Cinema Paradiso is
an Italian drama film released in 1988 and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. The
story details a now-famous filmmaker reminiscing about his childhood in Sicily
where he developed his love for movies and a tender friendship with the
projectionist of his local theater, the Cinema Paradiso. In modern day, then 1980s,
Salvatore De Vita receives word that a man named Alfredo has passed away. Much
of the rest of the film is a flashback as Salvatore thinks back on the formative
years of his life. We first meet Salvatore as a precocious six year-old
obsessed with the theater in his village. Any time he can get away from his
school or alter boy duties, he spends at the Cinema Paradiso. His mother scolds
him for it, especially considering he spends her money to see the movies. When
not seated with the audience for a showing, Salvatore pesters old Alfredo, the
projectionist. Like most old men, Alfredo is cranky and quick to run off
bothersome children. But Salvatore is persistent, and the two grow close. With
Alfredo having no children of his own and Salvatore’s father dying during the
Second World War, they fill a void in one another’s life. When Salvatore saves
Alfredo from a horrible accident that leaves the old man blind and the Cinema
Paradiso destroyed, the projectionist is indebted to the boy. He teaches him
the craft of running the projection machine and when the Nuevo Cinema Paradiso
is opened by a lottery winner returning home, Salvatore is given the job of
projectionist. Salvatore grows up, and the film follows this young man’s
journey into adulthood, including his first love, military service, and
eventual heartbreak. All the while, the love of cinema serves as his backdrop
and the tired Alfredo pushes him to leave the projection room behind and do
great things. Life is short, he urges, and best lived exploring.
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At its core, Cinema
Paradiso is a classic coming-of-age story. We follow young Salvatore at a
time when life is the most fascinating to all of us. Though he lives in a very
small, remote village, the world does not seem lacking. We see Salvatore fall
in love with the world of movies to the point of a childhood obsession. As a
high school student, Salvatore still works at the Nuevo Cinema Paradiso and
even takes to amateur filmmaking with a video camera, but his eyes wander to
other attractions: girls. We see him fall in love for the first time with
Elena, a wealthy banker’s daughter. He woos her, and after a long struggle,
wins her heart. They engage in young love, and for a while, life is great. Then
she moves away, and Salvatore must go off to complete his compulsory military
service. He writes letters, only to have them sent back. And with that, his
first real love is gone. He returns home to find nothing of importance anymore.
Dear old blind Alfredo pushes him to leave their sleepy village and never look
back. Salvatore heeds this call to go out in the world and find his place, completing
the inevitable part of growing up. The successful Salvatore we see return to
his home village to bury Alfredo at the end of the film has long since come of
age and made good on Alfredo’s demand. To see the man Salvatore becomes rewards
the time we’ve spent with him growing up in Sicily.
The power of cinema serves as the bookends of Cinema Paradiso. At the start, we see
Salvatore Di Vita as a child wrapped up in the escapism of movies. Growing up
in a tiny village far removed from a city setting, the Cinema Paradiso theater serves
as the integral entertainment hub. For an impressionable child, the cinema’s
strengths are even more powerful. Every movie is a passport; a window into new
worlds. The education one receives can be life changing. For Salvatore, a
lifelong passion is triggered. A passion that takes him away from his village
to worldwide fame. At the end of the movie, the emotions that captured
Salvatore as a child return by way of Alfredo’s final gift. All the reels of
film cut from all the movies deemed explicit by the church have been compiled
into a brand new movie. All the love, lust, and vitality removed from films
long past still have the power that cinema will always have. The older, now
established Salvatore finally seeing the reels that were denied to him as a
child brings his story full circle. A long-awaited reward for honoring what
cinema has given to him. The reels signified life, offering one final flashback
through all the instances of love Salvatore had experienced to make him the man
he had become.
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Cinema Paradiso is
probably the most heartwarming film we saw this semester. It’s one of my top
three. The ending of the film really clinched it for me. Seeing Salvatore watch
the reels that had been kept from audiences during his childhood when he was
just coming into his love of film, now being shown to him following the passing
of his mentor Alfredo was touching. The film captured passion throughout all
stages of life. As a child, Salvatore devoted himself to the movie-watching
experience. As a young adult, Salvatore fell hard for Elena and experienced the
kind of love only the young have. The man that Salvatore grew up to be was the
product of a life lived embracing emotions. The bond between Salvatore and
Alfredo as mentor/apprentice and father/son gave the movie a great heart. It’s
what made Salvatore leaving Sicily and Alfredo behind all the more heartbreaking.
Alfredo admitting that his own life was held back from staying in the village,
and demanding that Salvatore leave and never come back was one of the most
profound moments of the film. Home can be formative, but we must leave in order
to fulfill our potential. The love of movies rescued Salvatore from ending up
like Alfredo: tired and trapped. The feeling of guilt Salvatore feels for never
looking back to his little village and the people that shaped him symbolized
the adage that “home is where the heart is.” The film reel gifted from Alfredo
was the slice of home Salvatore needed in his life in order to allow himself
the closure to move on. I loved the movie and will watch it again.
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