SUSAN: Good after noon everyone I’m Susan joining you from MM TV.

Today we will be
interviewing the legendary film director Michael Radford. Radford has created a series of
movies but ll Postino stands refulgent and tall with its idealistic and romantic love story.
Before we commence our interview, I’d want to express my condolences and respect
towards an actor we lost. The main character Mario Troisi who died from a heart condition,
despite this he fought through the hardships but unfortunately after ll postino was released
we lost him short after. This film is still watched globally due to its morals and great depth.

MICHEAL RADFORD: Good afternoon Susan and thank you so much for having me today, it’s
an honour to be here. I would additionally relish to pay my condolences to Troisi as he was a
great man with the heart of gold. Till this day, he have been a great inspiration for many
individuals with his resilience and great acting. Honestly it was so eye opening when we
visually perceived the sorrowfulness of the world.

SUSAN: Honestly, I pay great gratitude towards you and your crew for your outstanding
efforts along with your strength through hard times. Thanks for that Michael and before we
commence would you like to give us an brief expeditious summary of your film ll Postino.

MICHAEL RADFORD: ll Postino is personally one of my favourites as it has a great moral

behind it. It is about a young fisherman Mario who follows his leader Pablo Neruda and ends
up falling into the delightful trap of poetry. On his journey of learning the arts of poetry the
young man falls in love with a beautiful local barmaid. The famous star Pablo Neruda guides
Mario to poetry like a baby learning his first few steps. Neruda helps shape Mario’s
character and personality through the words of poetry.

SUSAN: That is really an extraordinary film plot, can we talk more about how you expressed
the love and relationship that Pablo had for his wife?

MICHEAL RADFORD: Whilst researching the film I came across the stunning poem ‘ode to
my socks’. This inspired me to include the love and affection they have for each other in the
film. The metaphor in this poem expresses the paramount love and relationship that even a
diminutive thing can be very impactful and touching. This is evident in the line, “and each
day give them birdseed and pieces of pink melon”. This metaphor is very strong as it
expresses the profound compassion and commiseration he has towards her. Furthermore, it
accentuates how he devotes the kindly knitted the socks and he wants to take such great
care of it by putting it into a cage. I wanted to take the art of metaphors and turn it into
something passionate and uplifting. Poetry definitely has the ability to be profound and
relished by all, veraciously this is one factor why I adore poetry.

SUSAN: Director Radford would you like to expand on how the bad history of Pablo wasn’t
put into the context of the film?

MICHEAL RADFORD: When I was analysing Pablo Neruda’s pieces, I discovered the poem ‘I
like you when you are quiet’. There was a powerful use of imagery in this poem which
affects the way we understand the poem, which was conspicuous in the line; “It looks as
though your eyes had flown away and it looks as if a kiss had sealed your mouth. Like all
things are full of my soul you emerge from the things, full of my soul. Dream butterfly, you
look like my soul, and you look like a melancoly word”. This has a great impact as it is a
visual image of the girl being flown away and quiet from her words. Which sanctions the
reader to take a divergent perspective on the idea of being quiet and how silence is
beautiful. After I saw this I discerned this perspective I got intrigued and once I commenced
researching. I found that this poem was inscribed about a woman which he sexually
assaulted. I personally was very astonished and found it ironic how such a political, active
communist and democrat man could do such a thing. The imagery in the poem inspired me
to integrate some elevation to the film. I believe this added a great incline and meaning to
the film.

SUSAN: Wow, that’s honestly such a great way to set your perspective at. Can we talk more
about the meaning behind Mario being lost and confused during the metaphors scene?

MICHEAL RADFORD: One of the key scenes I wanted to add was the ‘Metaphors’ scene as it
further accentuated on the theme of relationships and expressing the symbolism of how
when Pablo Neruda was first learning about poetry he was disoriented. This is also
mentioned in one of his poems named ‘poetry’. As it states “I didn’t know what to say, my
mouth had no way with names, my eyes wore blind”. In this scene, it conveys how Mario is
captivated and captured by poetry. I was endeavouring to express how don Pablo felt lost in
the river of poetry through this particular scene. This has given significant depth and impact
to the illusion of being lost in the comely of poetry. The scene is given a meaning behind as
Don Pablo sits down making Mario look more ascendant and salient. Furthermore, this
conveys that Pablo is giving a comfortable exhibiting showing that they are close and have a
vigorous bond. This sanction the audience to think of Pablo as an approachable and kind
man.

SUSAN: That’s beautiful to further express the real-life situation and guide the audience
through Mario. Would you like to tell us about how his poem impacted your choice in the
‘words’ scene? Additionally, how this impacts people’s opinions whilst watching the movies?

MICHEAL RADFORD: I stumbled through the poem ‘I like it when you are quiet’, This
intriguing poem gave me an idea to inscribe a scene. This poem expresses how Pablo
Neruda wanted a women to be quiet so that he could harass her. Despite this brutal act, I
wanted to have a look at it from another perspective, to show how everyone thought he
was harassing someone when he was really creating an innocent poem about the beauty of
her pureness and innocence. I expressed this through Mario and how he had good
intentions and wasn’t planning something bad. Therefore, I decided to create the scene
about the misunderstanding of Pablo. The technique used in this scene is repetition as
Beatrice’s aunt repeats “And you, And he”. This gives the effect that she is trying to prove to
him how she is saying the truth. We can further understand the theme of power through
the camera angles, as the camera is at a low angle when Donna is talking which expresses
how she is more powerful and dominant over Beatrice. This sanction the audience to view
how donna is more experienced and knowledgeable due to her strength and older age. This
effect gives more depth and meaning into the film and accentuates how an individual’s
power can overtake anything. Additionally, I believe this sector of the movie has the largest
impact on audience as it is very intermediate. It is a great eye opening scene for our viewers
to understand the way the world works etc.

SUSAN: That’s definitely a great way to put it, thank you so much for this depth full
information, It was such a honour to have you here today.

MICHEAL RADFORD: I hope I have been able to get my message across and thankyou again
for having me here today.