Il Postino (1994) - film review

On a small Italian island, a middle-aged man Mario lives with his ageing father.  Reluctant to follow in his father’s shoes and remain a fisherman for the rest of his life, Mario takes a low-paid job as a postman.  His main preoccupation is to deliver masses of fan mail to a famous poet, Pablo Neruda, who has just arrived on the island after having been exiled from his native Chile.  Aware that Pablo’s poetry has won him many female admirers, Mario is optimistic that his association with the poet will help his own love life.  As Pablo opens his eyes to the beauty of poetry, Mario realises he is in love with an attractive bar girl, Beatrice.  Too shy to approach her himself, he entreats Pablo to help him...

Striking in the purity of its lyricism and suffused with a tender humanity, Il Postino is one of cinema’s finest tributes to the art of poetry.  In truth, the film is itself a poem, calm and understated, but with a powerful force to engage and charm its audience.  The film won critical acclaim and proved to be an instant international success.  It picked up an Academy Award for its musical score and was nominated in four other categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay).

Beautifully filmed on the island of Capri, with touching performances, Il Postino is a fitting memorial to its lead actor and co-screenwriter, Massimo Troisi, who was suffering from a heart defect whilst making the film and who died, aged 41, just after shooting the film was finished. Troisi’s sudden death, coming so soon after making the film, gives the final scenes of the film a particularly accute sense of poignancy.

© James Travers 2001

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