Collective and Individuality in the Workplace. The Case of Tutta la vita davanti

Abstract

This contribution aims to investigate the encounter and clash between the private and working lives of female characters in the film Tutta la vita davanti (Virzì, 2008). In the first 2000s-decade, Italian cinema brings to the big screen social phenomena such as overqualification of young recent graduates, precariousness and unemployment. Tutta la vita davanti, inspired by a real-life story, tells about a company in which employment is divided according to gender categories: the work task creates social subgroups that endows with specific sense effects such as the abandonment of individuality in the name of a gender homogeneity spread among offices through controversially purifying rituals. Thus, not only can we discuss processes of team working construction and conflicts between gender-segregated groups, but also the duality rupture-maintenance of one’s intra- and extra-work life.