Cinema Paradiso

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Summary: Only one word that pops out when watching this: NOSTALGIA!!!
Review: To make it short, this is the one and only movie that makes me cry every time I watch it. It's the kind of movie that melts your heart and keeps you thinking about it for days ahead. Also, I've never heard a soundtrack as beautiful as the one in this movie. It only helps bring out your tears more easily, especially in the last sequence.

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Summary: Possibly Italy's Finest Movie
Review: I adored this film when it came out and still do. I guess anyone that loves romance and great movies would really click with this one. It is not to be missed! You will enjoy it all the way through and then cry your heart out at the end. But you will feel better after crying. I always do! One of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. I'm not familiar with this new version so my review is about the originally released version.

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Summary: Cinema paradiso
Review: Cinema paradiso is a tale of a love for the movies and of a fragile love and respect for life.Tornatore depicts a wonderfully crafted film with a unique emotional edge with plenty of memorable scenes with some almost tragic and some almost to true to life.Cinema paradiso is a tale of strong friendship almost everlasting through out it's duration from the moment salvatore the young boy meets his idol and mentor to be the cinema projectionist Alfredo. Although the age gap is much Salvatore rekindles a passionate youthful spirit in Alfredo which never dies and is a pleasure too watch.Salvatore himself find's a love interest in the film later on in his teenage year's which add's to the strenght of the film's plot.All in all this film is a good movie thought provoking and special in all it's glory! truly a movie of an everlasting kind!

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Summary: An extended fiasco!!!
Review: As one of the reviers said, i was completely enticed by this movie when i first saw it. Then, when i bought this DVD, it seemed to me as if i was watching a different, stupid movie. And then i realised that it was the famous "extended version." One of the things that i loved about Cinema Paradiso (the original version) was the ending; it was unexpected. The end of the extended version was adapted to Hollywood standards, which in my opinion, are completely predictable, and thereby for dummies. Please, this version is completely insulting!!! By all means, by the original version! I urge you!

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Summary: A nostalgic ode to cinema.
Review: There's something magical and timeless about the movies. The stars that inhabit them are like fixed points in a firmament created out of the imagination; ageless reminders that despite the fact that our bodies deteriorate during the passage of time, in our minds we are forever young. Images projected across the distance and onto a screen like ghosts from far off memories have the ability to take us back through time like bookmarkers for important events in our lives. Giuseppe Tornatore's glorification of the movies in CINEMA PARADISO is really a celebration of life and the limitless possibilities for the individual with determination and imagination. There are really three protagonists in this film; Salvatore, the principle character who's story is told primarily through flashbacks; father figure persona grata, Alfredo, projectionist and Salvatore's mentor; and the theater itself, Cinema Paradiso, that refuge for the weary. A place where dreams, if only for a couple hours, can be found. A place where, laughter, sadness and joy can be shared. Paradise! Salvatore is fatherless and Alfredo childless. The two will form a special bond and remain virtually inseperable until Salvatore is a young man. A bond forged primarily in the projection room of the Cinema Paradiso, and fired by their mutual love for the movies. The years will be marked with tragedy, love won and lost and the realization that perhaps "life isn't like in the movies." Alfredo, having lived most of his life through the movies, encourages Salvatore not to make the same mistake, urging him to "Get out of Dodge" and direct his own destiny. "I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I want to hear others talk of you. Don't come back. Don't give into nostalgia." When Salvatore finally does leave, making it big as a successful and respected filmmaker, it will take the death of Alfredo to bring him back after an absence of 30 years. A trip back in time that will inflame old wounds, but also provide an opportunity for them to heal, and after the final kiss of CINEMA PARADISO's inspirational last scene, any lover of the movies will find it almost impossible not to give into nostalgia.

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Summary: First "new version" of a classic that I preferred
Review: I loved "Cinema Paradiso" from the first time I watched it. The child actor is one of the best I have ever seen, and I don't feel he ever received the accolades he deserved. The music is incredibly haunting. There is so much life in the film, not only among the main characters as people, but WWII-Italy is a character itself.

It is the story of how a young boy, Toto came of age without his father (who was fighting in the war) in an Italian village. It is told from the perspective of a flash back, so that we know the little boy grew up to work in the film industry. He found a father figure in Alfredo, an older childless man, who ran the movie theater, and common to many Italians of the time, had little formal education but had a great capcity to educte Toto about life. It is also a story of community in times of trouble, and how the members support each other in their own way, for the greater good of all.

It is difficult to weave a story that captures the pure beauty of a life, while still incorpraing hardships such as death, poverty, heart ache, and the anxiety that accompanies growing up as well as witnessing the dissipation of a way of life, but this move does all of that, yet still retains originality in its story line, and possesses fully developed characters. The script is commendable.

I was skeptical when I saw that a new version was released for the anniversary, but bought it any way, because the original version is included. Too often, I feel that extra footage is added in order to appease some one's vanity who believed their work should not have been cut. But in the case of Cinema Paradiso, the extra footage greatly enriched the story and made the film more complete. I don't want to spoil it for any one who has not seen the impact of the new footage, but personally, I thought many issues in the original cut were left unaddressed with Toto's first love, and the extra film fills in these gaps, and also adds more depth to the characterization of Toto's mother and friends.

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Summary: A substandard DVD release of a wonderful film.
Review: This review applies to "Cinema Paradiso - The New Version." There are two issues with this DVD. The first is that the extended version of the original movie, which this DVD provides, includes almost an hour of additional footage and the resulting story is very different from the original. There's plenty of debate among other reviewers about the net effect of these changes, but frankly, I think if you've already won an academy award for the first version you should leave it alone.

The second issue is that the DVD has surprising technical shortcomings. Unless you speak Italian you'll be watching it with subtitles. And if you've got a widescreen TV half of the bottom line of each subtitle will be below the bottom of the screen. You can reformat the display so that the subtitles are fully visible, but then the film is letterboxed.

In addition, a number of the scenes seemed to be grainy and have very poor color intensity. Considering that this DVD is billed as the "digitally remastered, fully restored" version, it's all the more disappointing.

Overall, I'd recommend buying the original un-remastered, unrestored, unextended version instead.

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Summary: Wait, then give the original release another chance.
Review: I completely agree with reviewer B. Hendricks, only I saw the longer version first. Yes, I can see the older man as the kindly mentor now, but only after an interval of more than a year after watching the director's cut first. Perhaps it would have been better to keep the extra scenes as optional deleted scenes. The new revelations flesh out the characters, but they are a great lesson that less is often more. And I can see how they could ruin the film for aficionados of the original. All I can say to those disappointed souls is to give it a while, watch the original again, allow the music to wash over you, and let the old feeling come back.

The soundtrack was playing recently while I was browsing in a competitor's store, and my heart and mind went right back to that closing reel of outtakes. Give it another chance!

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Short of Amazing
Review: The original shorter release will go down as one of the best movies of all time. The longer one is only worth seeing to see the unfathomable transformation of a melancholy almost beautiful work of art to a sad testament of a sinful, selfish race of dysfunctional elders and personal decisions. Though both have truth in them, the long version is more like a 3 star movie that the director can't clarify the main theme/s or there are too many to experience as a viewer.

The short movie is the ultimate cinema expression of the mentor, mom and young man's sacrifices to fulfill the ultimate growth and expression in what area/art form you love and are gifted at.

The startling difference between the two cuts is the stark transition of the loving self-sacrificing mentor into a selfish, bitter man, living his dream through the young man and playing God, sacrificing the young man's life and relationships in the small town. This transition of the hero of the first version is very hard to take for those who saw the short version first as myself. The mother of the young man's girlfriend reinforces this theme of older adults doing what they think is best for their children/proteges. Parallel themes are often powerful, but in this case too much outrage for the viewer to take. I would like to hear from anyone who saw them in reverse order to see if the old man can be seen as unselfish after the long version.

It is also a poignant example of an elder leading their loved protege to a place they can fullfill both their dreams or maybe even as the long version shows the elder's dreams.

They have done us a great favor packaging them together, but I would watch the short version 2 times then the long once and then I would never watch the long one again.



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Summary: An evocation of love and memory
Review: Is this the ultimate film about lost love? Guiseppe Tornatore explores the nature of love, its ability to flicker, burn, consume, then slip through your fingers because of a moment missed, a second's inattention ... and she's gone, and you're left with a lifetime of dreams and might-have-beens, and, occasionally, her reflection in your most private tears.

Set in a small town in Sicily, there is an autobiographical element as Tornatore pays homage to his youth. It's a setting anyone brought up in a small town or village will understand - a place of certainties, of warmth, or safety, of claustrophobia. Here we find young Toto (Salvatore Cascio), waiting, still believing his father will return from the Russian Front. He's too sleepy to be an altar boy - he spends his nights at the local cinema, watching the films and pestering Alfredo, the projectionist (Philippe Noiret).

The local priest runs the cinema and censors it, cutting out any pornographic images such as kisses. He notably fails, however, to censor Left-wing messages or to rob the films for their political content. Toto watches Jean Renoir and Charlie Chaplin. It's an evocation of the fascination of the cinema, the whole town packing the theatre each night to laugh, cry, cheer, and share experiences and passion. It's an intimate world where the public and the private overlap and live in harmony.

Toto longs to be a projectionist - Alfredo reluctantly trains him. The boy loves the cinema, loves its romance and power. At one point, Alfredo projects a film outside onto a white wall, so people locked out of the cinema can see it. It is one of the magical moments of cinema: I can watch this again and again and the magic remains fresh!

Toto grows to adolescence as the town's projectionist. The old cinema has burned down, the new one is glitz and glamour, no longer within the control of the Church, but run for profit by a speculative outsider, a man from mainland Italy. Toto knows his father will never return, that he lives only as charred memories. He is taking pictures himself, now, and his attention is captured by a beautiful newcomer, Elena (Agnese Nano). He is confident and adept at everything to do with the cinema, but inept at expressing his love for this girl.

When he is called up to do his national service in the army, Toto loses touch with Elena. It is his baptism into a world beyond his small town, a real world beyond the safety of the cinema screen. But the army cuts him adrift, leaves him alone. He doesn't fit in the way he fitted into his community ... and now he cannot go back. Alfredo tells him to leave town, to follow his talents, his dreams, never to come back. The central irony of the film is Alfredo's insistence that Toto should not be made a slave to nostalgia - memories should be liberating, enlightening, should be the fuel for the mind, not a mawkish prison for it.

And so the film starts with Toto, now a successful, renowned film-maker in his own right, being given the news of Alfredo's death. Can he return? His home is the scene of so much love, of so much loss. He has been prepared to wait for love all these years ... or, at least, to try to escape from it - he has a string of failed relationships. Surely his home will simply rekindle the pain of loss?

Here is nostalgia as a motivating force in life, as cherished memory. Here we have love - and the loss of it. The joy, the pain, the anticipation, the dreams. This is a film which will make you cry, make you laugh, fill you with hope ... and trigger a few memories.

The "Director's Cut" restores the 51 minutes raped from the film during its first US release. Why did they do that? Most of the cuts are at the end, robbing the film of its conclusion, its meaning, its depth of emotion! The cut version is magnificent, the restored version more so. Could the American film industry not understand emotion? Were they determined to impose their definition of a happy, or at least cerebral ending? Was it an ironic take on the priest cutting out the naughty bits?

If you can, try to watch the shorter version first. Then watch the restored version. It will double your enjoyment of a magnificent piece of cinema. "Cinema Paradiso" will stir your emotions. Watch it with hanky in hand ... and be prepared to laugh loud and cry openly.