Gabriel d'Annunzio, the Italian Poet and Neruda in the film "Il Postino"

Students, I am astounded. I have seen "Il Postino" several times, the first three times I saw it for pleasure: at the beginning, I saw it in a theater, amid the smell of hot but stale popcorn, nacho cheese, and cologne. The second set of times I showed it to my classes, watching them to make sure they were enjoying it for what it offers: a view into the magic of poetry. And honestly I would continue to watch it because I enjoy hearing the poems again and again.

Today, as I posted questions for you to consider in your blog commentary, I realized that ART (poetry, literature, visual art, film, dance, music) always moves us to view more and more of our world's brilliant spectrum. It is a planet's conscious and yet unconscious mouthpiece. And poetry connects us to our history. Why am I telling you this?

I was searching for information on Gabriel d'Annuzio so that the class could see the Italian poet's work, when I discovered an amazing connection between the poet, Neruda and the film (I am not the first to "discover" this information. Remember, teachers are also learners.)

The politician with the fedora hat in the film (the one who Mario confronted after he said he would not be able to continue work on the town's water system) mentions to Mario that he reads Gabriel d 'Annuzio. He does not mention it in passing; he purposefully gives Mario the poet's name. Why? Gabriel d'Annunzio was thought of a hero, a 19th century forerunner to Benito Mussolini - the creator of Fascism and a dictator of early 20th century Italy. Mussolini who spread terror among his populace. It is thought that Mussolini incorporated many of d'Annunzio's nationalists ideas into his own politic (kirjasto, para 4).

Remember, Mario is fraternizing with a loved poet, a man exiled from his own country for his ideas and for his confrontation against the government. Neruda is a communist. Communist and Fascists ideologies, though similar in the belief that class difference should not exist, constrasted in other ways.

The politician's mention of d'Annunzio in many ways adds a new layer to the film's point-of-view.

Please add your comments to this discussion. Feel free to search online to educate yourselves more on Fascism and Communism, unless you already have a healthy understanding of the two. I leave you with a quote from the scholar and Columbia University professor, Robert O. Paxton:

Fascism is "...a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion" (The Anatomy of Fascism, 218).