)
* Talcum Powder (1982)
* The Night of the Shooting Stars (1983)
* And the Ship Sails On / Le Bal (1984)
* Carmen (1985)
* Let's Hope It's a Girl (1986)
* The Family (1987)
* The Last Emperor (1988)
* The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1989)
* Open Doors (1990)
* Mediterraneo / Towards Evening (1991)
* The Stolen Children (1992)
* The Great Pumpkin (1993)
* Caro diario (1994)
* La scuola (1995)
* August Vacation (1996)
* The Truce (1997)
* Life Is Beautiful (1998)
* Fuori Dal Mondo (1999)
* Bread and Tulips (2000)

2001–present|

* The Son's Room (2001)
* The Profession of Arms (2002)
* Facing Windows (2003)
* The Best of Youth (2004)
* The Consequences of Love (2005)
* The Caiman (2006)
* The Unknown Woman (2007)
* The Girl by the Lake (2008)
* Gomorrah (2009)
* The Man Who Will Come (2010)
* We Believed (2011)
* Caesar Must Die (2012)
* The Best Offer (2013)
* Human Capital (2014)
* Black Souls (2015)
* Perfect Strangers (2016)
* Like Crazy (2017)
* Love and Bullets (2018)
* Dogman (2019)
* The Traitor (2020)
* Hidden Away (2021)
* The Hand of God (2022)
* The Eight Mountains (2023)
* Io capitano (2024)
* Vermiglio (2025)

* v
* t
* e

Critique of work

Historical persons|

* Abbie Hoffman
* Edward Bellamy
* Alfredo M. Bonanno
* André Gorz
* Bob Black
* Günther Anders
* Guy Debord
* Heinrich Böll
* Ivan Illich
* Mikhail Bakunin
* Paul Lafargue
* Walter Benjamin
* Antonio Negri
* Bertrand Russell
* Friedrich Nietzsche
* Henry David Thoreau
* Herbert Marcuse
* Jerry Rubin
* Josef Pieper
* Karl Marx
* Max Stirner
* Max Weber
* Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
* Raoul Vaneigem
* Renzo Novatore
* Zo d'Axa

Contemporary persons|

* Franco Berardi
* L. Susan Brown
* Madeleine Bunting
* David Graeber
* Michael Hardt
* Maurizio Lazzarato
* Claus Peter Ortlieb
* Roland Paulsen
* Jeremy Rifkin
* Penelope Rosemont
* Mark Slouka
* Nick Srnicek
* Claire Wolfe
* John Zerzan

Terminology and related topics|

* 996 working hour system
* Absenteeism
* Abusive supervision
* Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich
* All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
* Autonomism
* Bare minimum Monday
* Bullshit job
* Career catfishing
* Coffee badging
* Corporatocracy
* Conscious quitting
* Cycle of poverty
* Dolce far niente
* Effects of overtime
* Eight-hour day
* Employee ghosting
* Extermination through labour
* Career cushioning
* Careerism
* Flextime
* Forced labour
* Four-day workweek
* Funemployment
* Ghost job
* Uberisation / Gig worker
* Glass cliff
* Happiness economics
* Honeymoon-hangover effect
* Hush trip
* Job crafting
* Job cuffing
* Jobless employed
* Karoshi
* Loud quitting
* Neijuan
* Microretirement
* Occupational burnout
* Occupational safety and health
* Occupational stress
* Orange S.A. suicides
* Overwork
* Performance punishment
* Post-work society
* Precariat
* Presenteeism
* Digital presenteeism
* Productivity theater
* Professional abuse
* Protestant work ethic
* Psychological safety
* Quick quitting
* Quiet hiring
* Quiet promotion
* Quiet quitting
* Quiet thriving
* Lazy girl job
* Rage applying
* Refusal of work
* Resenteeism
* Right to rest and leisure
* Sampo generation
* Sunday scaries
* Six-hour day
* Tang ping
* Technological unemployment
* Toxic workplace
* Narcissism
* Psychopathy
* Wage slavery
* Work ethic
* Workaholic
* Working poor
* Work–life interface

Theater, movies, music and art|

* À Nous la Liberté
* Office Space
* Swedish Public Freedom Service
* "Take This Job and Shove It"
* The Future of Work and Death
* The Main Thing Is Work!
* The Working Class Goes to Heaven
* Yama—Attack to Attack

Literature|

* Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral
* Bartleby, the Scrivener
* Bonjour paresse
* Bullshit Jobs
* The Conquest of Bread
* Critique of Economic Reason
* Fight Club
* Future Primitive and Other Essays
* In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays
* Inventing the Future
* Manifesto Against Work
* New Escapologist
* On the Poverty of Student Life
* The Society of the Spectacle
* Steal This Book
* The Abolition of Work
* The End of Work
* The Human Use of Human Beings
* The Idler
* The Revolution of Everyday Life
* The Right to Be Lazy
* The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy

Communities|

* R/antiwork
* CrimethInc.
* Situationist International

See also|

* Criticism of capitalism
* Critique of political economy
* Job strain

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template