Movie-A-Day #232: Cinema Paradiso (1989)

[nathan]

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Title: Cinema Paradiso
Year: 1989
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writers: Giuseppe Tornatore and Vanna Paoli
IMDB

Tagline: A celebration of youth, friendship, and the everlasting magic of the movies.

Summary (stolen from imdb.com):
A man receives news from his aging mother in a little town that someone he once knew has passed away. A beautiful story unfolds about the man's childhood friendship with an old man who was the projectionist at the local theater. Their bond was one that contained many highlights and tragedies, and shaped the way for a young boy to grow and move out of his rundown village to pursue a dream.
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Probably my favorite foreign movie. Beautiful, nostalgic story about a great friendship based on love of movie theaters and movies. The music is great as well.

 

[Pariah]

Fantastic movie! One of my favorites--foreign or no.

 

[Bada0Bing]

Recently watched it. Outstanding movie. Did you guys watch the theatrical version or the director's cut? I wanted to watch the director's cut, but that side of the dvd was scratched (I had to resort to the library's copy, since it had been sitting on top of my bb queue for almost a year now).

Spoiler

A famous film director (real-life film producer Perrin) returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years. He reminisces about his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first facilitated his love of films. He is also reminded of his lost teenage love, Elena, who was forced to leave Salvatore (Totò) because of her father. In the 123-minute release she remains only a lasting memory, but in the 154-minute version she and Totò meet again. Old and grayed they see the life that has passed before them. As their conversation unfolds, Salvatore discovers that Elena married an old friend, but even more importantly, discovers that Alfredo was the reason why their relationship ended, when Alfredo reluctantly manipulated her into leaving him, if only to see Salvatore follow his dreams. They see each other and make love in a car. Totò seems to want to relight their relationship, but Elena tells him that this is impossible.

 

[Pariah]

I saw the original cut, not the director's. I might be due for another screening.