IL POSTINO 1994 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Interview

Italian star Massimo Troisi died of a heart attack the day after wrapping on his passion project, playing a tongue-tied postman who is inspired to write after delivering letters to exiled poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret). Troisi’s posthumous Oscar noms (for Best Actor and Adapted Screenplay) were a fitting epitaph for a performance whose comic craft and warm-hearted optimism are remarkable given the actor’s pain during filming. Michael Radford’s deceptively easy-going direction gives breathing space to the story’s plaintive emotion and subtly political slant. Simon Kinnear