The Working Class Goes to Heaven — The Working Class Goes to Heaven(Blu Ray)

The Working Class Goes to Heaven aka La classe operaia va in paradiso or Lulu the Tool is an Italian political drama from 1971 written and directed by Elio Petri (The 10th Victim, A Quiet Place in the Country and Investigation of A Citizen Above Suspicion) and starring Gian Maria Volonté (For A Few Dollars More, A Fistful of Dollars and La Strega in Amore), Mariangela Melato (Flash Gordon, The Seduction of Mimi and Love and Anarchy) and Gino Pernice (Django, D’Artagnan and The Hell Benders) in the lead roles.

The story follows Ludovico ‘Lulu’ Massa (Volonté),  a hard-working and efficient lathe operator in a Milan factory who is regularly held up as an example of what can be achieved by the management, much to the chagrin of his colleagues. After Lulu suffers an accident at work in which he loses his finger, the company abandons him, which leads him to draw inspiration from the students he has seen protesting outside of the factory for higher pay and less hours and takes strike action to end the piece work he and his colleagues are expected to endure. Lulu grows interested in a radical form of revolutionary socialism being peddled by the students, who want to rip everything up and start again thereby defying the more moderate unions who are looking for improved pay and conditions for the workers. As an aside, Lulu’s personal life is in turmoil, his relationship with his girlfriend Lidia (Melato) with whom he lives is one of little interest to him, which comes to a head when he has sex in his car with a female co-worker who he has a crush on. His extremist left-wing beliefs and the loss of his job eventually leads to the breakdown of his relationship with Lidia and her son. Who walks out on him in an emotionally charged scene when Lidia returns home to find their flat overrun with political antagonists.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven is a fascinating slice of politically charged cinema, the performances are excellent, especially Volonté who is outstanding as the disaffected worker who feels both dehumanised and exploited by his paymasters. Whilst the film is a particularly strong critique of capitalism, the factory is represented as being prison-like with barbed wire fences, it can also be considered as a critique of far-left politics, with the students and political activists who have no real understanding of Lulu, the other factory workers or their situations. In the end Lulu wins back his job through the support of the moderately socialist trades unions who have fought for him.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven is a masterpiece of Italian cinema and a really important political film. Petri makes a really positive case for a moderate socialist state. He warns of the dangers of political extremism and calls out capitalism for its uncaring nature. In these dark times of increasing inequality, it is almost like a reminder of where we are currently headed.

The new disc from Radiance films features some good bonus materials including interviews with Petri, Volonté and Alex Cox as well as a good crisp print of the movie and a couple of interesting featurettes about political ideologies in post-war Italian cinema and the film itself.  Overall, this is a great release and a brilliant way for Radiance films to announce themselves to the world.