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Ermanno Olmi (1931 - )




Filmography

El Frayle (short, 1953)

La diga sul ghiaccio (short, 1953)

La Pattuglia di Passo San Giacomo (short, 1954)

Dialogo tra un venditore di almanacchi e un passagero (short, 1954)

Societa Ovesticino Dinamo (short, 1955)

Il racconto della stura (short, 1955)

Il pensionato (short, 1955)

L'onda (short, 1955)

La mia valle (short, 1955)

L'energia elettrica nell'agricoltura (short, 1955)

Cantiere d'inverno (short, 1955)

Michelino 1A B (short, 1956)

Manon : Finestra 2 (short, 1956)

Costruzioni mecchaniche riva (short, 1956)

Fibre en civiltà (short, 1957)

Campi sperimentali (short, 1957)

Venezia città minore (short, 1958)

Tre fili fino a Milano (short, 1958)

Grigio (short, 1958)

Giochi di colonia (short, 1958)

Il frumento (short, 1958)

Colonie Sicedison (short, 1958)

Natura e chimica (short, 1959)

Fertilizzanti prodotti dalla societa del Gruppo Edison (short, 1959)

Cavo ad olio fluido a 220.000 volt (short, 1959)

Il tempo si è fermato / Time Stood Still (1959)

Po: forza 50.000 (short, 1960)

Il grande paese d'acciaio (1960)

Sacco in plypac (1961)

Il posto / The Job (1961) Criterion (R1)

Pomodoro (1961)

Un metro lungo cinque (short, 1961)

Le Grand barrage (1961)

Fertilizzanti complessi (1961)

I fidanzati / The Fiances (1963) Criterion (R1)

E venne un uomo / And There Came a Man (1965)

Racconti di giovani amori (1967)

Nino il fioraio (short, 1967)

La cotta / The Crush (TV, 1967) Criterion (R1) included on Il Posto

Beata gioventu (1967)

I recuperanti / The Scavengers (TV, 1969)

Un certo giorno / One Fine Day (1969)

Durante l'estate / In the Summertime (TV, 1971)

La Circostanza / The Circumstance (TV, 1973)

L'albero degli zoccoli / The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) Koch Lorber (R1) / Nouveaux (R2 UK) / Istituto Luce (R2 IT) / Tohokushinsha (R2 JP)

Cammina, cammina / Keep Walking (1982) Facets (R1)

Milano (1983)

Imago urbis (segment, 1987)

Lunga vita alla signora / Long Live the Lady! (1987)

La leggenda del santo bevitore / The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) Cecchi Gori (R2 IT) / Toshiba (R2 JP)

12 registi per 12 città (segment Milano, 1989)

Lungo il fiume / Down the River (1992)

Il Segreto del bosco vecchio / The Secret of the Old Woods (1993)

Genesi: La creazione e il diluvio / Genesis: The Creation and the Flood (TV, 1994) Trimark (R1) also included in The Bible Series: Box Set

Il Denaro non esiste (1999)

Il Mestiere delle armi / The Profession of Arms (2001) San Paolo (R2 IT)

Cantando dietro i paraventi / Singing Behind Screens (2003) J-Bics (R3 TH)

Tickets (segment, 2005) Facets (R1) / Artificial Eye (R2 UK)

Un ballo in maschera (TV, 2005)

Centochiodi (2007)


Recommended Web Resources

Boston Phoenix One Fine Filmmaker: The Uncertain Idealism of Ermanno Olmi by Chris Fujiwara (August, 2002)

Boston Phoenix Short article by Gerald Peary (August, 2004)

Bright Lights Film Journal Architecture as Social Commentary” article on Il Posto and Criterion's release of the film on DVD by Megan Ratner

Cineaste interview

FilmFestivals.com Short article on Olmi in relation to the release of The Profession of Arms (2000) by Ron Holloway

Kinema Venice 1994: Ron Holloway on Ermanno Olmi's Genesis

Toxic Universe Article on Olmi in relation to the Criterion releases of Il Posto and I Fidanzati by Keith Uhlich (1 August, 2003)

The Village Voice Short review of Il Posto by Dennis Lim (December, 2002)

Olmi receives lifetime award at Venice: an appreciation by Jay Weissberg

The R2-Italian disc of Cantando dietro i paraventi has English subs on the feature, but not on the 2nd disc of extras.

Has anyone seen Tickets, the collaboration with Loach and Kiarostami? It's the last locally available Olmi, rated lower than his other works on several sites.

bottled spider wrote:Has anyone seen Tickets, the collaboration with Loach and Kiarostami? It's the last locally available Olmi, rated lower than his other works on several sites.

I have, and have to say it was my least favourite of the three segments. Having said that, it was also the one I suspect demands repeat viewings - IIRC it's formally the most ambitious of the three but has an undeniable wistful tone. I would be more specific, but it's a few years since I watched it. Also, I'm not really an Olmi expert - the only other film of his I've seen is Holy Drinker. However, the film as a whole is definitely worth watching - remember you get added Kiarastomi and Loach.

Thanks, Dr Amicus. Your reaction was sufficiently favourable to persuade me to rent Tickets. What a lovely film!

The Olmi portion was much different from Il Posto, I Fidanzati, and The of Wooden Clogs, but complemented, in an interesting way, his short feature The Crush. (It reminded me, in tone, just a little bit of Kieslowski).

I have to agree, however, that the Kiarostami and Loach sections were much superior.

tavernier wrote:Interview with Olmi.

That Cineaste interview was taken down but here's decent write-up/overview on Olmi's career on filmcoomment.com. I watched Olmi's Keep Walking (Cammina Cammina) recently and was looking for commentary and/or discussion about this fascinating film.

The Meadows Will Return / Torneranno i prati (2014)

I watched Olmi's most recent feature the other night and was pleasantly surprised to find a modest masterpiece. It's a very quiet war film, about Italian troops pinned in snow-buried trenches near the Austrian border during WWI, in which illness, cabin fever and idiotic military bureaucracy post as much or more of a threat than the opposing forces. If you strip out the opening and closing credits, it runs scarcely more than an hour, but it's full of intricate craftsmanship. Breathtaking alpine landscapes are juxtaposed with the grimy claustrophobia of the barracks, and Olmi's palette is artfully composed of variations on monochrome: icy blue for the frigid outdoors, bleak but luminous greyscale for the barracks, and the faint warmth of sepia for the slightly more hospitable areas occupied by the officers. These locational variations are preserved within the frame, so that a greyscale curtain might be pulled back to reveal a sepia interior, or a slight blue light might shine in from outside. It's a subtle and imaginative grammar that harks back to silent film tinting (appropriate to the period setting) rather than any other colour film I can think of (the varied textures and tones of Heimat would be the closest equivalent, but Reitz deploys that technique in a completely different way). Great sound design too, with almost every sound hushed by the snow - until you get to the inevitable explosions.

The Italian DVD has a very nice transfer, and the feature has English subs, as does the fine, 50-minute making of. Highly recommended.

Thanks for this review, Olmi is one of my favorites, but I've been dragging my feet on picking this up till now. When I've bought Italian DVDs in the past it's been hit or miss with the subtitle function. I wish Criterion or somebody in the UK would put out Nichetti films.

Great to hear as well. It was depressing recently to find out how little of his films have been released in America.

zedz wrote:The Meadows Will Return / Torneranno i prati (2014)

I watched Olmi's most recent feature the other night and was pleasantly surprised to find a modest masterpiece. It's a very quiet war film, about Italian troops pinned in snow-buried trenches near the Austrian border during WWI, in which illness, cabin fever and idiotic military bureaucracy post as much or more of a threat than the opposing forces. If you strip out the opening and closing credits, it runs scarcely more than an hour, but it's full of intricate craftsmanship. Breathtaking alpine landscapes are juxtaposed with the grimy claustrophobia of the barracks, and Olmi's palette is artfully composed of variations on monochrome: icy blue for the frigid outdoors, bleak but luminous greyscale for the barracks, and the faint warmth of sepia for the slightly more hospitable areas occupied by the officers. These locational variations are preserved within the frame, so that a greyscale curtain might be pulled back to reveal a sepia interior, or a slight blue light might shine in from outside. It's a subtle and imaginative grammar that harks back to silent film tinting (appropriate to the period setting) rather than any other colour film I can think of (the varied textures and tones of Heimat would be the closest equivalent, but Reitz deploys that technique in a completely different way). Great sound design too, with almost every sound hushed by the snow - until you get to the inevitable explosions.

The Italian DVD has a very nice transfer, and the feature has English subs, as does the fine, 50-minute making of. Highly recommended.

Where is this available for purchase? Thanks.

Here it is: https://www.amazon.it/Torneranno-i-prat ... manno+olmi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Italian DVD of Legend of a Holy Drinker also has an English option, but it's a dubbed soundtrack apparently. (I have it but haven't watched it yet.)