Cinema Pardiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)

Fall in love with the movies

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Released in 1989, Cinema Paradiso shot the Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore into the global limelight. The movie, which was released in Italy as Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, became a huge success globally and even won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. It is ironic to think that it had a poor box office run in its native place. It is a sentimental and nostalgic movie about the friendship between a young boy and an old projectionist at a local theatre told mostly in flashbacks.

The movie takes place in Tornatore’s beloved Sicily. It begins with a successful movie director, Salvatore "Toto" Di Vitto, being informed of the death of an old man named Alfredo. Alfredo was the projectionist at the local movie theatre named ‘Cinema Paradiso’. It is revealed to us that Toto hasn’t visited his home town even once after he had left and if he decides to come for Alfredo’s funeral it would be the first time he has returned to his village.

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Upon hearing about Alfredo’s death Toto decides to come and along the way he reminisces the old times that he had spent with Alfredo. We learn that Toto’s father had gone off to fight the World War II and has been missing for some time. We later on learn that his father was in fact killed in action at the front. Toto thus is deprived of a father figure very early in his life itself and he is more than a handful to his single mother.

Toto however is mesmerized by the world of cinema. To him the various dubbed Hollywood movies that are played at the local movie theatre “Cinema Paradiso” offer a chance to view an outside world. He is so taken in by the movies that he even utilizes his milk money to watch the latest movie playing at the Cinema Paradiso. Alfredo too develops a liking for Toto and makes him his apprentice, a decision that would later save his life.

Alfredo and Toto develop a strong bond between each other. Alfredo becomes the mentor, the confidante and above all the father figure that is so lacking in Toto’s life. He helps Toto understand the various mysteries of life by quoting lines from the numerous movies he had seen.

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When Toto reaches adolescence he falls in love with the beautiful young girl named Elena. His love for her is filled with the romanticism that he has seen in his movies. He even stands under her balcony every night for days to prove his love for her. Alfredo (who is now blind as a result of an accidental fire in the projection room), out of deep affection for Toto, tells him to leave the small town and to go out into the world and make something of his life. When Elena apparently disappears all of a sudden, Toto takes the old man’s advice and sets forth to find his place in the world, never to come back again until the old man had passed away. When Toto inevitably returns, he finds the world he had left behind to have changed completely.

The one word that describes this movie is charming. Tornatore’s sentimental and nostalgic reminiscences takes us back to a time in our own life when things where much simpler. Every one of us can identify with the townsfolk’s excitement of a new movie coming to our local cinema theatres. We are taken in by the apparent innocence and growing up experiences of Toto. We are a part of the changes that sweep through the town which shown through the changes to and within the theatre ‘Cinema Paradiso’.

In fact change is one of the overwhelming themes in the movie. During the early days we see a priest acting as the local censoring authority by ordering the removal of any scene which shows kissing or romantic intimacy. Later on we see that as the theatre become more commercialized the priest’s powers are eroded and he never comes back to watch a movie at all.

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Tornatore creates a whole lot of small characters that stay with us long after watching the movie. We are not likely to forget the priest or the mad man who thinks that he owns the square or even the women who wash their hair at the fountain. All of them have their life centered round the theatre the sole source of entertainment for an otherwise bleak life. Later we see that these very same people are actually sad about missing out on the community experience of watching the movies.

The highlight of the movie is the humor and the charm that it exudes. It is unlikely that anyone would watch this movie and not reminisce something from his past that would strike a chord with his heart. It could be that movie experience that you had in your childhood, or that ever lasting experience you had with your friend or even that elusive first love. In the climax of the movie we learn that Alfredo had left behind a roll of film for Toto. It is a montage of all the edited kissing scenes from earlier on. Toto is overcome with emotion on seeing this as all his past pent up feelings emerge to the surface. Cinema Paradiso will make you fall in love with the movies all over again.

The Star Maker

The darker magic of cinema

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Giuseppe Tornatore burst into the limelight globally with his Cinema Paradiso in 1989. The start maker is one of his later works released in 1995 and was nominated for the best foreign language film academy awards in the same year. Cinema Paradiso was a nostalgic movie about the pains of growing up and the magic of cinema. It invited you all to come and fall in love with the movies. However the Star Maker showcases the darker side of being enthralled with the magic of cinema.

The movie is about Joe Morelli or Dr. Morelli as he calls himself. Morelli claims to be a talent scout for a big studio in Rome. He travels around small towns and villages of Sicily in the aftermath of World War II, promising to film the auditions of anyone and everyone who has 1500 lire to give as fee. All anyone who is interested in making big has to do is go to his tent, pay the money and enact a scene from ‘Gone with the Wind’. Morelli claims that he will sent the audition films to studio executives who would then get back to the individual whom they have selected. As he says repeatedly, he is not making any promises. But he gets the Sicilians hook, line and sinker when he gives off a list of famous actors whom he claims to have discovered.

The effect of the dream of making it big in the film world is huge among the townspeople. The townsfolk react to Morelli’s arrival as if the circus had arrived. There are large crowds around his tent who dream of the big salary and fame of making it big in the movie world. But most of the people don’t have the talent or the literacy to enact a scene from ‘Gone with the Wind’. So they begin to talk about their personal lives on camera which borders on confession.

Morelli however is a self centered man who is only interested in being remunerated for his efforts. He even takes sexual favors from a woman who doesn’t have enough money to pay for her daughter’s audition. He however begins to change when he meets a beautiful young teenage orphan called Beata. She scrubs floors at various homes and offices in town. To obtain the 1500 lire for the screen test, she strips naked in front of a local bigwig. Morelli however is taken in by the girl’s story as well as her naivety and begins to have feelings for her. She wants to travel with Morelli and get out of her present life. She believes that by making it big in the movies she will have a better life. Morelli falls in love with her and takes her along with him on his travels.

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Just when we think that Morelli has turned a new leaf, it is revealed that Morelli is in fact a fraud and fake. He was doing nothing more than selling dreams to the poor impoverished people of Sicily. From then on the movie takes a darker turn and how this revelation eventually affect the lives of both Morelli and Beata forms the rest of the movie.

I loved this movie because of the slow change in the mood of the movie. It starts off as a light hearted and sometimes poignant comedy. The confessions of various people who come and sit in front of the camera are quite funny in the beginning. Then the mood slowly changes as the movie moves along and we hear some really touching confessions. It again changes when Beata come into the picture. Her innocence and naivety makes you sympathize with her plight and makes you want to protect her. But what really shook me was the climatic portions of the movie when both Beata and Morelli’s life becomes depressingly tragic.

Tornatore shows the beauty of Sicily as well as the ugliness in the hearts of men in this movie. He shows tremendous skill in a scene which has silhouette-saturated shots of Morelli inside his tent after dark. In my opinion he gets the pacing of the movie just right and I found it thoroughly enjoyable to watch. But what really impressed me is that there was no redemption for Morelli even at the end unlike some of the Hollywood or Bollywood movies that I have seen in the past. His sins catch up with him and he is forced to suffer the consequences.

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The last sequence of shots where Morelli looks back sees all the confession that he had ‘filmed’ in his mind. All those confessions which we found to be comic earlier now take a whole new meaning. We watch it with a lump in our throat as we realize the true meaning of what the Police Officer who caught him, himself a victim of Morelli’s con, tells him, “Everybody confessed to you. They gave you their soul and perhaps they will never again. And you didn't understand a thing. They trusted you Morelli, and so did I. But all you wanted was money.” The sequence of shots reminded me of Tornatore’s famous last sequence of edited kisses in Cinema Paradiso. But in The Star Maker it evokes a totally different emotion.