Time stood still (1959)

Ermanno Olmi is the director of one of my favorite movies, the gloomy coming-of-age story Il posto in which an office boy is introduced to the drudgery of work. But to me, his films seem very under-appreciated. I very rarely hear people talk about them or write about them.

That's why I haven't heard anything about one of his early films, Time stood still, a small gem of a movie about two people, a middle-aged man and a boy, who have to endure one another's company. These two guys are caretakers of an isolated working site in the Italian Alps. It's winter, and the conditions are harsh. The boy is a newcomer, replacing another guy who is having a vacatin. Time stood still explores the tension between the two using quiet humor and unhurried takes. We see them in their hut, huddling over books (the boy is trying to prepare for an exam) or preparing food. The boy marvels at the older man's habits and the simplicity of this life in the Alps. He likes to play his rock n' roll records and have a merry time. One day there is a storm, and their quiet habits are disturbed. The story could easily have become cartoonish: the boy with his youth culture and the grumpy oldtimer. But youth culture is not derided, nor is the robust ways of the mountainside romanticized. Olmi breaks down the clichés and lets us see the small nuances of human interaction. A twitch of the mouth, a displeased gesture, a rebellious swag - all of these everyday elements matter. One could say that the mastery he shows in doing this bears a similarity to a movie from a different time and place, Nuri Ceylan's Uzak. The last segment of the film shifts its tone a bit, introducing what might be called a religious dimension. These scenes take place in a church, and even the church is imbued with the same earthy qualities as the rest of the film.