I. A popular Italian film義大利電影 ( 1995 ) :
1. Director: Michael Radford
Neruda acted by Philippe Noiret
Mario acted by Massimo Troisi
2. Academy Award(金像獎) for the Best Music :
C D of Neruda’s love poems = recited by Sting,Madonna,Julia Roberts,Andy Garcia
3. Worldwide Neruda Fever :
Chinese translations of Neruda’s love poems by 陳黎( See Handouts P.2 )
II. Pablo Neruda 智利詩人聶魯達( 1904-1973 ) :
1. Chilean poet and diplomat
2. Nobel Prize Winner for Literature in 1971
3. the people’s poet / the lovers’ poet
III. Background of the film 本電影的時代背景:
1. The story happened in 1952 when Neruda,aged 48, lived an exile life on a small island of Italy.
2. By his side was Matilde Urrutia, his third wife.
IV. A Comment on the film本電影短評 :
1. Plot (情節) : the friendship shared by Neruda and his personal postman Mario
2. Analysis of main characters (角色剖析) :
Mario --- the postman --- Neruda
Beatrice ? Beatrice’s aunt ? Mario’s boss ? the councilor ? the priest ?
3. A story of initiation (啟蒙故事) :
4. Political implication (政治意涵) :
5. Film technique (電影技巧) :
6. Poetic language (詩的語言) : metaphor vs. simile
[ Life is a stage. cf. Life is like a dream. ]
7. Other symbols (其它象徵) :
Pablo (Mario’s son) ? the white table-tennis ball ? Dante ? the church’s bell ? the fisherman’s net ? recording the beautiful sounds of the island ?
8. Theme (主題) :
a) Fusion of sense and sensibility
b) Search for joys of love under shades of reality
c) Dialogue between beauty and sadness
d) Conflict between Communism and Fascism
e) Contrast between light and shade / blue and red / ideal and reality / intellectuals and illiterates / high class and low class
V. Important Works聶魯達重要作品 :
1924 : 1933 :
1950 : Canto General 1955 : 100 Love Sonnets
｛ Vincent Chen April 11, 2000 ｝
