Product Description

Cheered by critics and audiences everywhere, IL POSTINO (THE POSTMAN) is the record-breaking Academy Award(R)-winning (Best Dramatic Score, 1995) romantic comedy that delivers heartfelt laughs! Mario is a bumbling mailman who's madly in love with the most beautiful woman in town ... and who's too shy to tell her how he feels. But when a world-famous poet -- Pablo Neruda -- moves into town, Mario is inspired. With Neruda's help, he finds the right words to win the woman's heart! This unforgettably funny comedy proves that passion ... with some artful deception ... can win the most improbable love!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1718 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-03-14
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Italian, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Italian star and filmmaker Massimo Troisi was dying of heart failure even before this film, his dream project, began production, and he prevailed upon British director Michael Radford (White Mischief) to see him and the film through to the end. (The 40-year-old Troisi, a beloved comic actor in Italy, died the day production wrapped.) Based on true events, Troisi plays a shy postman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret). Through Neruda's example and tutelage, the hero learns to think of his Italian fishing village in lyrical terms, as well as how to talk to women and even find the strength to take his political stands. Sweet as it is, the film finally pushes beyond its charming borders to become an even more complex and poignant story about the pain of growing into one's destiny. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Much more than it first appears.
I like films that offer more than just a story. Il Postino can be enjoyed on a number of levels. It's about opening up to beauty, and appreciating it. A simple man 1) wins the heart of a beautiful woman, 2) develops a love for the beauty in poetry, 3) discovers the natural beauty of his island, 4) becomes a wiser and more perceptive person. I expect I will discover more the next time I watch it.

Poignant and nostalgic film
Il postino is the film adaption from the novel of Chilean author Antonio Skármeta. the Basic plot is almost identical. Apart from the fact that in the movie Mario is 30 year old Italian rather than 18 year old Chilean boy who worships Nobel lauterate poet Pablo Neruda.

Due to the change of background, the movie is almost non-political in comparison to the novel that describs the advent of horrible dictatorship of Pinochet. Although there are a couple scenes that remotely criticize allegedly right wing politician, who call D'Annunzio as "His Poet", as well as huge communist demonstraion scene in the end that beautifully potrayed in Black and White.
Since Mario doesn't want to follow his father's vocation as fisherman, he spends most of his time doing practically nothing. It was late 40s or early 50s in southern Italy where unemployment rate was higher than the rest of Europe ,thus most able young men tended to leave their hometown for either to Turin ,Milan, Germany or the United States.By chance, Mario obtains the position as a postman in a local post office . In truth , it's special type of postman who exclusively delivers mail for the sake of world famous poet Pablo Neruda who recently exiles in Italy. At first , Mario seems to be interested in the sobriquet of Pablo Neruda "Poet of Love and Women",however , a bit by bit thorugh contacting Pablo Neruda , Mario begins to change and opens his eyes to the power of poem and the world he could not see. The slow change is portrayed so naturally by late actor Massimo Troisi. Some will say his acting is slightly passive.But it's his style; a bit mumbling , hesitating , stammering as if he ie a bit mentally challenged.As many people pointed out it is not a romantic comedy,but it was heart warming movie that show how friendship and poem can change a person who otherwise remains passive and never try to change his life. Yes, Poem is his savior. The last scene (demonstration scene) was truly poignant and resounding.

Excellent Foreign Film
IF you like foreign films then you may find that sometimes they can be hit or miss. This whimsical film will not disappoint. It truly does belong in the collectors series and should be owned by all who treasure excellent foreign films.