In these early features, Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of WoodenClogs) proved himself to be one of the most original talents of the sixties. Hisstyle is related to neorealism in quiet tales of desperation built of lyricalobservation and gently cynical humor. In Il Posto, a shy, ingenuous lad just outof school is stuffed into a suit, shoved out of his suburban home and pointedtoward Milan in search of "un posto sicuro": a steady job. We followDomenico's progress through the dehumanizing labyrinth of the corporate world,from a series of absurd aptitude tests to his first assignment as a messenger,and ending with his promotion to clerk at a back-room desk-the start of alifelong bureaucratic career, or the first day of the end of his life. Along theway he meets a girl scurrying through her own groove in the maze; somewhere theirpaths diverge and their tentative liaison is aborted. Olmi elicits a profoundperformance from nonprofessional actor Sandro Panzeri as Domenico, who with hiswide, sorrowful eyes witnesses the tragicomedy that is life for his oldercolleagues-and by extension for himself. The effect is a cross between Chaplin ofModern Times and Antonioni of Eclipse in its deeply moving explication of thedestructiveness of alienated labor-the meaningless regimentation that signifiesbeing an adult in this world.