Cinema Paradiso

Written and directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso is the story of a kid falling in love with movies. The films is also an ode to cinemas of the past and its golden age where stars like Cary Grant graced the screen.

The film takes place in a sicilian village that is quite small. It has a main square and I guy that frequently runs around saying how the square is his. The film opens with an older Salvatore being informed of the death of Alfredo. Salvatore is now an accomplished filmmaker at this point. Salvatore is lying and bed and the film flashes back to his childhood in the village.

Salvatore is in love with watching movies but even more so, he is intrigued by the projector and sneaks his way up there anytime he came. The cinema’s projectionist is a man named Alfredo. He calls him Toto and kicks him out of the projection room constantly. Salvatore also likes to snatch film celluloid when he came and piles it in a tin that he keeps under his bed with a photo of his father. eventually, the film catches on fire and burns the picture of his father, who was killed in war. His mother beats him but Alfredo walks by and intervenes which kicks off their friendship together.

One day, the cinema’s projector catches on fire while Alfredo is showing the film on a wall of a building outside to make the crowd happy. Salvatore runs in and saves Alfredo. This fire has left Alfredo blind.

A man, Ciccio, steps in and rebuilds the cinema and Salvatore is made the new projectionist. Alfredo and Salvatore’s relationship is very solid at this point and he asks Alfredo for advice a lot and Alfredo gives him it usually by quoting a film.

In his spare time, Salvatore experiments by making films on his own and one day notices the beautiful Elena. he eventually wins her heart and they have a quick relationship but loses her because her father doesn’t care for Salvatore and she moves away. Salvatore goes into the military and write to her only to have the letters come back to him. Alfredo tells him to move away permanently and never come back which is he does until Alfredo’s funeral.

The film deals with the subject of censorship. In the movie, the village’s priest watches the film before it is shown to an audience. he rings a bell when he sees something in it that he doesn’t like which is usually a kissing scene between the characters. Alfredo is then forced to cut them out of the reel and the audience is annoyed by it. After Ciccio takes control of the cinema, he shows the films uncut and the audience gets to witness a kiss on screen for the first time.

At the end of the film, Salvatore is giving a film that Alfredo made for him before he passed. When he views the film, he sees that it is all the kissing scenes that he was made to cut out. This scene is probably one of the best scenes ever created because it packs such a punch. There isn’t much action at all as he is just watching the film but with its cutting back and forth between the film and Salvatore's reaction makes it pack so much emotion. Futhermore, the music score over it is very sad yet surprising uplifting. It gives the film’s audience a sense of closer and also for Salvatore who seems to now be content with his life now.

The film is well-made and the music in it is phenomenal. the score was done by the great Ennio Morricone. He has done the score for films like Once Upon a Time in the West, The Mission, and The Good The Bad and The Ugly. The acting was very solid in the film and the scenes were well edited and put together. The tone of the film was uplifting of sorts in the end but it was also sad as it showed pretty much the death of the old-school cinema. The scene where Salvatore and other members of the village watch the cinema being demolished is devastating as you feel like they have just lost their connection and bond to each other. At its heart, Cinema Paradiso proves why we enjoy watching films and the power of them.