Ten years after neorealism comes Ermanno Olmi, whose deceptively simple style of observation in this, his first film, adds up to a profoundly affecting work of art. A shy boy, Domenico (Sandro Panzeri), just out of school, is faced with starting a job in a huge Milan industrial concern; he is given a position as a messenger until a desk job opens up for him. At the interview he meets a young woman, Antonietta (Loredana Detto), who lands a job as a typist, but their relationship is frustrated by the demands of the work. The death of a clerk makes room in the office for Domenico; he arrives with his cache of papers, paperclips and paste-pots to begin the rest of his life. As with much of Olmi's oeuvre, Il Posto examines the destructiveness of alienated labor and meaningless regimentation-and the myriad ways people find to cope. Shot with a non-professional cast, "(Il Posto) has a precise sense of timing and reveals Olmi's brilliant talent for capturing the comic, pompous and sometimes sad way people behave" (Georges Sadoul).