Ermanno Olmi

Italian film director and screenwriter (1931–2018)

Ermanno Olmi

Olmi in 2013

Born| (1931-07-24)24 July 1931

Bergamo, Italy

Died| 7 May 2018(2018-05-07) (aged 86)

Asiago, Italy

Occupation(s)| Film director
Screenwriter
Cinematographer
Film editor
Years active| 1953–2018

Ermanno Olmi (24 July 1931 – 7 May 2018)[1][2][3] was an Italian film director and screenwriter best known for directing Il Posto (1961) and The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1977), which won the Palme d'Or. Throughout his career Olmi blended Italian neorealism with Christian humanism, with many of his films following humble characters through the spiritual trials of harsh conditions.

## Early life

[edit]

Olmi was born to a working-class Catholic family in Bergamo, in the Lombardy region in northern Italy, and raised in nearby Treviglio.[4][5][6]

When Olmi was three years old, his family moved to Milan, where his parents found work with the utility company Edison-Volta.[4] At age 16, Olmi began working there as a messenger. Olmi was initially interested in architecture, but was inspired to pursue cinema by the works of Roberto Rossellini. He began taking art classes and convinced Edison-Volta to start a documentary division. As head of the new division, Olmi made as many as 40 corporate documentaries.[5][2][4]

Olmi's first feature film, Time Stood Still began as a corporate documentary about a hydroelectric dam.[4]

## Career

[edit]

Olmi's first scripted film was the acclaimed Il Posto, which follows a young man entering corporate life. Parts of the story were drawn from Olmi's experiences working in Milan. The film starred non-professional actor Loredana Detto, who Olmi would later marry.[4]

Following from his humble start in corporate documentaries, Olmi typically helmed minimal productions, often writing, directing, filming, and editing the films himself.[7]

Perhaps his best known film is The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'Albero degli zoccoli), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. The film drew heavily on Olmi's grandmother's stories about peasant life in agricultural regions of Italy.[2] In 1983 his film Walking, Walking was screened out of competition at Cannes. In 1988, his La leggenda del santo bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker), based on the novella by Joseph Roth and starring Rutger Hauer, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival as well as a David di Donatello award.

In 1982, Olmi founded Ipotesi Cinema, a film school in the village of Bassano del Grappa.[8]

His The Profession of Arms (Il mestiere delle armi) also won a David di Donatello award.

## Awards

[edit]

* 1978: Palme d'Or for The Tree of Wooden Clogs
* 1988: Golden Lion for The Legend of the Holy Drinker
* 2004: Leopard of Honour
* 2008: Honorary Golden Lion

### David di Donatello

[edit]

* 1962: Best Director for Il Posto
* 1989: Best Director for The Legend of the Holy Drinker
* 2002: Best Director for The Profession of Arms

### Nastro d'Argento

[edit]

* 1979: Best Director for The Tree of Wooden Clogs
* 1989: Best Director for The Legend of the Holy Drinker

## Filmography

[edit]

* Time Stood Still (1959)
* Il Posto (1961)
* The Fiances (1963)
* A Man Named John (1965)
* One Fine Day (1968)
* In the Summertime (1971)
* The Circumstance (1973)
* The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
* Walking, Walking (1983)
* Long Live the Lady! (1987)
* The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
* The Secret of the Old Woods (1993)
* Genesis: The Creation and the Flood (1994)
* The Profession of Arms (2001)
* Singing Behind Screens (2003)
* One Hundred Nails (2007)
* The Cardboard Village (2011)
* Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)

## Legacy

[edit]

Olmi has been the subject of many retrospectives. In 2019, the Austrian Film Museum conducted a complete retrospective of Olmi's work (excluding only his short films) – together with the films of Federico Fellini – in collaboration with the Cineteca Nazionale and the "Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Vienna".[9]

Also in 2019, Film at Lincoln Center honored Olmi with a two-week retrospective. The series was co-produced by Istituto Luce Cinecittà and presented in association with the Ministry of Culture of Italy.[10][11][12] The films then traveled to Cleveland, where the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque hosted a seven-part retrospective.[13]

In 2008 he received the Honorary Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.[14] He had turned down the same award in 2004, feeling that it would have signified a premature end to his career.[3]

## Personal life

[edit]

In 1959, Olmi moved to the Asiago plateau, where he would live for the rest of his life.[4] Olmi led a relatively simple life away from the spotlight of the film industry, only rarely sitting for interviews and keeping no copies of his films. Olmi reportedly hesitated to travel by air.[7]

In 1963 Olmi married Loredana Detto, who had played Antonietta Masetti in his film Il Posto (1961).[15] The couple had 3 children; Fabio, Elisabetta, and Andrea.[3]

Olmi died on 7 May 2018 in Asiago. His death was mourned by then Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni as well as director Martin Scorsese.[3]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Lutto nel cinema, è morto Ermanno Olmi (in Italian)
2. ^ a b c Lane, John Francis (May 7, 2018). "Ermanno Olmi obituary". The Guardian. theguardian.com. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
3. ^ a b c d Bartlett, Rhett (7 May 2018). "Ermanno Olmi, Palme d'Or-Winning Director of 'The Tree of Wooden Clogs,' Dies at 86". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
4. ^ a b c d e f Roberts, Sam (May 8, 2018). "Ermanno Olmi, Whose Films Captured Humble Lives, Dies at 86". The New York Times. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-05-12. Print version, May 10, 2018, p. A25.
5. ^ a b "Ermanno Olmi – biography – The Neorealism". www.ilneorealismo.com. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
6. ^ Young, Deborah (12 February 2017). "The Tree of Wooden Clogs: The Sacredness of Life as Understatement". The Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 8 July 2019. "Born in the Lombard province Bergamo to a working-class family with deep Catholic roots..."
7. ^ a b Young, Deborah (March–April 2001). "on earth as it is in heaven". Film Comment. 37 (2): 56–60, 62. JSTOR 43578417. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
8. ^ Vivarelli, Nick (7 May 2018). "Ermanno Olmi, 'Tree of Wooden Clogs' Director, Dies at 86". Variety. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
9. ^ "Filmmuseum – Programmarchiv". www.filmmuseum.at (in German). Retrieved 28 February 2019.
10. ^ "Ermanno Olmi". Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
11. ^ Scott, A.O. (12 June 2019). "How Ermanno Olmi Found Grace in the Daily Labors of Italians". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
12. ^ Paternò, Cristiana (6 December 2019). "Ermanno Olmi retrospective in New York". Cinecitta News. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
13. ^ "Italian film series "Sacred Duties: Films by Ermanno Olmi"". www.pluggedincleveland.com. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
14. ^ "'Maestro of Italian cinema' Ermanno Olmi dies". 7 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
15. ^ "Ermanno Olmi: moglie, figli e vita privata del regista". News Mondo (in Italian). 7 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.

## External links

[edit]

* Ermanno Olmi at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Ermanno Olmi

* Il Posto
* The Fiances
* A Man Named John
* One Fine Day
* The Circumstance
* The Tree of Wooden Clogs
* Walking, Walking
* The Legend of the Holy Drinker
* The Secret of the Old Woods
* Genesis: The Creation and the Flood
* The Profession of Arms
* Singing Behind Screens
* first section in Tickets
* One Hundred Nails
* The Cardboard Village
* Greenery Will Bloom Again

* v
* t
* e

David di Donatello Award for Best Director

1956–1975|

* Gianni Franciolini (1956)
* Federico Fellini (1957)
* Alberto Lattuada (1959)
* Federico Fellini (1960)
* Michelangelo Antonioni (1961)
* Ermanno Olmi (1962)
* Vittorio De Sica (1963)
* Pietro Germi (1964)
* Vittorio De Sica / Francesco Rosi (1965)
* Alessandro Blasetti / Pietro Germi (1966)
* Luigi Comencini (1967)
* Carlo Lizzani (1968)
* Franco Zeffirelli (1969)
* Gillo Pontecorvo (1970)
* Luchino Visconti (1971)
* Sergio Leone / Franco Zeffirelli (1972)
* Luchino Visconti (1973)
* Federico Fellini (1974)
* Dino Risi (1975)

1976–2000|

* Mario Monicelli / Francesco Rosi (1976)
* Mario Monicelli / Valerio Zurlini (1977)
* Ettore Scola (1978)
* Francesco Rosi (1979)
* Marco Bellocchio / Gillo Pontecorvo (1980)
* Francesco Rosi (1981)
* Marco Ferreri (1982)
* Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (1983)
* Ettore Scola (1984)
* Francesco Rosi (1985)
* Mario Monicelli (1986)
* Ettore Scola (1987)
* Bernardo Bertolucci (1988)
* Ermanno Olmi (1989)
* Mario Monicelli (1990)
* Marco Risi / Ricky Tognazzi (1991)
* Gianni Amelio (1992)
* Roberto Faenza / Ricky Tognazzi (1993)
* Carlo Verdone (1994)
* Mario Martone (1995)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (1996)
* Francesco Rosi (1997)
* Roberto Benigni (1998)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (1999)
* Silvio Soldini (2000)

2001–present|

* Gabriele Muccino (2001)
* Ermanno Olmi (2002)
* Pupi Avati (2003)
* Marco Tullio Giordana (2004)
* Paolo Sorrentino (2005)
* Nanni Moretti (2006)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (2007)
* Andrea Molaioli (2008)
* Matteo Garrone (2009)
* Marco Bellocchio (2010)
* Daniele Luchetti (2011)
* Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (2012)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (2013)
* Paolo Sorrentino (2014)
* Francesco Munzi (2015)
* Matteo Garrone (2016)
* Paolo Virzì (2017)
* Jonas Carpignano (2018)
* Matteo Garrone (2019)
* Marco Bellocchio (2020)
* Giorgio Diritti (2021)
* Paolo Sorrentino (2022)
* Marco Bellocchio (2023)
* Matteo Garrone (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

1969–2000|

* Luis Buñuel (1969)
* Orson Welles (1970)
* John Ford / Marcel Carné / Ingmar Bergman (1971)
* Charlie Chaplin / Anatoli Golovnya / Billy Wilder (1972)
* Alessandro Blasetti / Luis Buñuel / Frank Capra / George Cukor / Jean-Luc Godard / Alexander Kluge / Akira Kurosawa / Michael Powell / Satyajit Ray / King Vidor / Sergei Yutkevich / Cesare Zavattini (1982)
* Michelangelo Antonioni (1983)
* Federico Fellini (1985)
* Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (1986)
* Luigi Comencini / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1987)
* Joris Ivens (1988)
* Robert Bresson (1989)
* Miklós Jancsó / Marcello Mastroianni (1990)
* Mario Monicelli / Gian Maria Volonté (1991)
* Francis Ford Coppola / Jeanne Moreau / Paolo Villaggio (1992)
* Claudia Cardinale / Robert De Niro / Roman Polanski / Steven Spielberg (1993)
* Suso Cecchi d'Amico / Ken Loach / Al Pacino (1994)
* Woody Allen / Giuseppe De Santis / Goffredo Lombardo / Ennio Morricone / Alain Resnais / Martin Scorsese / Alberto Sordi / Monica Vitti (1995)
* Robert Altman / Vittorio Gassman / Dustin Hoffman / Michèle Morgan (1996)
* Gérard Depardieu / Stanley Kubrick / Alida Valli (1997)
* Warren Beatty / Sophia Loren / Andrzej Wajda (1998)
* Jerry Lewis (1999)
* Clint Eastwood (2000)

2001–present|

* Éric Rohmer (2001)
* Dino Risi (2002)
* Dino De Laurentiis / Omar Sharif (2003)
* Manoel de Oliveira / Stanley Donen (2004)
* Hayao Miyazaki / Stefania Sandrelli (2005)
* David Lynch (2006)
* Tim Burton (2007)
* Ermanno Olmi (2008)
* John Lasseter (2009)
* John Woo (2010)
* Marco Bellocchio (2011)
* Francesco Rosi (2012)
* William Friedkin (2013)
* Thelma Schoonmaker / Frederick Wiseman (2014)
* Bertrand Tavernier (2015)
* Jean-Paul Belmondo / Jerzy Skolimowski (2016)
* Jane Fonda / Robert Redford (2017)
* David Cronenberg / Vanessa Redgrave (2018)
* Pedro Almodóvar / Julie Andrews (2019)
* Ann Hui / Tilda Swinton (2020)
* Roberto Benigni / Jamie Lee Curtis (2021)
* Catherine Deneuve / Paul Schrader (2022)
* Liliana Cavani / Tony Leung Chiu-wai (2023)
* Sigourney Weaver / Peter Weir (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Director

* Alessandro Blasetti / Vittorio De Sica (1946)
* Roberto Rossellini (1947)
* Alberto Lattuada / Giuseppe De Santis (1948)
* Vittorio De Sica (1949)
* Augusto Genina (1950)
* Alessandro Blasetti (1951)
* Renato Castellani (1952)
* Luigi Zampa (1953)
* Federico Fellini (1954)
* Federico Fellini (1955)
* Michelangelo Antonioni (1956)
* Pietro Germi (1957)
* Federico Fellini (1958)
* Pietro Germi (1959)
* Roberto Rossellini (1960)
* Luchino Visconti (1961)
* Michelangelo Antonioni (1962)
* Nanni Loy / Francesco Rosi (1963)
* Federico Fellini (1964)
* Pier Paolo Pasolini (1965)
* Antonio Pietrangeli (1966)
* Gillo Pontecorvo (1967)
* Elio Petri (1968)
* Franco Zeffirelli (1969)
* Luchino Visconti (1970)
* Elio Petri (1971)
* Luchino Visconti (1972)
* Bernardo Bertolucci (1973)
* Federico Fellini (1974)
* Luchino Visconti (1975)
* Michelangelo Antonioni (1976)
* Valerio Zurlini (1977)
* Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (1978)
* Ermanno Olmi (1979)
* Federico Fellini (1980)
* Francesco Rosi (1981)
* Marco Ferreri (1982)
* Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (1983)
* Pupi Avati / Federico Fellini (1984)
* Sergio Leone (1985)
* Mario Monicelli (1986)
* Ettore Scola (1987)
* Bernardo Bertolucci (1988)
* Ermanno Olmi (1989)
* Pupi Avati (1990)
* Gianni Amelio (1991)
* Gabriele Salvatores (1992)
* Gianni Amelio (1993)
* Nanni Moretti (1994)
* Gianni Amelio (1995)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (1996)
* Maurizio Nichetti (1997)
* Roberto Benigni (1998)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (1999)
* Silvio Soldini (2000)
* Nanni Moretti (2001)
* Marco Bellocchio (2002)
* Gabriele Salvatores (2003)
* Marco Tullio Giordana (2004)
* Gianni Amelio (2005)
* Michele Placido (2006)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (2007)
* Paolo Virzì (2008)
* Paolo Sorrentino (2009)
* Paolo Virzì (2010)
* Nanni Moretti (2011)
* Paolo Sorrentino (2012)
* Giuseppe Tornatore (2013)
* Paolo Virzì (2014)
* Paolo Sorrentino (2015)
* Paolo Virzì (2016)
* Gianni Amelio (2017)
* Matteo Garrone (2018)
* Marco Bellocchio (2019)
* Matteo Garrone (2020)
* Emma Dante (2021)
* Mario Martone (2022)

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