Film Forum

I Compagni (1963) Near the turn of the 20^th century, textile workers misfire on their first attempt to knock down their 14-hour day. But then bespectacled, bearded professor Marcello Mastroianni arrives to get things organized. Monicelli breathes life into the stock figures of the “strike” film, never more so than in Mastroianni’s tour-de-force performance: comically timorous and bumbling, but still fiercely dedicated. Oscar nominee for its Incrocci/Scarpelli/Monicelli screenplay. Approx. 130 min. 35mm.

*For a behind-the-scenes video on the set of THE ORGANIZER, and more details, visit Cinecittà's Monicelli homepage.

Reviews

“Mastroianni in one of his best roles with an exquisite handling of period. This powerful film is arguably one of the great Italian films of the 60s, it cries out for rediscovery.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

“ONE OF MARCELLO MASTROIANNI'S CLASSIC TRAGICOMIC PERFORMANCES. Without any taint of sentimentality, he creates moments of Chaplinesque farce and poignancy as a former academic who rides into turn-of-the-century Turin on a freight train, wearing pince-nez and rags, and proceeds to galvanize the workers at a textile mill. He’s part absent-minded professor and part ramrod, a humane intellectual but also a political animal ready to steel his forces for a prolonged strike and to exploit their martyrdom.”
– Michael Sragow, The New Yorker

“This simple social drama turns out to be engrossingly human, compassionate and humorous. Mastroianni plays the title role with a delightful blend of ardor, ingenuousness and whimsicality.”
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times