I Compagni

English title: The Organizer

Genre: social drama (in black and white)

With: Marcello Mastroianni (Professor Sinigaglia), Renato Salvatori (Raoul Bertone), Folco Lulli (Pautasso), Bernard Blier (Martinetti), Gabriella Giorgelli (Adele), Raffaella Carrà (Bianca), François Périer (Maestro Di Meo), Vittorio Sanipoli (Baudet), Mario Pisu (the Manager), Kenneth Kove (Luigi), Annie Girardot (Niobe), Elvira Tonelli (Cesarina), Franco Ciolli (Omero), Enzo Casini (Antonio), Antonio Casamonica (Arro)

Director: Mario Monicelli

Screenplay: Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli and Mario Monicelli  

Release: 1963

Studio: Lux Film, Vides Cinematografica et al.

Rating: -

MBiS score: 8.5/10 

 

The Struggle Never Ends 

 

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Story-line: the setting is Turin in the late 19^th century. Exasperated by their brutal working conditions, the men, women and children slaving in a local textile plant rise against their ruthless bosses with the help of a visiting teacher. 

Pluses: a strong cast of Italian and French thespians led by an intense Marcello Mastroianni, a realistic and detailed screenplay that studiously develops its characters, builds drama and delivers a symbolically potent ending, solid helming that sustains interest from the get-go, fine production values and a well-suited score of Italian folk music.

Minuses: none I can think of.

Comments: I COMPAGNI, a strong companion film to GERMINAL and NORMA RAE, rates as a high-quality ensemble drama and a compelling manifesto about labour relations, poverty and man's dependence on machines for industrial production (not much has changed… today it’s robots). Mario Monicelli’s film bears witness to a difficult era that paved the way for trade unionism worldwide. 

 

MBiS 

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