LGM Film Club, Part 493: The Organizer

I hadn’t seen Mario Monicelli’s 1963 film The Organizer in years. I remembered loving it but hadn’t seen since I initially watched it. And yeah, it’s great. Starring Marcello Mastroianni as a high school teacher and unionist on the run who helps organized a ragtag group of Turin textile workers in the late 19th century, it’s one of the great leftist movies ever made. Renato Salvatori, who you know if you’ve seen much European film from the 60s and 70s (he was the main thug in Z, among other things) plays the initially quite skeptical tough textile worker who can knock a few people out with his fists if need be.

Mastroianni plays the teacher so well–the dreamy and committed intellectual who will sacrifice everything for the cause, but who is honestly is as much of a complete mess as he is hero. The supporting cast is pretty great too. Sure, the film romanticizes all this a bit, but certainly not as much as Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, for example. And hey, the film had its premier at the annual convention of the Italian Socialist Party! The film was also influential on the growth of the 60s and 70s era of neorealism. The use of historical photographs in the opening credits for instance became a common feature of the next decade worth of film, including for that matter, last night’s film club choice of Malick’s Days of Heaven. It also doesn’t really take itself that seriously. As much as I adore Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, for instance, it’s not a funny movie. But this? The characters are silly, prone to big talk and little action, easily bought off, flawed humans. That’s probably a more realistic look at the reality of organizing than Pontecorvo’s revolutionary epic.

This is also the only Monicelli film I’ve ever seen. Maybe I should seek out more of his work. Happy for recommendations if any of you all have them.