Il Postino

Last week I had to make a presentation in my Italian course. The subject was “La mia passione per l’Italia”. We had to explain why we were passionate about Italy, and we had to choose a certain object to talk about.

I chose the movie “Il Postino.” Did you ever see it? It is an older movie, from 1994, but so beautiful. It is also so typically Italian, the atmosphere…  I am copying my summary of the movie here, so you can try to see what you understand of Italian 😉 You may correct me, of course.

Il film parla di un uomo, Mario, un figlio di pescatori chi vive suun’ isola. Mario è disoccupato e ha una vita tranquilla. Un giorno, il grande poeta Pablo Neruda viene ad abitare sull’isola. Neruda ha recevuto asilo politico in Italia.

Per questo motivo Mario comincia a lavorare come postino, per consegnare la posta al poeta, chi vive su una collina dell’ isola.

Il poeta riceve molto posta di ammiratori. Giorno dopo giorno, Mario rimane più affiscinato dal poeta. Compra un libro dal Poeta e chiede il suo autografia. Cominciano a discorrere la poesia insieme e un amicizia nasce.

Nello stesso periodo Mario s’innamora di Beatrice, una bella ragazza chi lavora nell’ osteria dell’isola. Neruda aiuta Mario a scrivere la poesia per Beatrice. E dopo una lunga cortesia Beatrice comincia ad amare Mario.

Allora decidono a sposarsi. Neruda è testimono del matrimonio. Non molto tempo dopo, Neruda riceve una lettera che puo ritornare allo suo paese, Cile.

Il film finisce un po’ tristamente. Dopo cinque anni, Neruda ritorna all’isola e vede Beatrice con suo figlio Pablito. Apparentemente Mario è morto prima della nascita del suo figlio, in una manifestazione comunista.

Why did I choose this movie?

Because it is about friendship, love, literature and getting recognition. At the end of the movie, the main character, Mario, awaits a letter from Neruda when Neruda has returned to his home country Chile. But he never gets one. So he thinks Neruda has forgotten about him, and that, in Neruda’s eyes, he wasn’t worth remembering.

And it was a bit recognizable too. My adoration for the Great Writer and Mario’s – the main character – adoration for Pablo Neruda 🙂

I just bought Eggers‘ latest book, the Monk of Mokha. It is again a book about an immigrant trying to make a new life in his new country. Very curious to read it, he is such a good story teller.

Two weeks ago I saw the movie “The Square.” It was hilarious–total mockery of the art scene, cultural world and human behavior in general, in a pleasant and recognizable way, although scary at times. To be honest, I sometimes wonder – with modern art – what the message is, or what it is about, especially when it is very simple to make that piece of art. In the movie, a big room in a museum was filled with heaps of little rocks. Accidentally one of the cleaners, with his big vacuum-cleaner-truck, sucked up a piece of the heap. The director of the museum decided not to tell anyone but to fix it himself, in a simple way. It confronts you with yourself. I loved it.

More Italian next week. Yes, I am heading for Puglia in a week. And will happily report from there.

Have a lovely weekend!