Movie Review: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988)

This has become one of my favorite films. Watched it last night again. I had seen it before a time or two and remembered liking it. Then we bought the DVD with the additional footage that was pruned from the original release. That edited original release is what won the film the Best Foreign Language Film at the 1989 Academy Awards. It's a beautiful piece of cinema and Giuseppe Tornatore's direction is brilliant. The score is absolutely wonderful as well.

The story takes place in postwar Italy, in a tiny Sicilian village, and is told via flashback. It focuses on the bonding of one little boy named Salvatore DiVito ("Toto") and a projectionist at the Cinema Paradiso named Alfredo, who becomes a wise father figure to the child, Toto having been left a war orphan. Toto becomes fascinated with movies and spends hours watching and being mentored by Alfredo.

You watch as Toto grows from little boy to a young man in love with the beautiful, unattainable Lina, to an adult man, coming home to attend the funeral of his friend and mentor Alfredo as well as meeting up again with his love Lina. The original edited version focuses heavily on the relationship between Toto and Alfredo. But what of the romance of Toto and Lina? Well in the new version, with the additional footage, you get some closure. It gives more heft to that part of the story which I think makes it a more complete film, and almost like an entirely new movie. The additions make the movie close to three hours long.

I won't give away too much more because I want you to experience it for yourself. Don't be afraid of it because it's a foreign film. Runs a gamut of emotions. It moves you, is filled with humor, is utterly charming and is a movie I'll bet you'll fall in love with, too. Get the Italian, with English subtitles, by the way.