Poetry Movies

Italian classic film, awesome cinematography.

Poetry is dead and gone. How could you say that? Because it's not on YouTube. If it's not online, it doesn't exist. Don't look at me. Don't shoot the messenger. Artificial intelligence (AI) wants everything to be online, so that it can re-work it and sell it.

Maya Angelou’s poetry made me realize that everybody is a poet. You cannot be alive and not be a poet. Unfortunately, society only regards our thoughts as poetry if they are written down.

Il Postino, an Italian film shot somewhere around Naples is about poetry and ordinary people. How do words spoken or unspoken improve their lives or mess them up?

Do you have a personal trainer? Well!  When Pablo Neruda the Chilean poet (Philippe Noiret), was in exile in Italy, the village post office where he lived with his wife got so much mail, they hired an extra postman.

Mario Ruopollo (Massimo Troisi), a shy and very poor fisherman gets the job.  His boss at the post office briefs him about Pablo Neruda, the people’s poet who champions workers’ rights. Mario’s boss also tells him that most of the mail comes from women. 

Mario’s day consists of getting the mail from the post office, load it on his bike, cycle up and down the beautiful Italian countryside, knocks on Neruda’s door, say Buon Giorno, Neruda signs for the delivery and Mario goes away.

As time goes on, Mario sees Neruda’s wife and witnesses their playfulness. He also realizes that Neruda likes to cook. Mario starts reading his poetry.  This makes him bold enough to ask the poet about metaphors, metafore, pardon my Italian.

Mario is in love with Beatrice Russo but her aunt doesn’t approve.  She complains about the metafore, metafore, metafore that the poor fisherman is feeding her niece. Anyway they do the trick because Beatrice returns his love.

Neruda is initially amused by Mario’s interest in his poetry.  It later dawns on him that he has the privilege of hearing what a reader thinks about his work.  A rare treat indeed!

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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