The original theatrical version of Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” is a wonderful, heartfelt love letter to the cinema that inspired the director himself, as well as an uplifting picture of success at a terrible cost.
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1990´s "Cinema Paradiso" is one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching films I have ever had the good fortune to come across. The film begins with a frantic mother trying to contact her son, who she´s not seen in 30 years, because she has news. A simple message is relayed to Salvatore… "Alfredo is dead." This catalyst sets Salvatore´s mind to work, as he goes back to a more innocent time, when he was just a small child with no cares in the world. Salvatore is an alter boy in the Sicilian Catholic Church, but sadly not a very good one. He falls asleep and neglects his duties, but he is still a good boy. He is inquisitive about the world, always asking questions and getting himself into trouble because of his playful nature.
The first hour of "Cinema Paradiso" features the wonderful life of a boy in post-war Italy and his discovery of film. Young Salvatore sneaks into the Cinema Paradiso, the bastion of art and entertainment in the small town of Giancaldo, and watches the films uncut, a liberty not given to any other members of the town. He lives in a world of film, looking at film scraps in the evening by candle, recalling scenes from his memory and vividly reliving them. The beauty of a child discovering and falling in love with the cinema is a wonderful process, to watch him find John Wayne and Bogart and every film in-between. These early scenes, the struggle of a war widow trying to raise her children, a star struck little boy who has found his first love in the cinema, are truly amazing. The rapport between young Salvatore and the simple projectionist and mentor Alfredo is touching with its simplicity. The elderly Alfredo befriends Salvatore, charmed by his intelligence and innocence, and the two are practically inseparable.
When a tragic accident befalls Alfredo, costing him his sight, Salvatore takes over the new Cinema Paradiso, as projectionist, advancing his love for film. Salvatore begins to make his own movies with a small, handheld 8mm camera, working on angles, pacing, and story structure, becoming a filmmaker in his own right. Salvatore also meets the love of his life, and it is the shattering of his soul that inspires him to run far away, to follow his dreams, and escape the stifling town he has existed in for his entire life. When he returns 30 years later to pay his respects to Alfredo, Salvatore simultaneously experiences a wave of nostalgia, reminiscing about the past with a host of characters who helped shape who he would become, while realizing that they have truly not changed in the years he has been away. Whereas Salvatore has realized his destiny, had he been trapped in the town, his life would have been squandered away. As painful a lesson as this can be, it is one I wholeheartedly concur with, having myself made such a break, though not nearly as severe. The end of the film features Salvatore reaching a true understanding of the love that Alfredo had for him, and Salvatore for Alfredo, as well as the final severing of his ties to the town.
The glue of "Cinema Paradiso" essentially lies in the performances of the central actors, especially Philippe Noiret who portrayed Alfredo, the simple father figure and mentor to Salvatore. His simple, almost melodramatic acting perfectly fits the role of the erstwhile guardian of Salvatore. Salvatore Cascio is outstanding in his debut role as the young Salvatore, bringing an innocence and intelligence to the role that is just amazing for an actor his age, as he would have been 8 or 9 years of age when the movie was being created. His expressive eyes and face belie the love the actor and the character both have for film, the active imagination, the mischievous grins that cross his face are enamoring. Antonella Attili captures the essence of a struggling single-mother attempting to retain her family and sanity, and Marco Leonardi plays the stopgap between Salvatore´s youth and middle age with the proper angst and dissatisfaction one would expect from a cooped-up teenager who is supporting his family. The remainder of the supporting cast is excellent as well, playing their background roles well so as to make the primary action believable while never stealing the focus of the film. The only beef I would have was the lack of depth of Salvatore´s teenage girlfriend Elena, played by Agnese Nano. The character felt phony and lacked the true pathos that emanated from the primary characters in the film. Furthermore, her acting was stiff and felt forced, even to one who doesn´t speak fluent Italian. However, on par, the acting within the film "Cinema Paradiso" was excellent, with Young Salvatore and Alfredo standing out as beacons.
This DVD version of the film "Cinema Paradiso" includes both the original, multiple award-winning version, including an Academy Award (and a host of others, listed before the movie on the DVD) and a new version that includes nearly an hour of footage excised from the film. I´ve been on record as saying that I much prefer original versions of films, being that unless footage was cut because of censorship issues or pure length issues, a director´s original vision should have been seen on the screen. That position holds true here, as the additional footage completely changes the narrative flow of the film "Cinema Paradiso." Alfredo ceases to be a simple man, and new the new footage exposes a bitter core in the man and shows him to be vengeful and ugly at points, contrasting greatly with footage of him as generous and loving. Most of the new scenes are used to flesh out the center of the story, expanding the love story of Elena and Salvatore. In the new cut of the film, the love story becomes the central focus of the film. Salvatore becomes less innocent in this cut, as he conspires to make Elena his, and the two work to be together. Whereas in the original cut of the film, Elena served only as the catalyst for Salvatore to run from Giancaldo, here she serves as the reason he has not been able to settle down in his life. Rather than her simply disappearing, Salvatore finds her back in Giancaldo when he returns for Alfredo´s funeral, and the two have a discussion of what transpired, making Alfredo out to be a manipulative character who wanted the best for Salvatore, no matter what Toto himself wanted. Furthermore, Salvatore as a teen and adult in the new version is a selfish and useless lump of humanity who only pines for the love he lost, rather than remark upon life. Whereas one could say the new version of the film rounds out the characters of the movie, and I would agree, but not in a good way. The original "Cinema Paradiso" seemed much akin to a fairytale, perhaps a bit simple and sweet for some tastes, but it was not meant to be a serious character study. The new version feels bloated, like new scenes were added simply to expand the runtime of the film and flesh out scenes that weren´t "sexy" enough in the original film (and now dramatically change the audiences perception of characters), ideas that simply weren´t needed. The films new near-3 hour runtime is also entirely too much, as by the time you get to the end the films stunning climax has lost all of its potency.
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[release]11023[/release]