Plot

Bursting with big dreams and plans, an Italian teen goes to Milan to work in a big impersonal corporate office, where he becomes disillusioned and drained of all his individualism.

Domenico and Antonietta are two suburban Italian youths who meet while seeking "a job for life" from a big city corporation. After a bizarre screening process made up of written exams, physical agility exercises, and interview questions such as "Do you drink to forget your troubles?" (Domenico and Antonietta are no older than 17 or 18), they land jobs in the "Technical Division" and "Typing Services" respectively. From there, Domenico works as an underutilized errand boy until a clerk position is vacated by the death of an older employee. Domenico finally takes his place in a room of 12 other clerks with a manager overseeing them from a desk at the head of the room. The film ends as Domenico ponders his fate, from behind his tiny desk at the back of the small windowless room, listening to the sound of the mimeograph machine as it runs off carbon copies next to the manager's desk.—Alex M. Dunne <dunne_alex@jpmorgan.com>

Teenaged Domenico Cantoni lives in a small apartment in Meda with his working class family consisting of his parents and his younger teenaged brother, Franco. In what is among his first major steps in the transition from being a boy to being a man in the completion of middle school, Domenic, in an effort to help support the family, is traveling into Milan as one of the invitees to apply for the many white-collar jobs within a major corporation, the process including an aptitude test. Many of the other applicants are like him in that they are young, and a job with the company would be their first work experience. Although the assumption is that the entry level jobs do not pay much, he, his family and most of the other applicants see getting one of the jobs as setting one up for life in terms of job security. As such, most of the applicants place great importance in this application day. Domenic makes a connection with one of the other applicants, Antonietta Masetti - who goes by the nickname Magali - much like him who needs a job to help support her family. Domenic hopes to have her as a friend in the city if they both get one of the jobs. They do indeed both gets jobs, but are in different sections physically and functionally within the company, and thus would not see each other on a day-to-day basis. As Domenic settles into work at the company, the prospect of a job for life with the company is not quite as attractive as it was on application day.—Huggo

In search of employment and a steady job, quiet, wide-eyed Domenico, the inexperienced son of a worker from the small town of Meda, Lombardy, arrives in bustling Milan. As Domenico passes the entrance examination of a large faceless company, along with Antonietta, an equally young, bright-eyed candidate, he finds himself on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder, gaining valuable experience rather than staying home all day doing nothing. However, the odds are against him. On his stumbling little steps towards adulthood, can Domenico find his first love as well?—Nick Riganas

An Italian teen starts is journey in the big city, Milano, a dream that comes true. During the interview process he meets a girl who like, and both try to meet eachother. Slow paced movie but able to express how was that time. I don't agree at all with other plots you can find here, so I wrote mine, from an "Italian" prospective. I lived just there, closed to Meda, and worked in Milano. In my opinion they misunderstood everything, as it is obvious that they never lived in North Italy and cannot understand the context and the Epoch. Enjoy an Ermanno Olmi masterpiece.

In Italy in 1961 Domenico Cantoni (Sandro Panseri) is a young man living with his parents and has the opportunity to interview foe a large corporation where he may have a job for life. On the day of the test where many other applicants are competing for the positions available Dominico meets Antonietta Masetti (Loredana Detto) and the two strike up a friendship over lunch after a written exam. The couple wanders around window shopping and, realizing they are late returning to the job interview, run back to the company, at one point be chastised by a police man for stepping on the grassy area in a park. The remaining testing consists of physical dexterity and hearing tests for the applicants, and Domenico is subjected to an oral exam answering questions such as Do you drink to forget your troubles? When Dominico returns home his parents ask him about the exam with Dominico answering aloofly, but when he is accepted his mother takes him shopping for new clothes. At the company Dominco meets up with Antonietta again and they are given jobs in low-level positions until a role opens up. In the accounting department, a seemingly dysfunctional family of misfits, one of the chief clerks sits up lat at night writing on his personal story, while during lunch Dominico eats alone and looks around for Antonietta until someone tells him that there is a second lunch shift. One day Dominico sees her and they chat about the upcoming company New Years party which Antonietta isnt sure she can attend. At the part Dominco comes in alone but by the end of the festivities he is dancing with many of the other employees who he may be friends with in the coming years. When the clerk from accounting passes away Dominico is moved up and takes a place in the back of the crowded room as the sound of the mimeograph machine echoes in his ears.