Review of Cinema Paradiso (1988) by Adrianne H — 25 Aug 2011

Note: Netflix sent me the R rated Director's Cut, not the original PG version.

"Even though years passed, in every woman I met, I sought only you. I've been lucky in my career, it's true. But something was always missing.".

I'm not exaggerating when I say this; this is one of the top five best films of all time.

Plot: The story follows a Sicilian man from childhood to adulthood. As a child living in a small town during World War II, Salvatore becomes fascinated with films shown at the local theater. He makes friends with the projectionist, Alfredo. Alfredo teaches him to run the machines. As Salvatore grows into a teenager, he gets a video camera and begins to film things around town and falls in love with a girl named Elena. But as time passes, things change and Salvatore leaves. Now 30 years later, Salvatore now a famous filmmaker returns after news of a tragedy and tries to pick up the pieces from where he left off and to face the outcomes the sacrifices he made long ago.

When I say this is a perfect film, I mean it. It is absolutly beautiful. I didn't see a thing wrong with it. Rarely to I find similarities between myself and characters in movies, but Salvatore reminded me so much of myself throughout the film that I found it freaky. This is a very long movie, but its very well paced. It has its funny moments, and its moving moments,but where it really gets good is it's last forty minutes which I cried the whole time. It was just so touching. This film is about following your dreams even if you have to make sacrifices. But ask yourself, are those sacrifices worth it? I haven't seen any other of Giuseppe Tornatore's films but after this, I want to see every one of them really bad. All in all, this is the best film I've seen in years and will go down as one of my favorite films of all time. Total Score: 10/10.