Lulu the Tool (1971)

A conscientious factory worker gets his finger cut off by a machine. Although the physical handicap is not serious, the accident causes him to become more involved in political and revolutionary groups.

Director:

Elio Petri

Writers:

Elio Petri (story & screenplay), Ugo Pirro (story & screenplay)

Stars:

Gian Maria Volontè, Mariangela Melato, Gino Pernice

7 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gian Maria Volontè	...	Lulù Massa
Mariangela Melato	...	Lidia
Gino Pernice	...	Sindacalista
Luigi Diberti	...	Bassi
Donato Castellaneta	...	Marx
Giuseppe Fortis	...	Valli
Corrado Solari	...	Mena
Flavio Bucci	...	Factory Worker
Luigi Uzzo
Giovanni Bignamini
Ezio Marano	...	Timekeeper
Adriano Amidei Migliano	...	Technician
Antonio Mangano
Lorenzo Magnolia	...	Magnolia
Federico Scrobogna	...	Arturo

Storyline

Lulù is a real hard worker. For this reason he is loved by the masters and hated by his own colleagues. The unions decide agitations against the masters. Lulù doesn't agree till he cuts, by accident, one of his own fingers. Now, after he understood the worker's conditions, he agrees the unions and participates to the strike. He immediately is fired and, not only is abandoned by his lover, but also by the other workers. But the fights of the unions allow him under a new legislation to be hired again. At this point his mind starts giving collapse signs...

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Plot Keywords:

years of lead | factory | student | revolutionary | factory worker | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

17 September 1971 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Lulu the Tool

Filming Locations:

Novara, Piedmont, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Euro International Film (EIA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Second part of the "Trilogy of Neurosis" also including Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) and La proprietà non è più un furto (1973).

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Quotes

Lulù Massa: In the factory is annoying, fucking boring, so I work, that's all. This is the idea: life, stripe, goal. All inside the racetrack. Everyone here is running. I'm a little champion. She knows it, right? Then you find the southerns, like him, from east Sicily, they are all outlier, tired since the first morning. So I beat'em on the rate! Once I have earned 25.000 lire of task-work in a month. But running, running... Because I can concentrate myself, I keep my mind busy. I've a method to keep me ...

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Connections

Referenced in The Mother and the Whore (1973)

User Reviews

man, life and factory as a one absurd condition

The movie has a great power, first of all he gives to Lulu a mechanical soul, the camera follows his unhuman movements caused by too much work and let us understand something strange like madness. Then we have the political part: outside the factory people are pemanently screaming verses against owners like another machine that creates words, but the real impressing moment is inside the factory where man and machine became the same things so that the camera let us see the hidden mechanical part and the human movements togheter; the music too (by Ennio Morricone) adds a sense of robotic condition.