When young Domenico (Sandro Panseri) ventures from the small village of Meda to Milan in search of employment, he finds himself on the bottom rung of the bureaucratic ladder in a huge, faceless company. The prospects are daunting, but Domenico finds reason for hope in the fetching Antonietta (Loredana Detto). A tender coming-of-age story and a sharp observation of dehumanizing corporate enterprise, Ermanno Olmi’s Il posto is a touching and hilarious tale of one young man’s stumbling entrance into the perils of modern adulthood. —The Criterion Collection
Though not among Italy’s most internationally renowned filmmakers, Ermanno Olmi ranks as one of his country’s finest. He is known for making realistic films about the lives of average people that are infused with an almost austere subtlety and rare ambiguity that is sympathetic yet not overly sentimental. A native of Bergamo, Italy, he was the son of peasant factory workers. Following his father’s death during WWII, Olmi and his mother supported the family working in the Edison-Volta electric plant where Olmi worked as a clerk. While there, he became involved in company-sponsored filmmaking and theatrical projects. Most of the films he made for the company had industrial themes. Eventually, he came to head the company film department and over the next seven years made many documentaries, notably his last Edison-Volta film, Il Tempo Si E Fermato (Time Stood Still), in 1959. It was with this film, a chronicle of the relationship that gradually developed between an elderly nightwatchman… read more
I Fidanzati is better, but still, this is a great, great film. Loredana Detto is also one of the most beautiful ever.
The entry of a young man into the system and in the people around him his future selves are presented. It's about rigid, defined life and a sense of moving forward inexorably without any awareness of where one is going. The film depicts nothing so much as banality but curiously has what seems to be a strong atmosphere of mysticism and hauntedness. These people are ghosts, even at their best moments. Masterpiece.
De Sica characters in Antonioni landscapes, that’s Ermanno Olmi’s Il posto. The larva-like protagonist (Sandro Panseri) is introduced under
De Sica characters in Antonioni landscapes, that’s Ermanno Olmi’s Il posto. The larva-like protagonist (Sandro Panseri) is introduced under
Not a review …
Il Posto is a wonderful and exquisitely made film. The deft touches of acting e.g. the boy’s smile of complete innocence at the bus stop make it a film worth seeing. Though perhaps… read review