Gentle, tender, beautiful

Margarete 2022-02-25 08:02:03

A humanist masterpiece. The film is certainly against the dehumanizing aspects of corporate life, but one hesitates to call it a "protest" movie, like some of Chaplin's repertoire. There is no expressed anger, but what I see as a reasonable, controlled indignation , made poignant by sympathy and sensibility.

Olmi's films never disappoint. His technical background gives him fine eyes for the subtlety of light and shadow in black/white cinematography. His two best-known works, "Il Posto" and "Il Fidanzati", are the epitomes of B/W accomplishment.

There is a sweet, quiet lyricism in Olmi that you don't find in other Italian Greats, not even in de Sica. Maybe that is why, when the film ends, we are left to care and worry about the heroes and heroines, far beyond their existence in the plot. For instance, I keep thinking of the boy clerk, of what kind of man he'll grow up as, and wondering what kind of a bride he'll eventually take. No other director has this power to make the cast feel like family to the audience. But isn't that the magic of the film?

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Extended Reading
  • Kennedy 2022-02-25 08:02:03

    The Italian "stream of life" mainly represents Olmi's every film as a surprise. Compared with the brilliant masterpiece "The Tree of Clogs", this film is more refreshing and gratifying. With an excellent sense of the lens, he presents life in a sometimes sloppy, sometimes succinct manner, and brings out a touch of Kafka. Everyone who has had a job search experience and a boring office life will find the feeling from this film.

  • Shakira 2022-04-22 07:01:53

    The style is simple, the narrative is concise, the plot is simple and the layout is small but quite representative, the environment and people and things are highly bonded, just like a documentary. Also, many of the pictures in the film are well-composed. The new people in the workplace have had a first experience of emotion and earning a living. What can be expected is that the young man will spend his youth like his predecessors, bid farewell to the stupid and naive, and become sophisticated. The ceiling man of the lazy chicken thief...

Il Posto quotes

  • Girl Student at Train Station: Knock it off.

    Boy Student at Train Station: Why?

    Girl Student at Train Station: You act tough, but you're such a romantic.

    Boy Student at Train Station: Is your class co-ed? You're so lucky. I still go to a Catholic school.

  • Old Man on the Street: What's going on?

    Domenico Cantoni: Tests.

    Old Man on the Street: Tests? What for?

    Domenico Cantoni: If we pass the test, we get a job.

    Old Man on the Street: What will they think of next?