"An audacious, provocative film" (Variety). Controversial cowinner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Petri's absurd tale of a luckless factory worker offered a baroque, highly sensationalist vision of contemporary Italian society that was far removed from the cool, reserved lines of Francesco Rosi's The Mattei Affair, its critically more accepted cowinner. Lulu (Gian Maria Volontè), a "model worker," at first seems more intent on setting factory productivity records than participating in slowdowns or strikes. Dreaming of sex, he speeds through work like a madman, but by the time he gets home his energy-even for sex-has ironically disappeared. A call for unionization, some Maoist revolutionary students, and a workplace accident serve to finally awaken Lulu's dormant mind; then again, they may also serve to tip his mind into psychosis, or back towards the controlled lull of the machines and factories he only dreams of escaping.