Review of Cinema Paradiso (1988) by Byron B — 26 Aug 2013

Incredibly romantic! Salvatore, nicknamed Toto, is played at three different ages and the movie is nearly three hours at its restored length. Jacques Perrin is the adult Salvatore. He's a famous filmmaker in Rome.

He daydreams about growing up in his small Italian hometown when his mother tells him Alfredo died. We'll come back to Perrin as Salvatore later. Salvatore Cascio plays Toto at less than 10 years of age.

It is post World War II in Italy. Toto's father was lost in Russia in the war. He, his mother, and his little sister live a fairly good life and Toto loves to go to the local movie house. Toto also loves watching Alfredo run the projector and he spies on movies before the local priest censors the kissing scenes.

Philippe Noiret is Alfredo, a man who claims to be a nitwit and no good for any work except manual labor or feeding film through the projector. Alfredo becomes a sort of replacement father figure for Toto.

He teaches the boy to work the projector, but insists that he go on to do better things with his life. Tragically a nitrate film fire burns down the theater and part of Alfredo's face. When a rich businessman finances a new state of the art theater, Toto becomes the projectionist, since Alfredo has become blind.

We then transition to Marco Leonardi playing the teenage Salvatore. Toto shows his intelligence for the movie business and Alfredo continues to tell him stories and give him advice about life. Toto falls in love with a new girl at his high school.

Agnese Nano is Elena. Salvatore waits for several months in the mid-50s for Elena to fall in love with him. He's drafted in the army for a time and later when he thinks Elena left for good with her family, he takes Alfredo's advice to leave town and start his own career, not tied to his family or hometown.

We catch up to the present with Perrin as Salvatore returning to see his family and hometown for the first time in over 30 years. He knows he owes his film career to Alfredo and tearfully is a pallbearer at the funeral.

Salvatore is nostalgic for the town despite Alfredo having cautioned him against feeling this way. He also feels guilty about abandoning his mother despite his mother telling him that she knows he did what he needed to do.

He never settled down to start a family because he is still in love with Elena and he discovers that she may be back in town with a family of her own. Can he move on with his life or will he be forever trapped with these feelings of regret? Throughout the film Tornatore invests it with quotes, stills, and movie clips.

With over 30 movies from the silents through the 50s represented it is a movie buff's dream.