A review of Cinema Paradiso
When you see a classic film, you know in your bones that it is. There is no room for doubt. Sensitively directed and beautifully shot, Cinema Paradiso is a film that wonderfully captures a young boy’s passion for cinema. It traces a filmmaker’s journey through life - his loves and his hopes. The finished product calls out to any film lover because it is about cinema itself - the one thing that binds Salvatore, the protagonist, Giuseppe Tornatore, the actual director of the film, and us, the audience.
In a small village in Sicily, little Salvatore regularly visits the projectionist’s booth at the local cinema, enthralled by the images he sees flickering on screen. Salvatore endears himself to Alfredo, the projectionist, who takes him under his wing and makes him his apprentice. As they together witness the passage of time and the changes it brings, Salvatore makes the transition into adolescence and youth. We learn he is unwittingly forced to make a sacrifice by Alfredo in the name of his future, and he leaves his native village. When he returns to attend Alfredo’s funeral 30 years later, a successful filmmaker, all his questions are finally answered, and so are ours.
As we watch the final credits roll on screen, we realise that Cinema Paradiso makes a larger philosophical point. When Salvatore finds out the truth he is clearly sad, but ambiguous about whether he would have wanted his life to come out differently. Not many of us, perhaps, would.
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