User reviews

This is a shimmeringly beautiful, subtle and very powerful movie about all-too-ordinary people aspiring for "a job for life", and falling into an existence which will kill off any inkling of vitality, individuality and creativity in them, day in, day out. Olmi isn't a filmmaker I often see discussed on this website's boards, not even in a context about Italian filmmakers. Along with Mauro Bolognini, another wonderful but seldom-mentioned fellow countryman of Olmi's, he is occasionally mentioned for The Tree of Wooden Clogs, but not much else. I'll confess I'm not overly familiar with Olmi's oeuvre myself - however, since watching his 1961 gem Il Posto about a month ago, I have barely been able to contain myself and have tirelessly recommended it right, left and centre.

The dehumanising effect of the large corporation, with its ant-like clerks and bureaucrats becoming tiny clog in a faceless machine, is a universal and timeless theme, starting probably with Fritz Lang's Metropolis all the way down to Naomi Klein's No Logo. I never cared for Terry Gillam's Brazil, nor did I consider Sam Lowry an adequate embodiment of the "insignificant" clerk. There was something over-styled about him, something which made him ultimately hip and cool, and something gratingly farcical and rhetorical about Brazil and all its characters generally. On the other hand, Il Posto and its protagonist, the ultimate sympathetic wet rag of a clerk, is achingly real, yet at the same time a sublimely beautiful artistic creation that could probably not have been summarised as successfully by a less accomplished filmmaker. The measured, yet powerful visual satire in Il Posto is probably what I'd wished to see in Gillam's movie, and didn't.

The New Year's Eve office party scene is pure genius and should be studied in film school as a cinematic sequence close to technical, thematical, aesthetic and atmospheric perfection. It conveys so much at once: humour, pathos, social satire and extreme loneliness, besides being beautiful to behold and incredibly original cinematography-wise. It is at once highly artistic and entertaining, accessible. Quiet desperation: there's no better way to describe these characters' condition. Though Olmi doesn't spare us their selfishness and pettiness, he never fails to depict them with humanity and respect, thus showing his eye is a disillusioned, but not misanthropic or cynical one.

One of the final scenes in the movie, in which a gaggle of clerks fight for the privilege of sitting at a recently defunct colleague's front desk, is one of the most depressing sights I've set eyes on. And yet, you can't help but feel deeply sorry for these hyenas in cheap suits and neon-pale faces, rather than feel angry or scornful against them. You just want to scream to Domenico to "Get out while you can!!!" The poor, gormless, meek, dork-boy, bumbling through his first taste of a mediocre adulthood, a boy you fear might probably never grow enough of an awareness or backbone to react against such a dehumanising system. Antonietta, also know as Magali, the pretty girl he meets during the company's selection process of the applicants and fast develops an attraction for, seems to have more individuality, more resources to survive the dehumanisation process. But then, you think for a moment about the fact that from a very early age, Domenico had been designated as the one who'd drop out of school early so that he could go out and contribute to the family's meagre income. Meanwhile, his younger brother had been chosen between the two to continue studying, perhaps even get a high school diploma or degree, thus fulfilling himself and improving his lot. One would assume that from childhood, the milder Domenico had been treated as the "dim" one, the one who'd rightfully sacrifice himself to allow his more promising brother to emerge out of their family's working-class, suburban obscurity. The scary part is that this isn't simply a dramatic plot device to increase the pathos - it's so plausible and depressingly true to life for its time and context!

I was also deeply moved and touched by the fleeting appearance of the character of the older, married man who miserably fails the first written test (the one that the corporation's applicants take in an empty, grand old palace, so at odds with the suburban squallor and Northern Italian, typical 1960s industrial modernity). He embodies, epitomises and belongs to pre-economic miracle Italy, back when illiteracy and a rural existence was the norm. Probably either almost illiterate, or unable to apply even the most basic principles of arithmetic, he's a throwback to another era, which had ended roughly around the 1950s. He desperately tries to fit into the city, the burgeoning industrial North, the new Italy, but miserably fails before even getting anywhere. How will he and all those like him survive in this dehumanising shift into a brand new, industrial era? It's heart-breaking. Though Il Posto is also so much about Italy and its staggeringly fast move throughout the 50s and 60s from backward rural country to world industrial power, it remains first and foremost a universal, timeless movie. Very highly recommended.

This is a film about ordinary people and it is told in an extraordinary fashion; a young man is not terribly excited to be entering the corporate world--and with good reason. But family and custom and lack of formal education can be persuasive, and so he tests for a position and finds himself in a well-ordered black and white world where individuals count for very little; sounds grim, but director Olmi has a keen eye for the richness of humanity, for the sensitivity of existence, for the quiet celebration of being human. This is a remarkable document, all the more so for being without breathless pacing or minute-by-minute explosions or rounds of gunfire; this is a quiet masterpiece about the richness that can be found by merely observing and the loneliness that is a quintessential part of being human.

This is a quiet film, but it leaves a lasting impression. For the good of his family, a young man (Sandro Panseri) has had to abandon his dream of continuing his education to become a surveyor, and hopes to get a job at a big company that's hiring in Milan. From the moment he steps into a crowded room of other applicants, we feel for him. We can already probably appreciate the anxiety associated with the life transition he's going through, but here it's amplified by the dehumanization of the process and the drones who run it. This continues on when he gets a job there, after which he's put at the same desk with an older worker, and finds that his actual duties are somewhat nebulous. It's so absurd as to be comical, especially as he encounters various forms of petty behavior and bureaucracy in the office.

Lightening the mood a bit is a love interest; he sees a young woman also interviewing (Loredana Detto), and has lunch with her. Even here we sense his awkwardness as he tries to make conversation, and then later struggles to re-connect with her. Panseri registers his feelings very well, often without speaking a word, and it helps that he has such a baby face. The scene where he attends a New Year's Eve party, showing up when only an older couple is present, sits through the somewhat cheesy entertainment, and is cajoled to dance by some kindly older women feels incredibly realistic, and of course this is what director Ermanno Olmi was going for.

Another memorable scene occurs after a worker dies, freeing up a desk for him, but everyone then vies for a better desk, and shifts positions. This may be a little exaggerated, but it is how it feels sometimes in a corporate setting, and the film made me think of Bob Dylan's words "twenty years of schoolin' and they put you on the day shift." There's a deadening of the soul that's taking place here, and while we suspect that the young man will be ok as his life plays out, there is a tinge of sadness in it.

This is a marvel of film-making, Director Ermanno Olmi, following in the Neo-realist mode of his predecessor Roberto Rossellini, made this as only his second feature film (his first, TIME STOOD STILL, of 1959, is little known, though apparently excellent; it appears to be unavailable with English subtitles). This film has no frills. It is a brilliantly evocative 'fly on the wall' observation of what it was like at that time in Milan to try to find and retain employment. The sadness, the disappointments, the heartache, the bullying, the exploitation are all observed without comment. The two central performances are by Sandro Panseri as the boy Domenico and Loredana Detto as the girl Anotnietta, both seeking their first jobs, and both ending up at the same huge company where they work in separate buildings and essentially never see each other again, despite having bonded and formed the beginnings of a romance. Panseri's innocent and naked performance is positively inspired, but after appearing in two further films over the subsequent four years, he retired from acting, and today apparently manages a supermarket in Milan. Loredana Detto never acted again, but she married Olmi in 1963, and they have three children. The script for this film was jointly written by Olmi and someone named Ettore Lombardo, who never wrote anything for the cinema again. (One might make a mystery film about what happened to the people involved with Olmi in this film, and call it THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING TALENT.) The delicacy of Olmi's handling of this film is miraculous. He realizes the Neo-realist ideal to its full. He gets as 'close to life' as one can reasonably get without being personally involved, and he observes what is happening as if he were an invisible angel monitoring human activity with a helpless sense of melancholy (remember Wim Wenders's WINGS OF DESIRE, 1987, which may have been partially inspired by this earlier style of film-making by the Italians, as Wenders is such a knowledgeable film historian). This film is infinitely sad, but then so is Life.

I encountered this film almost accidentally one evening, and was not expecting a lot from it. Certainly, I had no way of knowing in advance what I was in for. With relative indifference I sat down, pressed play, and ended up experiencing one of the greatest movie experiences of my life. I sat in my chair, taking in the film, and was breathless. It never took a wrong step.

As a film-maker myself, I kept a critical watch, waiting for Olmi or one of his actors to misstep. However,I can happily say that 'Il Posto' is a flawless picture. It is deeply moving, visually beautiful, and has a resonating power unlike almost any other film.

I sincerely wish that more people could see and appreciate this picture, and that it was more widely available, because I consider it one of the greatest accomplishments in cinema history. Olmi's beautiful, universal film is worthy of standing alongside the best of Bergman, Kubrick, or Bunuel. Please seek it out!

This is one of those rare moments in cinema when the picture really is worth a thousand words and the director has the confidence and wisdom to let the film and his actors "speak" for themselves.

We join the film with young Domenico preparing to take the big exam to get on with a firm in the city. If he can pass the test and be hired, he will be set for life--a great thing according to his father.

The film has a way of showing us the range of emotions and doubts that race through the young Domenico's mind as he experiences the city, working life, and even a hint of romance with a beautiful young woman at the firm. The actor is such a natural and we are captured by his sense of wonder that is so effectively conveyed through subtle looks and gestures. And the film is certainly not without its moments of humor--there are wonderful moments throughout that allow us to laugh at the ridiculous nature of the working world and the folly of ordinary people.

This is a true masterpiece of Italian neo-realism and I strongly encourage taking the time to watch it and savor every little nuance. You will be charmed.

"Il Posto" is an extremely simple film; by that I do not refer to its intelligence, which is on par with anything written by Sartre or Hobbes, but its way of representing its characters and the environment surrounding them; they are not shown with an emotional and artistic grace, as in a film by Visconti, but rather in a plain (but not dull) and un-grandiloquent way. They are shown not as heroes, or rebels, but rather as ordinary people, with ordinary problems inside of ordinary lives. But even through this simplicity, Ermanno Olmi finds beauty.

It is about a shy and timid young man from a small village trying to get a corporate job in Milan; he meets and falls in love with a beautiful girl who works there; he tries to court her. It is also an extremely (and extremely subtly) political film; we see the day-to-day lives of the middle-aged employees, and their interactions with others. We see the poor, the rich, and those in-between, there interactions and their place in their world, and how they stay that way. It is, as well as an intimate character piece, a film of society, and its flaws.

It's a film of sublime beauty, though not on the surface. Its a film that leaves the viewer with a sense of every emotion possible: humor, sadness, tragedy, innocence, etc. Its a social and emotional documentary-as-fiction. Its a film I wouldn't hesitate to call perfect.

Posto, Il (1961)

"Il Posto" (called "The Sound of Trumpets" in the US) is a quiet, sadly humorous movie about the dehumanization of two people who obtain "a job for life" in a major Northern Italian corporation.

Domenico ((Sandro Panseri) and Antonietta (Loredana Detto) are two young adults who meet when both of them apply for a job in Milan. There is definitely a chemistry between the two, and, when both are hired, we expect that their relationship will progress.

The progress of this relationship is confounded when the two are assigned to different buildings, with different shifts and different lunch breaks.

We become aware--before the protagonists do-- that the promise of "a job for life" is a double- edged sword. With the job comes the realization that white collar workers here become cogs in a machine in which boredom and stifling repetition rule.

See this picture because it's a small, quiet, neorealist gem. (Olmi went on to direct "The Tree of Wooden Clogs," one of the finest movies I have ever seen. This early movie shares the quiet, observant quality of Olmi's later masterpiece.)

I am an Olmi fan and consider his later work "The Tree of Wooden Clogs" to be one of my top 10 films of all time.

By comparison, "Il posto" is a minor work of Olmi. Yet it has certain common factors that can be found in most Olmi films--the love for the offspring from the parents, the blooming love of first time lovers, and an honest portrayal of lower middle class Italy. In most Olmi films there is a good dose of Catholicism but in this work it is restrained to a few references.

The end sequence is however remarkable. The film ends with the clackety-clack sound of a stencil copier and no music. It is preceded by a significant and quixotic movement of clerks from one desk to another. Olmi communicates so much to the viewer without a word spoken. This will remain a great end sequence for me.

Sometimes I'm a bit conflicted when rating films like this one because I can sort of see why other people would like it in terms of characters, story, cinematography etc.-frankly, I did not enjoy the film very much but I won't be bashing the film and act like whomever appreciates the film is a pretentious pseudointellectual since I myself have watched slow-paced arthouse films that I liked which were deemed pretentious and pseudointellectual by others.

Going into this film I did not have any prior expectations and I actually quite enjoyed it for the film 30-45 minutes or so, but then it became a bit of a blurry snoozefest in my opinion. It felt all over the place and I could not see a coherent theme, it didn't even seem to provide me the satisfaction of phenomenological insight that other neorealist film seemed to be capable of even though other reviews here seem to differ in that regard.

During the second half of the film everything felt cluttered and almost claustrophobic. The office rooms and hallways without windows were incredibly dull and I didn't feel much aesthetic pleasure. Perhaps this was an intentional directional choice to highlight certain elements of capitalism or whatever, but to me it just felt dull and boring.

For the last 30 minutes I was honestly just waiting for the film to end. The connection I felt with the lead character and the young girl had vaporized, I couldn't really string together the thematic coherence, didn't get much aesthetic pleasure or intellectual insight, nor the phenomenological insight that other neorealist films seem to provide. 4/10 would probably not watch again.

Olmi delivers a involving study of one young man's initiation into the corporate structure. The lifelike ambiance and natural tone of the picture are remarkable, and the emotions it generates universal. It's hard watching the final images and not hoping for the protagonist's escape from the reality of his situation. A Criterion DVD edition excellently revives this important work from renowned Italian director, Ermanno Olmi. Simply stunning!

I had never seen or heard of this film until last year. WOW! this is one of the best films of the post war, the cinematography, narrative elements, the easy confident pace. and for the actors to be non professionals - in the neo-realist tradition. It's hard to believe. some of these Hollywoodland hams could learn something here. If you've seen it see it again. If you haven't rent it, buy it, download it from someplace. that is if you like your cinema pure in spirit and free of crap, sadly, most people don't. most go out of their way to tell contrived, complicated plots with no feel for characters. I kind of wish I'd gotten into the film business.

As my German grandmother is fond of saying, "mit Arbeit versaut man sich das halbe Leben," which translates to "through work you ruin half your life". In Ermanno Olmi's masterpiece Il Posto, work is portrayed as a prison, an obstacle to romantic love or a disruption of the natural rhythm of life. To secure a job in a corporation for the rest of your life, then, is a life sentence. And yet the young man Domenico, with the encouragement of his parents, earnestly endeavours, even desires, to obtain such a job, to be wrested from the comfort of his childish existence and to enter into a wholly unfamiliar world.

The director depicts the violence of the transition from childhood to adulthood and from simple small town life to the organized chaos of the city with great subtlety. His use of non-professional actors adds to the film's realism: Sandro Panseri effortlessly channels Domenico's discomfort and awkwardness owing to his unfamiliar surroundings and new experiences because starring in a film for the first time must have had the same effect on the actor. The attraction between Domenico and Antonietta feels genuine as does the intimacy of their interactions. A scene in which Domenico unsuccessfully attempts to suppress a smile upon seeing Antonietta is particularly memorable and affecting.

The outstanding sound design and cinematography reinforce the themes of the film without attracting unwarranted attention. The obtrusive cacophony of incessant traffic and construction reflects and enhances the anxiety of Domenico and Antonietta but also grants them the anonymity through which they can develop their attraction to each other. By way of contrast, the monastic silence of the office represents the stultification of youthful energy and personal expression. The director uses long shots to convey the isolation and vulnerability of Domenico. Hand-held shots give the viewer the feeling of being in the midst of a throng of people. The black and white photography is starkly beautiful.

Although Olmi's vision of modern life is bleak, he enlivens the film with humour. In one scene Domenico's father, a reluctant participant in a ploy to allow his son to go out one night, pretends to retire for the night only to reemerge from his bedroom seconds later shaking his head. The workers at the corporation appear to be employed for no other reason than to pass the time as they sit in their desks. One rolls a cigarette unhurriedly, another cleans out a drawer in his desk, and a third works on a manuscript for a novel, all in plain view of their supervisor. The perspective of the film shifts here to portray the lives of the workers individually inside of their own homes. Their lack of agency at work is mirrored at home where they have to endure vexatious landlords because they do not earn enough to purchase a property.

By the end of the film, it becomes clear that the achievement of obtaining a job for life is at best bittersweet, an escape from a miserable life of penury at the expense of happiness and fulfillment. Notwithstanding that one might be nostalgic for an era where permanent, lifelong positions were abundant, Il Posto resonates with the viewer of today, inasmuch as capitalism and alienated labour, along with their attendant harms, remain as prevalent as ever.

Domenico is a young man in a working class family with his parents and younger brother. With the need for money, he decides to climb the corporate ladder. The pay is low and the term is expected to be a lifetime. He joins a large group applying to join the joyless, bureaucratic world. He falls for fellow applicant Antonietta "Masetti". Her family is also in need and it's their first job. The aptitude test is a maze of Kafkaesque hurdles. The young neo-couple gets two jobs in different departments. There is no place at the clerical position for Domenico who becomes a messenger but he spends most of his days waiting at a desk in the hallway.

Ermanno Olmi is a lesser-known great Italian director. He's overshadowed by his more famous compatriots. That does not mean that this movie is any less than the great cinema of that Italian era. This portrays a young man on the verge of a long journey which may not go anywhere professionally and go everywhere personally. It gives a memorable vision of the corporate world. The young love has an adorable awkwardness. These are kids trying to be adults. It leaves the movie with a realism of post war Italy and a surrealism of the new emerging corporate culture. This is a great movie.

Many Italian Neorealist films have discussed about harsh, bleak reality of life but I have rarely come across any reality that's fruitful. By fruitful, it reflects on the realistic aspects of life and it gives you an image that resembles with our own. People may not relate to it often but when they do, they show the components that provide an analysis which help us to lead our lives.

Il Posto deals with the very honest portrayal of getting recruited in corporate sector and how to get aquainted in it without buzzing away. Overall, it's a magnificent film, despite some loosely connected sequences in the story in the second half.

I had never heard of Ermanno Olmi when I sat down to watch "Il posto". If this movie is any indication, then his other work must be masterful. The movie portrays young Domenico leaving his grim existence in a small town near Milan to move to the big city in hopes of finding work with a corporation. In the process, the most important thing that happens to him is that he develops a relationship with a woman looking for the job.

I believe that there are several ways to interpret the movie. One is about the changing Italy of the post-WWII years. Following the war, Italy was destroyed economically, and the people would now have to try and make their way while also dealing with the results of Mussolini's actions (much like how the German people would have to deal with the results of Hitler's actions). In that sense, Domenico is trapped in a world resembling the old Italy, and so he, as an agent of the new generation in the post-war years, is trying to seek a new path in the world.

Of course, there is also the theme of the corporate world. He enters the building and finds many people applying for the same job. Most likely only one person can get the job, and so the rest will get tossed aside just as casually as they were admitted, left to fend for themselves once again. In this respect, we see the irony in Domenico's search for a new path: his aim of making his way in the world will probably deprive others of the chance of having a better life. But what can we say about the corporate world? All in all, I really recommend this movie. Like much of Italian cinema during the past sixty years, it shows that country having to come to terms with itself, rejecting the idealized impressions that had previously held sway ("Malena" also showed this). Really good.

A beautiful, sweet little neo-realist slice-of-life picture. Sandro Panseri has been taken out of school by his parents and been thrust into the working world in Milan. While applying for his first job, a job for life in an office, he meets up with a female applicant, Loredana Detto, and the two form a quick connection despite their shyness toward the opposite sex. When their jobs actually start, though, the two are separated, their brief romance begins to fade and it looks like they might never meet again. That's pretty much the whole story (we do get a lot of insights into how this job-for-life is going to go for the two protagonists based on the lives of the other office workers we observe), but as small and gentle as it is, man, does it hit hard. I mean, who hasn't had this experience of missed opportunity? And the film's observations about a life at work are spot on, too. The best film I've seen in a long while.

Why didn't I like this movie? The main reason is that many questions arise in the mind when watching this film, for which there is never an answer. Is this film about Italian society after the Second World War? Does this film want to show the lives of ordinary people? Is it about a romantic relationship? Is it made about a family? My answer is: none of this. This movie can't get close to the characters. I think this movie is also very boring. The story proceeds slowly and has no central meaning in the film. We do not understand exactly why this film was made. Regarding this concept, I can suggest Rocco and his brothers. An extremely great movie that will never get old.

If you summarize the plot of this remarkable movie, it gives you absolutely no idea of how good it is. A shy young man applies for a job, his first ever, with a large corporation in Milan. If he gets it he will be "sistemato" (all set) for life. He takes the entrance test, observes the other applicants, meets a friendly girl also seeking employment. We see in flashback some of the desperate lives of the other employees. The boy gets the job, begins working, finito!

IL POSTO (THE JOB) is more than that, however. It is a sensitive look at what people are and what impersonalized modern industrial society is capable of doing to their humanity. There is a fine Christmas party scene in which people's loneliness outweighs their frolic. In the movie's understated but unforgettable final image, our young hero looks oh so content working in his secure new job in his little back row desk, but the sounds of the mimeograph machines (remember those?) getting louder tell us that he too someday will become lost and crushed as others have been before him.

The film was renamed "The Sound of Trumpets" upon its initial U.S. release, a title which makes no sense for this gentle yet incisive work from the director who would later give us THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS and CAMMINA CAMMINA.