criterionforum.org

Domenico is thrust into the big city by his family to find a job for life. He’s up for an exam to secure a post along with many hopefuls. There he meets Antonietta (played by Olmi’s then wife Loredana Detto) and the two strike up a friendship and experience the world of work for the first time together. Stunningly shot on the streets of Milan, Ermanno Olmi’s (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) Il posto is a touching and often funny portrait of modern life and work. Winning numerous awards on release, it is recognised as a classic of world cinema.

Giovanni works in a manufacturing plant and takes a promotion that will send him to Sicily. His transfer causes him to leave his fiancée, Liliana, his father and friends behind. Once in Sicily, he begins to wonder if he made the right choice. Stunningly shot, I fidanzati channels the industrial isolation of Antonioni with a dreamy and heartfelt lyricism.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

4K restoration of both films from the original camera negatives by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Titanus, presented on two discs

Uncompressed mono PCM audio for both films

Appreciation by filmmaker Maurizio Zaccaro (2024)

Interview with cinematographer Lamberto Caimi (2024)

Interview with author Richard Dyer on the films (2024)

Interview with programmer Ehsan Khoshbakht on Ermanno Olmi (2024)

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista

Limited edition booklet with new writing by critic Christina Newland

Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Two more Criterion DVDs can finally be laid to rest. Only a few remain.

Between these and the Buñuels Radiance has a killer start for 2025.

TMDaines wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 10:12 am Two more Criterion DVDs can finally be laid to rest. Only a few remain.

This is missing the short so don’t sell that DVD yet.

The short is the best of the three films too! But yes, great looking release apart from that (and I didn’t expect these to ever get upgraded from Criterion)

The omission of La cotta is such a massive disappointment. It's one of the best films of the 60s and youth films period

Do we know who did the 4K restoration?

onedimension wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 5:54 pm Do we know who did the 4K restoration?

4K restoration of both films from the original camera negatives by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Titanus, presented on two discs

The most exciting Radiance release for a while I reckon – caught this on the big screen a couple of years back and really enjoyed it.

TMDaines wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 10:12 am Two more Criterion DVDs can finally be laid to rest. Only a few remain.

If only!

therewillbeblus wrote:The omission of La cotta is such a massive disappointment. It's one of the best films of the 60s and youth films period

Fran said on Facebook they couldn't get it. Also, he tried to get some of Olmi's industrial shorts, but they couldn't be licensed for commercial purposes.

cdnchris wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2024 1:47 pmAlso, he tried to get some of Olmi's industrial shorts, but they couldn't be licensed for commercial purposes.

This is a not unfamiliar problem; in these situations, rightsholders have wholly different priorities from video labels.

MichaelB wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2024 2:35 pm

cdnchris wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2024 1:47 pmAlso, he tried to get some of Olmi's industrial shorts, but they couldn't be licensed for commercial purposes.

This is a not unfamiliar problem; in these situations, rightsholders have wholly different priorities from video labels.

These were available on a 2009 Italian DVD + book release, now I believe OOP...

therewillbeblus wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 12:58 pm The omission of La cotta is such a massive disappointment. It's one of the best films of the 60s and youth films period

Yeah, even if I get this, I have to hang on to the Criterion dvd - might like it better than the two features

Finch wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 10:05 am Appreciation by filmmaker Maurizio Zaccaro (2024)

This Zaccaro fellow collaborated with Olmi on at least three of his later-career films. So perhaps some of those titles are in the Radiance pipeline?

ryannichols7 wrote: Sun May 29, 2022 9:50 pm Il Posto (1961, Ermanno Olmi): you did Tree of Wooden Clogs at Arrow, and this film has a gorgeous 4K restoration that can even be watched on the Criterion Channel. now let's get it to disc, shall we?

ryannichols7 wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 12:24 am Il Posto came to mind for me.

ryannichols7 wrote: Wed Jul 13, 2022 8:27 amthere was another Italy tease the other day too - I won't rest until I see Il Posto announced as an early spine

ryannichols7 wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 5:29 pm I was wondering if this or Il Posto was going to be spine #1

good things come to those who wait! and I love I Fidanzati almost just as much! a true shame about La Cotta and the industrial shorts, I'm really thankful he tried but man to think about how incredible of an edition this could've been. it's still great, but one wishes it could be even better...

here were my initial thoughts on both movies, which I watched for the first time for the 1961 and 1963 projects and loved, and have thought more of since. I'd probably write a good bit more about each of them now:

ryannichols7 wrote: Tue May 10, 2022 9:49 pm Il Posto: really loved this and knew nothing about it prior to this project. unintentionally did a double feature of Fellini's I Vitelloni right before this and that made for a great double feature - La Notte would as well, but a little bit differently (solely by being about the dread of Milan becoming Italy's financial center). but I think it did a great job picking up where Vitelloni left off, being about what would happen when the small town life is an outsider in the big city. it's a weird, bizarre, and at times unsettling experience. the central romance was great and worked a lot more for me than something like The Graduate, and I felt this captured a lot more of the feelings that film and others (Office Space, often noted) set out to do. but man, I'm not sure any movie I've seen has ever captured the feeling of being the youngest person in a workplace/at a party as well as this one has, it felt equally surreal and believable at the same time. ending was brilliantly ironic without being overtly cruel. early Criterion spine I basically never see discussed nowadays, I need them to upgrade this (using the off the shelf 4K restoration!!) and bring it back into the conversation more, and urge all of you to watch it too if you haven't yet.

ryannichols7 wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:42 pm I Fidanzati: torn whether I preferred this or Il Posto, two of my favorite films I actually went out of my way to watch due to our year by year approach (something I now am fully on board with), whereas I would've missed them on a big overbearing scan of the decade. this film speaks far more to my existentialist side that loves Antonioni and landscapes, and since I've felt that whole long distance thing before in my past, it really worked. both of these films should be more in the conversation, and Olmi is now a director I will go out of my way to watch films from.

Just looking at this 4K resto of IL POSTO on the new Radiance disc just arrived - lovely visceral picture quality! Likewise for I FIDANZATI...

The Radiance edition of Il Posto actually holds two different cuts via seamless branching. The sole added sequence to the extended cut is the deleted scene in which the protagonist wanders into a fairground and bought goldfish. I don't know the background story of this cut but it seems to blend into the scenes before and after pretty well.