A humanist masterpiece. The film is certainly against the dehumanizing aspects of corporate life, but one hesitates to call it a "protest" movie, like some of Chaplin's repertoire. There is no expressed anger, but what I see as a reasonable, controlled indignation, made poignant by sympathy and sensibility.
Olmi's films never disappoint. His technical background gives him fine eyes for the subtlety of light and shadow in black/white cinematography. His two best-known works, "Il Posto" and "Il Fidanzati", are the epitomes of B/W accomplishment.
There is a sweet, quiet lyricism in Olmi that you don't find in other Italian Greats, not even in de Sica. Maybe that is why, when the film ends, we are left to care and worry about the heroes and heroines, far beyond their existence in the plot. For instance, I keep thinking of the boy clerk, of what kind of man he'll grow up as, and wondering what kind of a bride he'll eventually take. No other director has this power to make the cast feel like family to the audience. But isn't that the magic of the film?
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