Il Posto (1961)

Something about Il posto reminds me of another great true-to-life film, A taste of honey, one of the best Brittish kitchen sink dramas ever made; heartfelt, but quite sad; realistic, but with a perspective of its own. Switch the kitchen sink to a version of neorealism and you have an idea about what Il posto is like. This is a film that has a very limited story. I don't mean limited in a negative way, it's just simple. A young man with ever-widening eyes looks for a job to support his family (mother and brothers). After going through a ridiculous application process (where he, among other things, is expected to answer yes or no to questions such as whether he is repulsed by the opposite sex). In the end, he is hired, but not for the job he has applied for. He is more of an errand boy than the clerk he hoped to become. During the application process, he has met a girl he quickly befriended. The girl got a job at the same place, but in another department. They don't see much of each other, which breaks his heart. His job is dreary, he is not entrusted with anything important, there are many dull routines. Like Antonioni and Tati, Ermanno Olmi meticiously captures the impersonal environment of the modern city. Many brilliant shots observe long corridor, waiting rooms and streets that all look the same. People gobble up in a dreary-looking corporate lunch room. Toward the end of the film, our young hero attends a dance organized by the workers' club. In a very naked and desolate-looking room, his gaze wanders around (he is waiting for the girl) as an elderly couple invites him to sit with them.

Olmi doesn't conjure up dystopian views on the work and routines. Rather than revolutionary Spirit, the film exudes patience and quiet humour. Il posto is documentary-like, it doesn't preach, it doesn't deliver a simple story about What Work is Like in Modernity. My applause for that! It is the little things that give away the boy's increasing sense of disillusion and disappointment (the girl he rarely meets, the monotonous job); mostly, the boy's expressive eyes constitute the emotional power plant of the film. Very little has to be said. All characters are developed without attempts at creating (stereo-)types. The dialogue revolves around the activities in which the characters take part. No attempt is made to characterize the characters' emotions through dramatic dialogue. The film's close attention to the relation between characters and surrounding bear a resemblance to Bresson. In yet another great scene, the boy and the girl strolls around in a fancy part of the town. They decide to drop in at a café, as that seems to be the kind of thing that adults do. In a very unsure and hesitating manner, they both do their best to emulate the behavior of grown-ups. One could say that one of the main themes of the film, evoked in a witty and ingenious way, is the transformation from youth to adulthood, and the role of work in this process. The biggest merit of the film is to depict things that are normally taken for granted as a natural progress in a young person's life and in society in general. Olmi makes us look at the world of work from a distance, through the boy's quizzical eyes. Olmi's film is deceivingly simple - the truth is it is one of the best films about work I've seen in a long time.