1. Here in NYC we have long-time art movie establishment, The Film Forum, in Greenwich Village.
Lucky me! They have a Mario Monicelli film festival going on, and I got to see a beautiful, moving classic made way before I was born, "The Organizer," starring Marcello Mastroianni.
2. Shot in black and white, it had the gritty feel of the dark, dreary life of factory workers in the town of Turin, Italy, circa 1880s. Long hard hours...14 a day....dealing with the monotony, noise...and danger...of standing in the cold, dank factory, doing the repetitive motions of machine operations hour after hour, day after day.
3. We get to witness not only the ongoing misery described above, but the terror when the hypnotic activity causes accidents, the loss of an arm caught in the mechanisms.
Not just the abject poverty, but life on the edge of even worse results when those accidents have to be faced without insurance, or appropriate medical care....and no help from the rich owners, beyond the collections that the factory workers themselves provide.
4. The workers want to organize, to have some sort of leverage to have the owners provide better conditions, shorter hours, insurance for those injured.....but fear the loss of their jobs, fines levied by the heartless owners.
5. Even when they agree to stop an hour earlier, they find that human nature being what it is....the agreement falls apart with some of the workers crossing their picket line....
6. We see kindness, caring, wanting better conditions...but not the organizing ability needed to produce concerted actions.
Until 'the organizer,' a 'professor' from another town comes along, running from the police himself.
7. Italy has always had a vibrant communist party, strongly supported by people just like these in the film. And Monicelli makes it clear exactly why! They deserved better. The people he shows us are hard workers, honest, caring for others....yet dealt a poor hand by life. The 'organizer' shows them the further sacrifice and determination they need....
a. "The film had its premiere at the 35th Congress of the Italian Socialist Party." The Organizer - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
8. From the reviews:
"Fitting films for a Marxist who accepted reality and its failures. ...well told on a number of levels. A good story about labour-management conflict (almost good enough to use as a training film for unions,... Mastroianni as a traveling professor and all-around agitator.... it depicts industrial life in Turin around the turn of the 19th/20th century.... all the industrial brutality of the time perfectly captured.
...Mastroianni excels in his role as the "sophisticated" union organizer from outside, who tries his best to instill a sense of solidarity and social justice in the workplace,... Particularly impressive are the factory scenes where one feels transposed to a bygone era, which one hopes, even in the third world, has gone forever."
9. If it isn't clear enough from the above, this is a film that would infuse our Leftist pals with a sense of their rectitude....and agreement from the Right, as well.
I hope that they....as well as everyone else....check out the film, available from Amazon for about $10.... Amazon.com The Organizer Criterion Collection Marcello Mastroianni Annie Girardot Mario Monicelli Movies TV
Lucky me! They have a Mario Monicelli film festival going on, and I got to see a beautiful, moving classic made way before I was born, "The Organizer," starring Marcello Mastroianni.
2. Shot in black and white, it had the gritty feel of the dark, dreary life of factory workers in the town of Turin, Italy, circa 1880s. Long hard hours...14 a day....dealing with the monotony, noise...and danger...of standing in the cold, dank factory, doing the repetitive motions of machine operations hour after hour, day after day.
3. We get to witness not only the ongoing misery described above, but the terror when the hypnotic activity causes accidents, the loss of an arm caught in the mechanisms.
Not just the abject poverty, but life on the edge of even worse results when those accidents have to be faced without insurance, or appropriate medical care....and no help from the rich owners, beyond the collections that the factory workers themselves provide.
4. The workers want to organize, to have some sort of leverage to have the owners provide better conditions, shorter hours, insurance for those injured.....but fear the loss of their jobs, fines levied by the heartless owners.
5. Even when they agree to stop an hour earlier, they find that human nature being what it is....the agreement falls apart with some of the workers crossing their picket line....
6. We see kindness, caring, wanting better conditions...but not the organizing ability needed to produce concerted actions.
Until 'the organizer,' a 'professor' from another town comes along, running from the police himself.
7. Italy has always had a vibrant communist party, strongly supported by people just like these in the film. And Monicelli makes it clear exactly why! They deserved better. The people he shows us are hard workers, honest, caring for others....yet dealt a poor hand by life. The 'organizer' shows them the further sacrifice and determination they need....
a. "The film had its premiere at the 35th Congress of the Italian Socialist Party." The Organizer - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
8. From the reviews:
"Fitting films for a Marxist who accepted reality and its failures. ...well told on a number of levels. A good story about labour-management conflict (almost good enough to use as a training film for unions,... Mastroianni as a traveling professor and all-around agitator.... it depicts industrial life in Turin around the turn of the 19th/20th century.... all the industrial brutality of the time perfectly captured.
...Mastroianni excels in his role as the "sophisticated" union organizer from outside, who tries his best to instill a sense of solidarity and social justice in the workplace,... Particularly impressive are the factory scenes where one feels transposed to a bygone era, which one hopes, even in the third world, has gone forever."
9. If it isn't clear enough from the above, this is a film that would infuse our Leftist pals with a sense of their rectitude....and agreement from the Right, as well.
I hope that they....as well as everyone else....check out the film, available from Amazon for about $10.... Amazon.com The Organizer Criterion Collection Marcello Mastroianni Annie Girardot Mario Monicelli Movies TV
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