l Postino (DVD)

Although somewhat overrated, Il Postino was released in 1994 at a time when the independent film and the foreign film were both becoming both popular and accessible to English speaking audiences thanks to the likes of the Weinstein Brothers' company Miramax. With Pulp Fiction, Chungking Express and Clerks all seeing a release in 1994, it's clear that Il Postino joined them as a frontrunning proponent of this movement. It was also nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Massimo Troisi, who sadly died 12 hours after principle photography ended (and reportedly postponed heart surgery just to finish ...  Read the complete review

Il Postino (The Postman) is a touchingly simple Italian film, which while bearing a classic theme, injects the telling with a poignant tenderness that makes even the reading of subtitles worth it! Set on a small island, off Sicily in the 1960s, it is the story of Mario, a shy, somewhat awkward fisherman's son whose siblings have all sought better lives in America. Mario takes a job as a postman to Pablo Neruda, played by Phillipe Noiret (who was in Cinema Paradiso and Jean de Florette), the exiled poet who is stigmatised in South America for his political views. As Mario delivers letters to Neruda, a cautious friendship develops between the two, ...  Read the complete review