REFLECTIONS ON FILM CULTURE

Shooting Down Pictures Video: IL POSTO

Il Posto, directed by Ermanno Olmir is currently ranked #926 among the 1000 Greatest Films of All Time according to They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? I made the following video as part of my blog project Shooting Down Pictures.

On my blog entry for this film, I wrote:

Il Posto may go down in history as one of the most visually striking and quietly humorous depictions of modern office life, a more soft-spoken but no less satirical predecessor to the likes of “The Office” or Office Space. But in following the steady progress of teenage Domenico (Sandro Panseri) through his application, admittance and orientation into a large bureaucratic company, writer-director Ermanno Olmi’s masterpiece unassumingly encompasses the broader social mechanisms that shape an individual’s values and desires, from the coveted front desk of the office floor to the fresh-faced girl (Loredana Detto) whose prospects of romance with Domenico are both introduced and achingly stalled by company circumstances. Olmi’s modern landscape views of sterile offices and noisy construction sites draw comparison with similar settings by Antonioni, and both directors approach a metaphysical uncertainty over how to live in a world of shifting appearances and values. While Antonioni’s scenarios typically arrive at a state of top-level existential confusion, Olmi demonstrates a proletarian concern for the problems of adjusting to the rules of modern life, whether it be taking competency tests, ingratiating older, established colleagues, or enduring the office holiday party from hell.

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