Cinema Paradiso

"There's no future, Salvatore. Only the past. Even what happened yesterday is only a dream, a marvellous dream. I couldn't have hoped for a better ending." ♡

The story is drawn from the director Giuseppe Tornatore's childhood memories, presented here as a series of loosely-linked episodes commemorating the importance of movies -- of art -- in the lives of people forced to manage on very little.

Everything just clicks in this movie: the drama, the comedy, the romance... the story, the chemistry between Toto and Alfredo, the wave of nostalgia, the incredible soundtrack, and that ending, so beautiful and emotional you’re not even sure if it’s happy or sad. Just pure cinema

absolute cinema

“Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt.”

—THEATRICAL CUT—

Man that was a good ass movie, like holyyyyy. Im just so glad that I’ve finally found a movie that convey my love for movies by at-least half, you heard me right ladies and gentleman, I’m stating I love movies more than Toto.

Anyways Cinema Paradiso is one helluva film, it manages to convey so much in so little, and for the last 25 minutes I was on the verge of crying. I can’t wait to watch the longer cuts at home, as I would’ve cried to it in the cinema, but I didn’t because I needed more time with someone. My only problem with this is that the old anctor playing Toto looks nothing like Toto, which made me feel a little disconnected near the final act. Also a little add on, for the first 5 minutes in my community childhood cinema, the subtitles cut off, which felt like a happy little accident.

This movie hit so close to home I am making a Vow to myself, that one day, when I have a stable career as a director, I will do a spiritual sequel to this based on my own experiences, as this hit like 4 different boxes it wasn’t even supposed to be aiming for.

To add on a bit, the way the whole story plays out with the “old projectionist mentor” and the “blue eyed girl” he fell in love with, and him working at his childhood cinema, I’d like to point out the fact that I work at my childhood cinema, love movies as a passion, are currently dating a blue eyed pretty girl, and to top it all off, my best friend at the childhood cinema I work at is an old projectionist.

1st Act 11/10 (Incredibly funny, tense, perfectly paced, hits close to home, established characters incredibly well, what the fuck is not to love?)

2nd Act 9.8/10 (The Elena part and the outside theatre was so well done I could practically kiss Giuseppe.)

3rd Act 9.7/10 (CAUSE ITS A BITTERSWEET, SYMPHONYYYYYY.)

Plot 11/10 (Literally Me.)

Soundtrack/Score 9.6/10 (Short and Sweet like Sabrina Carpenter but not mid.)

Acting 9.7/10 (Toto’s child and teen actor were genuinely incredible, and I’m kinda wishing we got more time with them, I know they have like 45% each but cmon gimme more.)

Pacing 9.8/10 (If you say the pacing in this is the reason why some don’t like it, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.)

Cinematography 10/10 (Practically perfect and indefinitely iconic.)

Character Development 9.5/10 Toto child to teen and Alfredo had me on a brink of tears, not old Toto but tbf after reading up on why he looks like that I can’t blame him much.)

Writing 11/10 (The fact it’s well written in practically every single aspect of the genre it’s portraying that being, Comedy, Romance and Drama, you’ve got to give it some props. The only other film I’ve seen do that really well is Parasite.)

Ending 9.8/10 (I can’t wait to come back and rate this higher.)

Direction 10/10 (Absolutely fucking amazing, but could’ve done a lil better with cutting it down form 3-2 hours because some cuts are noticeable that’s something was supposed to happen.)

Overall
120.9/120
A well deserved, steady, low down out of them but still on the list, Cinema Paradiso, a film I will treasure with my life, gets an incredibly earned 10/10

9/10 Can relate more than one thing in this story, absolute Cinema. When the story actually moves you in more ways than one.