For anyone new to Italian cinema, the ideal starting point is Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, (known internationally as Cinema Paradiso,) internationally renowned and winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1989.  Director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore composed this film as a bildungsroman intertwined with a celebration of the golden age of cinema.  With a cast of charismatic actors and an iconic score by Ennio Morricone and his son Andrea, Cinema Paradiso is nostalgic and highly entertaining, often sentimental, but never maudlin.

A shortened version of Cinema Paradiso was an international hit.

A shortened version of Cinema Paradiso was an international hit.

The story, which takes place mostly as a flashback, follows the childhood of Salvatore “Toto” Di Vita, a famous film director living in Rome.  We see him growing up in Giancaldo, a small town in Sicily towards the end of WWII, a precocious boy with a passion for sneaking into the local movie house, “Cinema Paradiso,” to watch the parish priest censor films.  (Every time a couple kisses onscreen, the priest’s face contorts with ire and he rings a bell, signifying that Alfredo, the projectionist, must literally cut the scene out of the film reel.)  Toto watches it all from behind a curtain and later collects the cut scenes—romances and Spaghetti Westerns and war films and fairy tales—to play with at home.  Even somebody with no interest in allusions or montages of classic Hollywood and Italian films will be enchanted by the extended shots of the Sicilian countryside and century-old stone buildings and marketplace.

While the scenes from Toto’s childhood and adolescence follow the set pattern of most male Catholic coming of age stories, (think Angela’s Ashes only with more pasta,) they are never clichéd and ultimately triumphant.  The fatherless Toto pesters his way into becoming Alfredo’s protégé, and we see him grow up to be the main projectionist at the Cinema Paradiso.  We watch the film industry evolve over the course of Toto’s teenage years while the movie house serves as a backdrop for the dramas and romances of the entire town.  More than just a form of entertainment, it serves as an escape from small-town Sicily, a window into the larger world and an excuse for the townspeople to let their imaginations run wild for a short time.

Heartwarming performances by Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio

Heartwarming performances by Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio

The only weak point of Cinema Paradiso can be found in Elena, the insipid blonde girl Toto falls in love with, who doesn’t do much of anything aside from giggle prettily, cover her face with shame, and say things like, “I love you, but my father has other plans for me.”  She’s not so much of a love interest as a foil for Toto’s hyper-romanticism and status as tragic hero.  Aside from Toto’s pining for his unexceptional girlfriend, the real relationship of Cinema Paradiso is the father-son bond between Alfredo and Toto.  Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio, the actor for 7-year-old Toto, have such an exceptional chemistry, bouncing back and forth between gruffness, compassion, mischief, and pride, that you’ll be cheering for their friendship for the entire 174 minutes of the director’s cut.  Their rapport changes as Toto grows up, but it always rings true, and the scene where Alfredo urges grown-up Toto to leave Giancaldo and never return is genuinely heartbreaking.

At the heart of Cinema Paradiso, deeper than his connection to Elena or Alfredo or anyone else, is Toto’s passion for movies, for which he sacrifices everything, and which anyone can sympathize with.  Cinema Paradiso is essentially a love song for all great movies and the men and women who devote their lives to making them.  Tornatore shot every scene with the utmost devotion and craftsmanship, making for a film that is rich in comedy, pathos, and wisdom, a sure hit for movie-lovers everywhere.