Ermanno Olmi’s masterful feature is the tender story of two Milanese fiancés whose strained relationship is tested when the man accepts a new job in Sicily. With the separation come loneliness, nostalgia, and, perhaps, some new perspectives that might rejuvenate their love. Olmi’s deep humanism charges this moving depiction of ordinary men and women, and the pitfalls of the human heart. —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
Las películas de Ermanno Olmi suelen ser crónicas exhaustivas y minuciosas de la realidad de un personaje en circunstancias ordinarias. Allí radica la grandeza de su cine, generoso y detallista en la descripción de ambientes y personajes de todos los días. Los Novios es un maravilloso ejemplo de esta forma de asumir el hecho cinematográfico. No dejen de ver sus obras maestras El empleo y El árbol de los zuecos.
During the first eight or nine minutes, you don´t hear a single word spoken, but then, you don´t hear much conversation during the whole movie anyway. Filmic simplicity taken to its peak. And talking about tall things, this is one of the greatest italian movies of the post-neorealism era. Another thing. Olmi is regarded as a practicing catholic. Despite this, his point of view is undoubtedly marxist.
