Review of Cinema Paradiso (1988) by Panta O — 30 Jun 2012

When a movie is 2.5 hours long (or longer), usually I do not watch it more than once... except with a few chosen ones - like this one! I saw it originally in cinemas and it was "love on first sight"- it seems forever! The problem was that "Nuovo cinema Paradiso" (internationally released as Cinema Paradiso), had a poor box office performance in its native country and it was shortened to 123 minutes for international release. And it was an instant success, that it won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released and this is my favourite (known as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version).

This Italian drama written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore stars some of my favourite European stars: Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio in the surroundings so typical for Sicily. Actually the movie was shot in director Tornatore's hometown Bagheria, Sicily, as well as Cefalù on the Tyrrhenian Sea. I loved everything about it: the way it was told (largely in flashback), the way it explores issues of youth or coming of age, the way it reflects (in adulthood) about the past... oh, and I do not want to forget the fullness of the emotion, the acting, smooth directing, the spirit of the Mediterranean... I can make a huge list, but these are enough for start.

Successfully combining sentimentality with comedy, and nostalgia with pragmatism, director Tornatore gives us a perfect example of nostalgic postmodernism reflecting idealised memories about his own childhood. A real celebration of life, if you ask me!