Il Posto (1961) Il posto (original title)

Director:

Ermanno Olmi

Writers:

Ettore Lombardo
Ermanno Olmi

Release Date:

13 September 1961 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A very young college graduate attempts to obtain a position with a large corporation.

Plot Keywords:

Desk | Clerk | Job | Exercise | Errand Boy

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Loredana Detto	...	Antonietta Masetti
Sandro Panseri	...	Domenico Cantoni
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tullio Kezich	...	Psychologist (uncredited)
Mara Revel	...	Old Woman (uncredited)
Guido Spadea	...	Portioli (uncredited)

Directed by
Ermanno Olmi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ettore Lombardo
Ermanno Olmi

Produced by
Alberto Soffientini	....	producer

Original Music by
Pier Emilio Bassi

Cinematography by
Roberto Barbieri
Lamberto Caimi

Film Editing by
Carla Colombo

Production Design by
Ettore Lombardi

Sound Department
Giuseppe Donato	....	sound

Production Companies

• 24 Horses
• Titanus

Distributors

• Cowboy Pictures (2003) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• 01 Distribution (2011) (Italy) (DVD)
• Cinematográfica F.J. (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Homescreen (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Janus Films (1963) (USA) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

"Il posto" - Italy (original title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Italy:T | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Meda, Milan, Lombardia, Italy

Company:

24 Horses

Trivia:

Director Ermanno Olmi went on to marry the female lead, Loredana Detto. She never made another film.

An understated neorealist gem

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.)