Ermanno Olmi

Born in Bergamo, in the Malpensata neighborhood, at the beginning of the 1930s, Ermanno Olmi belonged to a humble family, his father worked as a railway worker and his mother worked as an operator in a factory, to support his family. No one had to explain to the future filmmaker what the real world was like, because he saw it first-hand from his early years, firstly in a happy home despite the straits, with strong Christian roots, and then in an environment where there were to make an effort on a day-to-day basis, it was not possible to remain in life with crossed arms. Being just a teenager, he had to deal with the death of his father, who fell in combat during World War II.

Although he had artistic concerns -he went through the artistic high school, which he did not finish, he takes recitation courses at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Milan-, his entry into the world of cinema came almost by chance, when his mother got him a job in her factory , EdisonVolta, regarding entertainment activities. There, between 1953 and 1961, he had the opportunity to shoot almost fifty industrial films that document the day-to-day work with realism and sensitivity.

With this background, it is not surprising that his debut in fiction is very close to the postulates of Italian neorealism. Il tempo si è fermato (1959) shows the close relationship between two people, a student and the guard of a dam, which allows him to combine his humanism with the themes of work and the rural environment, so characteristic of his cinematography. Although the film that allows him to stand out is El empleo (1961), which he produces himself, about the friendship and love story between two adolescents who are facing their first jobs. His personal interests show up even in a biopic like E venne un uomo.(1965), which looks at Pope John XXIII when he was a young man, based on the diaries that the future pontiff kept at that time.

At this moment it seems that Olmi has stagnated, works such as Un certain día (1969) or La circumstancia (1974), do not attract so much attention. Erroneous perception, since what is undoubtedly his masterpiece, El árbol de los zuecos (1978), a prodigy of lyricism and humanity, is about to arrive. Country life has never been painted with such poetic realism and optimism, the peasantry is painted with enormous dignity, never hiding that hard way of earning a living. No one is surprised that the film wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Although his cinema is very personal, Olmi wants young people to have the opportunity to dedicate themselves to a different cinema like his, which is why he promoted the creation in 1982 in Bassano del Grappa of a film school, Ipotesi Cinema, planned as a laboratory of collective creation, where everyone has something to contribute.

A serious illness, Guillain-Barré syndrome, causes progressive paralysis and pushes him into depression. He can’t shoot movies for a while, but he forces himself to work, and certain ideas that he was handling about his vision of World War II end up becoming a novel. When he finally returns to handling the camera, Venice will welcome him with open arms, as his direction of the almost Fellinian Long Live the Lady (1987) is awarded, while he achieves the highest distinction of the Mostra, the Golden Lion. , with The Legend of the Holy Drinker(1988), adaptation of the novel by Joseph Roth, where the mixed feelings of the filmmaker when he was ill can be traced in the alcoholism and pity of the protagonist. Contrary to the usual use of non-professional actors, Rutger Hauer stars here , perhaps in the best role of his career, alongside Blade Runner .

It is clear that Olmi has embarked on a new stage, although his very personal lyricism will never be absent. In The Secret of the Old Forest (1993) he adapted Dino Buzzatti, and the following year he was in charge of the Genesis chapter of a RAI series on the Bible. If anyone believes that the filmmaker has exhausted his ideas, they are mistaken, since he still has several daring works to go against the current, such as El oficio de las armas (2001), a historical film that reflects on the dehumanization of the world, which manifests in the evolution of weapons; One hundred nails (2006), which starts in a library and turns to the idea that “there is more truth in a caress than in a thousand books”; and Il villaggio di cartone(2011), which combines themes such as the crises of faith of an elderly priest, and the pressing European problem of immigration.

Ermanno Olmi married the actress from The Job Loredana Detto , who no longer made movies. With her he had three children, and two of them accompanied him on his film adventures.