Cinema Paradiso

"Cinema Paradiso" is a movie about people watching movies. The story is about a boy named Salvatore "Toto" Di Vita who befriends the local theater's film projectionist. The movie takes you through the life of Toto, from a boy to an adult and the village surrounding him. You see how movies play an important part in this community, whether it is dating, killing, and even prostitution, everything revolves around this theater.

You first see Toto as an adult living in this big apartment with this young girl in his bed. So you can tell he is rich and maybe famous. His mother calls and tells him that Alfredo died. Then Toto gets upset and he reflects on his childhood. We flashback to when he is a young boy and you find out that Toto has a love of films and wants to work the projector with Alfredo. Alfredo befriends Toto and teaches him how to use the film projector. But one day the film catches on fire and causes the theater to burn down. Toto tries to help Alfredo but Alfredo gets burned and loses his vision.

Since the theater is destroyed nobody knows what to do, but a man named Cicci who recently won the lottery rebuilds the theater. What is funny about this theater is previously the other theater was run by a priest, any kissing scene was cut from the movie but since it is under management every kissing was kept. While as a teen working the projector, Toto meets a girl who he falls in love with right away. She originally does not love right away but he tells her that every night he will stand outside her window and wait till she changes her mind. After New Years Eve Toto leaves and Elena comes after and they two date. But Toto goes into the army and Elena goes to college and the two separate and never see each other again.

This destroys Toto and is probably the reason why Toto dates many young women and has no real relationship with them. When Toto comes back from the army Alfredo tells Toto to leave the village and never return no matter what. So Toto listens and lives his live and never returns. When Alfredo dies, Toto goes to his funeral and it is the first time he is back since leaving. Everything has changed, the theater is abandoned, the place is more populated and built up, Toto almost does not recognize the place. The theater is set to be destroyed and built into a parking lot. When the demolishing is set everyone who ever saw movies in the place was there. You see how this one place had such an impact on this community.

One nice thing is that Alfredo left Toto a film real to watch after Alfredo died. Toto takes the film and watches in his screening room. I think he is a famous director but there is no real hint what he does for a living, just it has to do with movies. So Toto watches the movie and it turns out that it is all the kissing scenes that were cut from the movie from the original theater. This is a nice thing and shows the relationship between Toto and Alfredo and how it was really close.

Overall it is the best foreign film I have scene in this class considering the ones I previously saw. I would give it a 8.5/10 and would recommend this movie to anyone, it is a good story and a touching one at that. Let me also mention this won the Academy Award for best foreign film.