Ermanno Olmi’s superb follow-up to IL POSTO/’61, his Portrait of a First-Time Job-Hunter in Milan’s ‘Il Boom’ economy, shows fast developing cracks in the system. The opening is hard to beat as a lower middle-class dance hall comes to life with a couple of musicians and well-dressed locals coupling & uncoupling on the freshly dusted floor. Social dancing: the only acceptable physical contact at the time. One couple, late 20s/early 30s, shows obvious signs of tension. A coveted job promotion is sending the man off to a plant in Sicily; the woman, now worried about their future. Will the engagement keep? The rest of the film meticulously charts her sense of abandonment against his own disappointments living a lonely half-life as stranger-in-a-strange-land. Wonderfully captured by Olmi in images that are harsh, beautiful, and filled with a sense of the futility of rising expectations eased only by the couple’s shared sense of personal growth in a relationship that finds strength & maturity thru distance. The ending is a bit abrupt, a reel or two extra would help, but Olmi’s sense of craft & tact offers much.
DOUBLE-BILL: IL POSTO is even more satisfying & original. Yet, other than that and THE TREE OF THE WOODEN CLOGS/’78, little of Olmi is available Stateside.
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