Elio Petri's labor satire about an assembly-line worker (we never see the end product on which he is working, and neither does he), who, like Chaplin in Modern Times, is turning into a piece of machinery himself. Instructed to treat his machine with love and tenderness, he imagines his machine to be his girlfriend -- and vice versa whenever he is with his girlfriend. This diligent company man takes pride in the fact that he maintains the highest daily output of anybody on the assembly line, although this fact causes him to be exploited by his employers and ostracized by his fellow workers. The loss of an index finger in a factory accident precipitates his Marxist consciousness-raising, but even the process of enlightment is viewed by Petri with a mocking eye. Petri aims his satirical attack, here, no higher than the working class itself; he never resorts, for either laughs or hisses, to Eisensteinian caricature of the bosses. A movie of tremendous energy, but perfectly controlled in the lead performance of Gian Maria Volonte and the camerawork of Luigi Kuveiller. With Mariangela Melato. (1972) — Duncan Shepherd
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