After his contemplative and poetic ‘The Tree of Wooden Clogs’, this is my second Ermanno Olmi film and the man had made another simple, sublime and touching humanitarian document in the lineage of Neo-realism. What I love most about both the films is the way he kept understated message with minimalist approach without much dialogue or narration and yet created moving ripples throughout the film. The movie presents a sensitively portrayed point of view of a shy and reticent adolescent Domenico belong to countryside, came to the city of
The beauty of the film also lies
in those myriad natural expressions that Olmi managed to obtain from its two non
professional debut actors- Sandro Panseri and beautiful Loredana Detto with whom Olmi married.. It’s
refreshing to watch both of them and the film finely captures the emotional ripples
and vibrations without being heavy anywhere. That Christmas party scene where couples’
dancing is so refined manner juxtaposed with loneliness of two single individuals
of opposite gender. Olmi brought something so simple and yet so complex on screen
which happens to most of us, how the reality shatters the adolescent charm of
promising man slowly and steadily as he’s becoming the part of system. That
final image is something which stays
with its audience where the boy got his position on table and chair paying
attention to the petty issue of his senior colleagues and that cluttering
mechanical sound of copier machine…perhaps he’s noticing the strange world around
him where he has to settle himself being another routine man of ugly system.
Highly recommended.
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