Thirty years of ‘The Postman’. Massimo Troisi’s posthumous performance
The Postman, Massimo Troisi’s last film, turns 30. It was released on September 22, 1994, three months after the premature death of the director and actor from San Giorgio a Cremano (Naples). It was presented at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 1994 and distributed in the United States from June 14, 1995.
Directed by Troisi together with Michael Radford, the cast includes Philippe Noiret (Pablo Neruda) and a very young Maria Grazia Cucinotta making her film debut in the role of Beatrice, the woman with whom the titular postman falls in love.
The film received five Oscar nominations in 1996: Best Film, Best Actor for Massimo Troisi, Best Director for Michael Radford, Best Adapted Screenplay for Massimo Troisi, Furio Scarpelli, Michael Radford, Anna Pavignano and Giacomo Scarpelli, and won Best Score for composer Luis Bacalov.
It also won 3 BAFTAs (Best Director, Best Score and Best Film Not in the English Language), the David di Donatello for Best Editor for Roberto Perpignani and 3 Nastro d'Argento for Best Score, Best Producer and a Special Award for Massimo Troisi.
The story of Massimo Troisi’s ‘The Postman’
“I said nothing to her. I looked at her and fell in love”
The film was freely inspired by the novel Burning Patience by Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta. In 1952, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret) finds political asylum on an island inhabited by illiterate fishermen; Mario Ruoppolo (Massimo Troisi), a fisherman’s son intolerant of that way of life, gets himself hired as a postman solely so he can deliver his mail. He is so fascinated that he begins to learn about the world of poetry. A sincere friendship is born and the two men spend time together on the island talking about poetry and metaphors; Neruda helps him court Beatrice, sealing their love by acting as their wedding witness.
Troisi – his face and body emaciated by illness – gave his heart and soul to the character of the postman and gifted the audience that has never stopped loving him a final "bequest", one filled with poetry and the themes of friendship and love, civil and political commitment that were always present in his films.
Troisi passed away in his sleep from a heart attack a few hours after filming the last scene: the heart disease that had always blighted his life made an urgent transplant necessary, it was scheduled for the end of filming. He was replaced in some scenes by a stunt double.
Where is the “The Postman’s Beach”?
The filming of The Postman took place mainly in Procida, an island in the Campania archipelago on the edge of the gulf of Naples; Mario searches for Beatrice and charms her with his conversation about poetry and metaphors on the beach of Pozzo Vecchio, now known as the “The Postman’s Beach”. The volcanic sand of horseshoe shaped strip is dark, giving the sea an intense blue colour.
There is another location also renamed “The Postman’s Beach” to mark the film which shot here: the beach of Pollara, in Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands. In this place, where stones and gravel are protected by steep overhanging cliffs, the friendship between the postman and the poet develops with verses and metaphors.