Il Postino [The Postman] **** (1994, Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret, Maria Grazia Cucinotta) – Classic Movie Review 2542

Director Michael Radford’s beautifully filmed 1994 romance stars Philippe Noiret as great, famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda who is exiled to a small island in Italy for political reasons.

This causes a huge increase in mail and a new postman has to be hired to cope with it on the island. There his fan mail is delivered by simple, untutored Italian postman Mario (Massimo Troisi), who soon asks for the poet’s help in wooing the sultry local beauty Beatrice (Maria Grazia Cucinotta). The postman learns to love poetry and uses it to have the wit to woo Beatrice.

This deliciously tender, wry tale of friendship and romance, based on Antonio Skármeta’s novel, was a deserved huge hit worldwide, thanks to its Miramax distribution. It scored Luis Bacalov a 1996 Oscar for his Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music at the Baftas in 1996, where Radford also won the David Lean Award for Direction and the film won Best Film not in the English Language.

Sadly the ailing Troisi (just 41) died of a heart attack the day after filming was complete. He was so weak he could work only around an hour each day and most of his scenes were shot in just one or two takes. Yet he is superb and so subtle, and so is Noiret in his contrasting way of quiet command. The alluring Cucinotta went on to be a Bond villainess in The World Is Not Enough.

The rural and beach scenes were shot at Pollara, Salina Island, Aeolian Islands, Messina, Sicily, Italy, and the harbour and village scenes at Procida Island, Naples.

It was shot in 11 weeks with a break for Easter. The shooting schedule was designed to allow the film to be shot around Troisi, whose lookalike stand-in was used for all back to camera, long and medium shots and most of the bicycle riding sequences. It ran in New York City almost two years and was still in cinemas after the video and cable release.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2542

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com