The story of a lifelong affair with the movies, Cinema
Paradiso tells of a young boy in a small Italian village, where the only
pastime is a visit to the movies at the Cinema Paradiso. Enchanted by
the flickering images, Salvatore yearns for the secret of the cinema's magic
and is overjoyed when Alfredo, the projectionist, agrees to reveal the
mysteries of moviemaking to him. As their friendship grows, so does Salvatore,
growing older with his good friend and the movies he adores, learning from both
of them how to court his first love, and dreaming of one day making movies of
his own. When the day comes for Salvatore to leave the village and pursue his
dream, Alfredo makes the man promise to never look back, to keep moving
forward. And so he does, for thirty years, until the day a message arrives that
beckons him back home to a secret, beautiful discovery that awaits him there.
If you love movies, it's impossible not to appreciate Cinema
Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore's heartwarming, nostalgic look at one man's
love affair with film, and the story of a very special friendship. Affecting
(but not cloying) and sentimental (but not sappy), Cinema Paradiso is
the kind of motion picture that can brighten up a gloomy day and bring a smile
to the lips of the most taciturn individual. Light and romantic, this fantasy
is tinged with just enough realism to make us believe in its magic, even as we
are enraptured by its spell.
Most of Cinema Paradiso is told through flashbacks. As
the film opens, we meet Salvatore (Jacques Perrin), a famous director, who has
just received the news that an old friend has died. Before departing for his
home village of Giancaldo the next morning to attend the funeral, he reminisces
about his childhood and adolescence, thinking back to places and people he
hasn't seen for decades.
As a fatherless child, Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio) loved the
movies. He would abscond with the milk money to buy admission to a matinee
showing at the local theater, a small place called the Cinema Paradiso. Raised
on an eclectic fare that included offerings from such diverse sources as Akira
Kurosawa, Jean Renoir, John Wayne, and Charlie Chaplin, Salvatore grew to
appreciate all kinds of film. The Paradiso became his home, and the movies, his
parents. Eventually, he developed a friendship with the projectionist, Alfredo
(Philippe Noiret), a lively middle-aged man who offered advice on life,
romance, and how to run a movie theater. Salvatore worked as Alfredo's unpaid
apprentice until the day the Paradiso burned down. When a new cinema was
erected on the same site, an adolescent Salvatore (Marco Leonardi) became the
projectionist. But Alfredo, now blind because of injuries sustained in the
fire, remained in the background, filling the role of confidante and mentor to
the boy he loved like a son.Cinema Paradiso's first half,
with Salvatore Cascio playing the young protagonist, is the superior portion.
The boy's experiences in the theater, watching movies and listening to
Alfredo's stories, form a kind of journey of discovery. As Salvatore cultivates
his love of movies, those in the audience are prodded to recall the personal
meaning of film. It's an evocative and powerful experience that will touch
lovers of motion pictures more deeply than it will casual movie-goers.
Once Salvatore has grown into his teens, Cinema Paradiso
shifts from being a nostalgic celebration of movies to a traditional
coming-of-age drama, complete with romantic disappointment and elation.
Salvatore falls for a girl named Elena (Agnese Nano), but his deeply- felt
passion isn't reciprocated. So he agonizes over the situation, seeks out
Alfredo's advice, then makes a bold decision: he will stand outside of Elena's
window every night until she relents. In the end, love wins out, but
Salvatore's joy is eventually replaced by sadness as Elena vanishes forever
from his life.The Screen Kiss is important to Cinema Paradiso. Early
in the film, the local priest previews each movie before it is available for
public consumption, using the power of his office to demand that all scenes of
kissing be edited out. By the time the new Paradiso opens, however, things have
changed. The priest no longer goes to the movies and kisses aren't censored.
Much later, following the funeral near the end of Cinema Paradiso,
Salvatore receives his bequest from Alfredo: a film reel containing all of the
kisses removed from the movies shown at the Paradiso over the years. It's
perhaps the greatest montage of motion picture kisses ever assembled, and, as
Salvatore watches it, tears come to his eyes. The deluge of concentrated ardor
acts as a forceful reminder of the simple-yet-profound passion that has been
absent from his life since he lost touch with his one true love, Elena. It's a
profoundly moving moment -- one of many that Cinema Paradiso offers.
Is Cinema Paradiso manipulative? Manifestly so, but
Tornatore displays such skill in the way he excites our emotions that we don't
care. This film is sometimes funny, sometimes joyful, and sometimes poignant,
but it's always warm, wonderful, and satisfying. Cinema Paradiso affects
us on many levels, but its strongest connection is with our memories. We relate
to Salvatore's story not just because he's a likable character, but because we
relive our own childhood movie experiences through him. Who doesn't remember
the first time they sat in a theater, eagerly awaiting the lights to dim? There
has always been a certain magic associated with the simple act of projecting a
movie on a screen. Tornatore taps into this mystique, and that, more than
anything else, is why Cinema Paradiso is a great motion picture.
© 1996 James Berardinelli
Cast: Philippe
Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Antonella Attili,
Pupella Maggio, Agnese Nano, Leopoldo Trieste Director: Giuseppe
Tornatore Producers: Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli Screenplay:
Giuseppe Tornatore Cinematography: Blasco Giurato Music: Ennio
Morricone Duration: 2:03
It took a long time to discover the importance of imaginative editing in films. In the beginning, the film was considered as one continuous whole and not as an assemblage of fragments. For instance, the French filmmaker, George Melies and his American counterpart Edwin Porter, set their cameras in front of the action and let them record things as they happened.
Montage served a different purpose and has several meanings in the context of film and is not exclusively used to refer to Soviet Montage. It is used as a synonym of editing. In Hollywood cinema it means to edit a concentrated sequence using a series of short shots as brief transitions to create the effect of the passage of time or movement over large distances or for expressionistic moods and representation of symbolic meanings. Contrary to the conventional styles and movements, the soviet filmmakers was stepping away from a common narrative structure and adapting what has come to be called "Soviet Montage". This new theory of editing was invented by Sergei Eisenstein and then adopted by a few other Russian filmmakers. Eisenstein, however, was the one who discovered its potential and first put it to work to make the people in the audience think whatever he wanted them to think of. “Thematic” or Soviet Montage was achieved arranging striking juxtapositions of individual shots to suggest an idea that goes beyond meanings within an individual shot. It is called collision montage as sequences create significant effects mainly through editing. Its rejection of the forms and conventions of the dominant Hollywood entertainment cinemas have inspired many filmmakers to challenge the styles by creating films which emphasizes on the editing which aims to shatter the illusionistic storytelling and seamless continuity cultivated by Classical Hollywood. (Read more.)
As a new industry grew, practitioners raced to understand this amazing new medium and how it worked. Back then there was no precedent and there were no rules about how a shot should look or how a piece should be edited together. Sound familiar? But the early filmmakers did such a good job of understanding the medium, by the end of the 1920s the basic tenets had been laid down – and are still used by us today. (Read more.)
