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Il Postino: The Postman

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Il Postino: The Postman (Italian: Il postino, lit. ''The Postman''; the title used for the original US release[3]) is a 1994 Italian film directed by Michael Radford and Massimo Troisi. The film tells a fictional story in which the real life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda forms a relationship with a simple postman who learns to love poetry. It stars Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi, and Maria Grazia Cucinotta. The screenplay was adapted by Anna Pavignano, Michael Radford, Furio Scarpelli, Giacomo Scarpelli, and Massimo Troisi from the novel Ardiente paciencia by Antonio Skármeta. In 1983, Skármeta himself wrote and directed the film Ardiente paciencia (English translation: "Burning Patience"), which he later adapted to the novel of the same name in 1985.

Il Postino: The Postman
Il Postino poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Radford
Massimo Troisi
Produced byMario Cecchi Gori
Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Gaetano Daniele
Screenplay byAnna Pavignano
Michael Radford
Furio Scarpelli
Giacomo Scarpelli
Massimo Troisi
Based onArdiente paciencia
by Antonio Skármeta
Music byLuis Enríquez Bacalov
CinematographyFranco Di Giacomo
Edited byRoberto Perpignani
Distributed byMiramax Films
Release date
  • 1 September 1994 (1994-09-01) (VFF)
  • 22 September 1994 (1994-09-22) (Italy)
  • 16 June 1995 (1995-06-16) (USA)
Running time
108 minutes
Budget$3 million[1]
Box office$21,848,932[2]




Set in the year 1950, Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, is exiled to a small island in Italy for political reasons. His wife accompanies him. On the island, a local, Mario Ruoppolo, is dissatisfied with being a fisherman, like his father. Mario looks for other work and is hired as a temporary postman, with Neruda as his only customer. He uses his bicycle to hand deliver Neruda's mail. Though poorly educated, the postman eventually befriends Neruda and becomes further influenced by Neruda's political views and poetry.


The two are married. The priest refuses to allow Mario to have Neruda as his best man because of politics; however, this is soon resolved. This was because Di Cosimo was the politician in office in the area with the Christian Democrats. At the wedding, Neruda receives the welcome news that there is no longer a Chilean warrant for his arrest so he returns to Chile.

Mario writes a letter but never gets any reply. Several months later, he receives a letter from Neruda. However, to his dismay, it is actually from his secretary, asking Mario to send Neruda's old belongings back to Chile. While there Mario comes upon an old phonograph and listens to the song he first heard when he met Neruda. Moved, he makes recordings of all the beautiful sounds on the island onto a cassette including the heartbeat of his soon-to-be-born child.

Five years later, Neruda finds Beatrice and her son, Pablito (named in honour of Neruda) in the same old inn. From her, he discovers that Mario had been killed before their son was born. Mario had been scheduled to recite a poem he had composed at a large communist gathering in Naples; the demonstration was violently broken up by the police. She gives Neruda the recordings of village sounds that Mario had made for him. The film ends with Neruda walking on the beach where he used to talk with Mario, showing at the same time the communist gathering in which Mario was killed.



Whereas the novel and the 1985 film were set in Chile, with Neruda living in his home at Isla Negra around 1970, Il Postino: The Postman moves the setting to Italy in about 1950. The film is set and was filmed on the island of Procida, gulf of Naples; some additional filming took place on Salina, one of the volcanic Aeolian Islands that form an archipelago off the northern coast of Sicily.

Corricella is the setting for some of the waterfront scenes in the movie.[5]





For the 2010 opera based on the film see Daniel Catan.


The film was very well-received. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of the critics liked the film, based on 29 reviews.[6] It received a score of 81 on Metacritic, indicating "Universal Acclaim", based on 13 critic reviews.[7]


Academy AwardsEdit


Troisi received posthumous Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. Furthermore, producer Mario Cecchi Gori also received a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

BAFTA AwardsEdit

See alsoEdit


  1. ^ "Il Postino: The Postman (1994) - Box office / business". IMDb.
  2. ^ "Il Postino (1995) - Box Office Mojo".
  3. ^ The official Academy Awards database Archived 7 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine refers to it as The Postman (Il Postino)
  4. ^ Laurino, Maria (11 June 1995). "FILM; A Postman, a Poet, an Actor's Farewell". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
  5. ^ Fodor's The Amalfi Coast, Capri & Naples. Fodor's Travel Guide. 2014.
  6. ^ Il Postino: The Postman Reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (accessed on 1 January 2014)
  7. ^ Il Postino: The Postman Reviews at Metacritic (accessed on 24 June 2010)

External linksEdit