Ermanno Olmi is one of cinema's great, unsung filmmakers. With no formal filmmaking education, he drew upon his documentary roots to emerge onto the Italian art film scene, just as the last canonical neo-realist movies were released in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Though his films--including Il Posto (1961), The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) and The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) won top prizes at Cannes and Venice, the majority of his work has remained unappreciated in academic and cinephile circles, especially outside of Italy. This first English language book on Olmi explores the director's style and evolving environmentalism, from his early, institutional short films, made while working at an Italian energy company, to his 19 feature films.