Story of a 25 year-old woman working in a call-centre, the movie is a grotesque and tragic-comic depiction of Italian precarious workers (original title: Tutta la vita davanti).
Poster of the movie which reminds of Il Quarto Stato by Pelizza da Volpedo
Marta, protagonist of the story, is an excellent philosophy graduate who, not being able to find a better job, ends up working in a call centre of Multiple, a multinational company selling futuristic and useless home appliances.
A new world opens to Marta, that of the many young and “precariously employed” Italians: in an suburb of Rome dreadfully deserted and futuristic, isolated from the rest of the world like in a reality show, Multiple comes out to be a kind of monster which gobbles up its employees, deceiving them with awards and motivational tolls (like motivational text messages sent everyday by the head of department), every morning dancing and singing to “start the day in a good way” and then punish them with “eliminations” (firing) like in the Big Brother.
Also the efforts done by the trade unionist seem not to lead anywhere; clearly a critique of Italian unions, he is usually teased by the work force of the call centre.
The movie by the Italian director Paolo Virzi, one of the most famous directors within the Italian comedy genre, makes us laugh and cry at the same time. In the end, the movie turns out to be very distressing and dramatic in its truth.
It would be right to question why Marta seems to be the only graduate and skilled employee of the company, while all her colleagues look like unskilled and ignorant girls. This aspect might undermine the whole meaning of the movie which is still very worthwhile to watch.
The title refers to the sentence which Marta has to listen many times during the movie: “a whole life ahead”, that of many young people forced to live with the nightmare of losing their jobs, a whole life ahead paradoxically precluded with 25 year-old...
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