Il Posto, a criminally overlooked film by criminally overlooked Italian director Ermanno Olmi is in a lot of ways the anti-Bicycle Thieves (a film I hope to discuss soon). While Di Sicca's acclaimed masterpiece shows the dehumanizing effects of being in deep poverty, Il Posto shows the dehumanization that goes with a life-long, steady job. Truthfully, there is much more I could say about this film, and hope to compare it directly to The Bicycle Thief (personally, my preferred title. It's amazing I could write just about the film's title!) and many other neorealist films soon, as I see it as a reaction against the themes of the movement.
However, this is actually an older essay of mine, which deconstructs a pivotal scene in the film. Hopefully, I will look at it on a wider scale (although this is still written with the rest of the film in mind, and is not a reading of a detached scene) and link it more closely to other films and related styles.
Ermanno Olmi’s 1961 film Il Posto deals with the themes of corporate dehumanization and loss of personal identity. The film follows Domenico, a young Italian man (who bears more than a passing resemblance to influential Czech writer Franz Kafka, which given the film's message and content, is just too perfect to be chalked up as an amazing coincidence), as he seeks to get a job in a large corporation. Near the middle of the film, Domenico is called in to speak with the corporate supervisor about his job. The corporation promised him a job, but he does not know of his position. Domenico's meeting with his supervisor is the first communication he has within the company. The meeting marks Domenico's official initiation into the company, and though the scene’s makeup and cinematography, Olmi reveals Domenico's future employment in the company, as well as the rest of his life.
As Domenico enters the office, he stands in front of the supervisors desk. He is not officially a part of the company, and is unsure what to do in the office. He looms over the supervisor, who is sitting down at his desk. However, as soon as Domenico sits down, he is a part of the company, and placed near the bottom of the pyramid, well below the supervisor. Domenico’s chair is much lower than the supervisor’s, showing great power the supervisor has over Domenico. Domenico’s chair is also at a peculiar angle. He has such little power in the corporation, that he is not even allowed to directly face the supervisor. However, the problem is not unique to Domenico. Behind the protagonist is a line of chairs pressed up against the wall. However, the wall, as well as the chairs, are at a forty-five degree angle from the desk. The corporation’s inequality applies not only to young adults just beginning their career like Domenico, but to very common worker in the corporation. Domenico will probably never be supervisor due to the corporations structural inequality.
Although Olmi makes clear through the film’s visuals that Domenico will most likely never rise to become a supervisor, Domenico seems to be unaware of that fact during this scene in the film. During the meeting, another employee enters the room near the back of the frame, and walks to the supervisor’s desk. His long walk is reminiscent of Domenico’s just minutes prior, when the protagonist walked the long, nondescript hallway alone to the supervisor’s office. The similar images further point to the fact that one’s position within the company never changes. The man hands the supervisor his coffee and walks away, leaving the supervisor alone in the foreground. The focus shifts to Domenico, sitting in the frame’s middle, staring at the supervisor drinking his coffee. Earlier in the film, Domenico goes into a coffee shop, where he is visibly uncomfortable and confused in the bustling environment, seemingly having no idea what to do while drinking his coffee. Now, Domenico watches the supervisor comfortably drink his coffee at a large desk in his own massive office. Domenico stares at the man drink his coffee for several seconds. Domenico aspires to be in his own office one day, comfortably drinking coffee delivered to him instead of ordering a cup in the shop and having to wait in line then move through the crowded shop to a seat. However, the supervisor and his coffee, representing Domenico’s dream, are out of focus for the office, symbolizing they are out of reach for Domenico.
Soon after the supervisor finishes his coffee, a woman enters and gives the supervisor a written excuse for being late to work. The supervisor briefly chastises her, telling her her children are old enough to take care of herself. Domenico, who is uninvolved in the conversation, is captured in a closeup. Domenico’s mouth is open, apparently deeply interested in the woman’s situation, and is turning his head in order to look at both subjects. Then, the supervisor returns the excuse to the woman, and his hand juts out of the foreground. The out of focus hand and paper block Domenico’s face. Momentarily, Domenico’s face is the peice of paper, representing his grim status within the corporation: Another faceless worker, without an identity. The fact that the paper is an excuse symbolizes Domenico’s sole purpose in the corporation: work. His identity is not only unimportant, but is also in a position to hurt the company, as the woman just did by being late to tend to her children. For the company, it would be best if Domenico had no personality at all.
Throughout a seemingly simple scene in Il Posto where Domenico is told he must temporarily work in another position until a job opens up in his field, Olmi reveals complex information about Domenico’s future through images. Domenico needs a job urgently, so his fate is working at the corporation, where he will have a decent paying job for life. However, Domenico must face inequality within the corporation, seemingly little possibility for a promotion, and an eventual loss of identity. These ideas greatly impact the message of Il Posto, turning a coming-of-age story into a grim prediction of a likely hopeless future.
No comments:
Post a Comment