Cinema Paradiso (Italian, Nuovo cinema Paradiso)

Movie: Cinema Paradiso

Year: 1988

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Language: Italian

Synopsis: Salvatore Di Vita starts this journey back home after he comes to know that Alfredo has died. Salvatore who is a movie maker takes us back on a flashback to his childhood where as a young boy named Toto he was fascinated by movies and is taken as an apprentice by Alfredo the projectionist. The fatherly Alfredo supports the passion of Toto for movies and in due course of time teaches him how to use the projector from a stool as his height would not allow him to reach. The beautiful arrangement comes to an abrupt end when there is a fire in the theater which causes Alfredo to lose his eyesight. The new cinema paradise is built and it hires Toto as the projectionist. The bond between him and Alfredo grows stronger. Very soon Salvatore starts experimenting with filmmaking. He meets Elena and falls in love with her and finally woos her. But her dad takes her away and Toto goes for his military service. When he comes back Alfredo tells him that the town is too small for his dream. He should leave never returning to visit, never to give in to nostalgia, never to even write or think about them.

My own take: The strength of the movie lies in its simplicity. Very simply told and very beautifully portrayed. In fact the last scene is amazing when Toto finds that Alfredo has left behind as gift to the young boy the stool where he used to stand and a reel of all kissing scenes that the old man had not let the little boy see when he was just a kid. The censoring he did goes a full circle and comes back to Salvatore. Sometimes its heart warming to see simple people do simple things. Maybe its aspirational for many of us to be like how our parents wanted us to be : )