CINEMA PARADISO... Italian movie, my most favorite foreign movie among those won Oscars.
Every true lover of cinema will love this film!
There are two versions available on the DVD.... Original version (118 min) and the recent director's cut version (168 min)
I prefer the latter one... almost the all the extra footage comes at the end... It's far more complete than the original... but irrelevant scenes added, which had no effects except changing the rating of the film from PG to 15+!
The story was told in distinctive three parts.... through the eyes of Salvatore (called fondly as Toto)
The first part says about the young boy Toto (Salvatore Cascio) falling in love with the movies showed in the local village theater called 'Cinema paradiso'... and also his developing friendship with the projectionist Alfredo (Philiphe Noiret)! and the first part is the best part of the movie. To the laborers who were really having a tough time in Italy at 1940... only solace and paradise... was the movie theater! Toto, who had never seen his father, who a soldier gone to Russia, would use every opportunity to slip into the theater without the knowledge of his mother... caught often and beaten often by his mother, he couldn't curb his passion for movies! The boy, with all his wit conquers the heart of Alfredo, who allows the boy to his projection room (against his promises to his mother) and also teaches everything about projectors! one day a fire broke out in the projection room , making Alfredo blind! As no one in the village knows about projectors, little boy Toto gets the job, gets the pay to his mothers pleasure... and gets the life he longed for, always close to his beloved movies!
Second part describes about adolescent Toto's(Marco Leonardi) romance with the beautiful Elena(Agnese Nano)... a college student, who initially hesitates to reciprocate his love! Strong willed to win her heart... Toto after finishing his night show job.... would go straight and would wait in front of her window as promised, till the lights went down... this was his ritual for nearly about 100 days... at last on the eve of new year, when the clock strikes 12, he could see the shadow of Elena coming close to window... with heart beats increased, pulse electrified, he closes his eyes in excitement... when he opened them again, he could see her hands closing the window bit more tight... dejected and devastated he would come back to his world, the small projection room and would tear all her memorabillias... only to see at the end, Elena coming straight to him, he could see her hands closing him bit more tight... no better place for a great romance to bloom, than that projection room... which shows all the tender romance possible to the world! but soon he would lose her... she wouldn't turn to the projection room as promised (as told by Alfredo),after her parents ordered her to stop seeing him... gone crazy as he couldn't find her anywhere... Alfred advises him to leave the village and to leave all the nostalgia... for his own good future and never to return back to that place!
Third part describes, Toto returning almost after 30 years to his village, to attend the funeral of Alferedo... and also the funeral of 'Cinema Pardiso' which last all its business after the revolution of the TV!
In the director's cut, GUISEPPE TORNATORE tries to tie all the loose ends of the romance... Toto meets his last love... she explains why she disappeared (a bit of surprise for audience)... and he got overwhelmed to know that she really loved him... which fills the void in him.... and in us, who watched the original version!
I recommend this movie strongly to all cine lovers... this is a rare passionate movie made as a tribute to movies itself, which succeeds to leave its eternal trace on the viewers!!!
My marks: 72 out of 100
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