10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Il postino (Il Postino: The Postman) (2017 Feature Film)

Michael Radford | Italy, France, Belgium | 1994 | color | DCP | 108 min | Italian, Spanish | e.s.

A cycling Italian postman only delivers to one address in the early 1950s: the temporary, remote abode of Pablo Neruda. This Chilean poet in exile teaches the unassuming and endearing postman to love the written word. Award-winning arthouse classic from 1994 that is still universally heartwarming in 2017.

“What is a metaphor?” Mario, a gentle, simple postman from an island of fishermen near Naples who delivers post to just one address, truly doesn’t know. Until the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda – who lives in the remote home – explains it to him. Mario proves to have an innate sense of the power of words. Initial, tentative conversations between the two about poetry lay the foundations for an exceptional friendship between men from entirely different worlds. They bond over their love of words and life. Although Neruda really was living in exile in Europe, the heartwarming yet never sentimental drama about friendship is fictional. This does not detract from its potency though: the picturesque location makes viewers long for the bygone days of the 1950s. Massimo Troisi, who played the lead, was also one of the driving forces behind this 1994 arthouse classic and died – aged just 41 – of heart failure mere hours after shooting wrapped.

Place: CINEMA 3

Date: 8 April 2017

Time: 17:00

Duration: 1:25

Place: CINEMA 3

Date: 9 April 2017

Time: 20:30

Duration: 1:23

Year in
Festival

2017

Director

Michael Radford

Camera

Franco Di Giacomo

Cast

Philippe Noiret
Massimo Troisi
Maria Grazia Cucinotta
Renato Scarpa
Linda Moretti
Mariano Rigillo

Country

Italy
France
Belgium

Editor

Roberto Perpignani

Language

Italian
Spanish

Length

108 min

Music

Luis Enríquez Bacalov

Producer

Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Mario Cecchi Gori
Gaetano Daniele

Production Company

Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica
Penta Film
Esterno Mediterraneo

Production Design

Lorenzo Baraldi

Sales

Miramax

Scenario

Michael Radford
Furio Scarpelli
Giacomo Scarpelli
Anna Pavignano
Massimo Troisi
based on the novel Ardiente paciencia by Antonio Skármeta

Sound Design

Alessandra Perpignani/Massimo Loffredi

Year of Production

1994

Website

Michael RADFORD (1946, India) was born and raised in India and moved to England to study at Oxford. In 1971 he was one of the first 25 students to enroll in the National Film and Television School in London. He made documentaries for the BBC before gaining recognition for the romantic drama Another Time, Another Place (1983). His most well-known and successful film is Il Postino/Il Postino: The Postman (1994), about the friendship between a gentle postman and the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The film won numerous international awards, including an Oscar for best music, and was – for many years – the highest grossing, non-English-language film ever made.

 

Filmography

(selection) The Madonna and the Volcano (1979, doc), Van Morrison in Ireland (1980, doc), The White Bird Passes (1980, TV), Another Time, Another Place (1983), 1984 (1984), White Mischief (1987), Il postino/Il Postino: The Postman (1994), B. Monkey (1996), Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Flawless (2007), Michel Petrucciani (2011, doc), La mula/The Mule (2013), Elsa & Fred (2014)