Gian Maria Volonté (A Fistful of Dollars), stars as Lulu, a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, in one of provocative filmmaker Elio Petri's (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion) most politically charged films.
Too tired to sleep with his girlfriend, cut out of his son’s life by his ex, humiliated and disrespected, Lulu turns revolutionary following an accident at work. The Working Class Goes to Heaven is an oftentimes surreal and darkly comic look at the life of an everyday Italian trying to find a sense of purpose in a world where he is only allowed to be a tool for industry. A savage takedown of capitalism and industrial corruption, the film was recipient of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and features a gloriously unhinged, award-winning performance from Volonté, accompanied by an exceptional score by Ennio Morricone and stunning cinematography by Luigi Kuveiller (Deep Red).
Extras
2K restoration of the film
Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
New and improved English subtitle translation
Archival interview with Elio Petri from the Cannes Film Festival
Career-encompassing archival interview with Gian Maria Volonté from French TV
Archival interview with actor Corrado Solari
Appreciation of Gian Maria Volonté and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox
Petri's Praxis: Ideology and Cinema in Post-war Italy - A visual essay by scholar Matthew Kowalski on Petri's relationship with left-wing politics and its impact on his cinema
The Working Class Goes to Heaven - Background to a Film Shot in Novara (2006), by Serena Checcucci and Enrico Omodeo Salé; an unconventional making-of documentary, exploring the real-life factory location where the film was shot and the story behind the film’s production there, as told by the staff, film extras and crew
