The Fiancés (1963)

 Ermanno Olmi's "The Fiancés"


There's something very unique about the films of Ermanno Olmi. It's even stranger given the notion that they are Italian films, as Italians film are often full of kinetic energy - bouncy and exaggerative. The films of Olmi, on the other hand, are more akin to the works of Michelangelo Antonioni, slower and arid. His 1963 film, "The Fiancés," adheres to this dry, aimless quality. 

The film centers on a factory welder named Giovanni, who has been offered a job in Sicily with the prospect of a promotion. He accepts the offer and leaves behind his fiancé, Liliana, for eight months. However, the days and nights in Sicily are lonely and hollow. The expectations of the job are not what he expected, either. 

The intention behind Olmi's film seems not too dissimilar from an Antonioni feature. However, Olmi has added the classic element of economic disparity to the equation, which is a far more familiar theme in Italian cinema. The protagonist takes the job out of the hope for economic betterment, much to the frustration of himself and his fiancé. Along the way, he encounters numerous characters trapped under the weight of economic necessity in which they are performing in jobs and careers that don't fulfil them.

"The Fiancés" asks the question - "Can a relationship survive in the malaise of modernity?" Not only does capitalism create an inherent slave labor mentality to its workers, the emptiness with which our protagonist lives his life inside of this system renders him a meaningless component to social and domestic life. Olmi notions that our modern world is destroying human connection. 



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