Cinema Paradiso (1988)

There are times in our lives that we cherish and look fondly upon. For me personally it was the formative years of fourteen through sixteen when I had a close nit group of friends. We were not only friends; we were lovers of one another company and presence. At times we could just sit together and not say a word and feel of the love that we all shared for one another. As a group we would have done anything that was asked of us by any one of the others. Recently, I have ventured back to the schools that these friendships flourished at, and many things have changed in these buildings. Yet, when I walked by our “area” I could still hear, see, smell, and sense some of those moments that I cherish so much. As I watched Cinema Paradiso I thought about those friends, not because we had anywhere near the same experiences, but because it shared in the same passion. Salvatore returns home late one evening and he is told that he received a call from his mother. She told him that Alfredo had died; so here is where we begin to see the story through the memory of the old Salvatore. These memories begin when Toto (his nickname) is a young altar boy in Giancaldo, Sicily, who is a little scamp. The Father that he helps is the Father for this village and has taken it upon himself to censor the movies that are shown. He screens them alone, and rings a hand bell when there is kissing or intimacy on the screen. It is then Alfredo the projectionist’s job to edit the films for the townspeople. Toto, in the beginning, bothers Alfredo but over time they become very close friends. Alfredo shows Toto how to be a projectionist. One evening, during a very beautiful section of the movie, the projector catches on fire and young Toto has to save Alfredo from the flames. The theater is destroyed, Alfredo is now blind, and the town has no form of entertainment. An enterprising gentleman rebuilds the theater with all new amenities, and makes Toto the projectionist. For some reason the films are no longer censored, and the towns sexual urges become more prevalent on our screen (they are more open about sexuality and human responses to such in European films). To make a long story short, there is a budding romance with Toto and a local girl that goes nowhere, Toto serves his time in the military, grows anxious and wants to leave the village. Alfredo tells him as he is leaving that he should leave and never return, visit, write, or think about this town again. They have such a strong bond that Toto does exactly that. Flash back now to the present; Alfredo has died and has left a wonderful gift for Salvatore—a spliced together movie of all of the censored parts of the movies. This movie had a message of passionate friendships and loyalty to those friends, but frankly for me it was lost in the art of the movie. The filmmakers could not decide if they wanted to be artsy or message driven and somehow got lost along the way. This is on many top 100 foreign film list; in fact it is number 27 on the Empire magazines list for 2010. I grew bored with the movie, two hours was far too long, and the only reason I am giving it 3 stars is because it has conjured up such happy memories in my life that had nothing to do with the story itself.