IMDb - 7.6/10 (14 votes)
[quote]Veteran experimental filmmakers Danielle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub helmed this unusual adaptation of a novel by Elio Vittorini. Focused on the triumphs and failures of a group of laborers and farm hands who pooled their resources to operate an alternative collective farm after the end of World War II, Operai, Contadini features a cast of 12 actors who read aloud from Vittorini's book for the duration of the film, either reciting from memory or using a clearly visible script. Hardly designed to be a crowd pleaser, Operai, Contadini proved to be controversial among the audiences for its showings at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
French cinema has seen its fair share of mavericks, to put it mildly, but even by the standards of all the nouvelle vague directors and beyond, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet make an uncompromising pair. This entry in the Directors' Fortnight even comes with a snipe at the competition, with a handwritten note from Straub on the production notes informing us of its outsider status: "Film refused by the official committee selection of the Cannes festival 2001."
There again, Straub-Huillet have never quite fitted in with their peers. Straub and wife Huillet decamped to Munich in 1958 in protest at the Algerian war, and their work still shows an uncharacteristic interest in German art, music and culture. They spent time in Rome, losing some of the cult cachet achieved by such early movies as Machorka Muff and Nicht Versöhnt (Not Reconciled), before making a dramatic return with Sicilia, which they brought to Cannes for Un Certain Regard two years back.
As the official notes say, Operai, Contadini concerns a group of men and women of all ages who have been brought together in the course of their travels after the World War II - at which time Italy has regained its national and territorial unity.
The group makes up a primitive community which seeks to erase not only the distress created by the war but also the hardships of life and hunger, and to protect them from violence, misery and fear. Amid the ruins of this post-war period, the characters build and invent a rapport both in their professional and daily lives between themselves, the sexes, generations, diverse social and geographical origins, and antagonistic political camps.
The group maintains a 'register', a kind of diary, as if it were entering the minutes of an inquiry or a trial. Steve Grayson[/quote]
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Operai Contadini (Straub-Huillet 2001)(ITA - TVRip).avi 
