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Il Posto More at IMDbPro »Il posto (original title)

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15 reviews in total

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25 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Timid youthful hope, followed by a lifetime of quiet desperation, 6 December 2006

Author: Asa_Nisi_Masa2 from Rome, Italy

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.

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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
One of my personal favourites, 23 June 2004
Author: (anton_d_mannaseh@hotmail.com) from Calgary, Alberta -Canada

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!

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11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
An understated neorealist gem, 7 September 2003

Author: Red-125 from Upstate New York

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.)

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
an honest and beautiful film, 11 January 2008

Author: NiceGuyEddie75 from United States

"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.

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A new job., 6 January 2002
Author: Gerald A. DeLuca (italiangerry@gmail.com) from United States

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.

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11 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A magical tale about a young man's initiation into adulthood., 14 June 1999

Author: mireille from Seattle, Washington, USA

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.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A precise, highly-personal and thoroughly engaging film with a natural, humanistic sensitivity very rare in movies., 8 September 2003
Author: TheVid from Colorado Springs

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!

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Very rewarding, 9 January 2005

Author: Clark Richards from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

So much of this movie is built around the reserved gestures and stolen glances of the lead character Domenico. We watch Domenico slowly wake up each day while his family wonders if he will pass the testing requirements that will enable him to land a job for life. Domenico's younger brother will be the one who gets to go to school, Domenico, it has been decided will be the one who must work. We see first off how this change in his life makes him somewhat ashamed to travel on the train with others who are going to school. All of this is accomplished with just a look of sadness and shame.

From there we see Domenico enter into the testing process. After entering into a crowded waiting room with all eyes staring through each who enter, Domenico shuffles into the crowd and away from the door and all of the watchful eyes. Every scene becomes another part of a larger process of self discovery.

Domenico falls in love with Antonietta, a girl who is also testing for a job. While having coffee on a lunch break, the girl shares her spoon with Domenico and goes so far as to stir his coffee, a scene that plays out not only as an innocent bonding experience, but as subtle sexual foreplay.

In Domenico's world we see him gradually climb the footstool of success, we see him smile a little bit more, we see his generosity to fellow employees and more than anything else, we see him discover where his journey for a job for life has led him.

Very powerful, very moving and very, very rewarding. One of the best films that shows the beauty of the unspoken subtleties of the human condition.10/10.

Clark Richards

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The job, 14 November 2006

Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Ermanno Olmi was a documentary maker in Italy during the 1950s. His roots were in the neo-realism movement that he, like most film fans, greatly admired and cherished their realistic stories. His arrival in the scene as an important voice was cemented with "Il Posto", a film that established him as a man to be reckoned with.

We had seen a restored copy of this magnificent film when it was shown at New York's Film Forum about four years ago and recently, we decided to take another look of the Criterion DVD, a wonderful transfer that will probably open his work to movie lovers all over. "Il Posto" is a great film because it doesn't pretend to be otherwise. Mr. Olmi, working on the screen play with Ettore Lombardo created a picture of the Italy during the boom after their defeat in WWII, as the country was getting back to the business of reconstruction.

It was about this time that cities like Milan and Turin, in the north of the country, became the centers for manufacturing and commerce. It is in this context that we are taken to meet Domenico Cantoni and his family. They have come to Meda, a suburb of Milan, in search of better paid jobs. In the case of Domenico, scoring a position in one of those giant companies it means steady income and a job for life.

Domenico is a clever young man and passes his math test with flying colors. This is the moment when he first sees another young woman, Magali, who is also taking the test. Domenico likes what he sees, but he is too shy to do anything that will make Magali think less of him. When he receives a notification for further tests and interviews, it appears he has been accepted by the firm. This, in turn, turns to be a situation that changes his hopes for developing some sort of relationship with Magali as they are assigned to two different areas of work. Domenico can't even see Magali during his lunch time because they are assigned to different shifts.

As Domenico, who aspires to be an accountant within the firm, is assigned to be a messenger apprentice, something he clearly doesn't deserve, but he must accept, we follow him around different areas within the company. We are taken to watch the people in one typical accounting department, where older employees bide their time until they can retire. Domenico, who hopes to finally hook up with Magali at the company's New Year's party, is once again disappointed when she never arrives. Instead, he must spend a night surrounded by the same people he will be working with. The final sequence of the film shows how Domenico is able to move to the spot where he will probably spend the rest of his life, in which he, being the youngest, is suddenly the center of the department's ill will.

Sandro Panseri makes a fantastic Domenico. This non-professional actor registers in his face all what is going in his head without great gestures, or other affectations. Domenico conquers the viewer's heart because he is genuine and because we realize the goodness in his soul. Loredana Detto, who appears as Magali also makes an impression.

"Il Posto" is blessed by Pier Emilio Bassi's music score and by the black and white cinematography of Roberto Barbieri and Lamberto Caimi. The film is a triumph for Ermanno Olmi, who captured the ambiance and the gist of that era in a wonderful film that will live forever.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
new Italy, 2 June 2007

Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

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.

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