AAA review: Cinema Paradiso (1988), Beautiful But Sad Italian Story

“Cinema Paradiso" is an excellent work directed by the famous Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore in 1988. The film expresses the endless thoughts of life in the heart of the film with artistic expression. At the 62nd Academy Awards ceremony, he won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. This movie tells a story about movies and memories, recording the emotional memories of an old man in the small town of southern Sicily, Italy, and Salvatore (, a child who grew up here. During the Second World War, due to family conditions, many 8-year-old children had to do some work in the church. The projector of the town's cinema, Alfredo, often shows movies in town. But because of an accident, the entire cinema was burnt down. Although Alfredo was rescued from the fire, his eyes were still burned. Then, a lot of work gradually took over the film screening. After that, he picked up the camera, filmed the movie, and walked out of his hometown to become a famous filmmaker. It was not until 30 years later that many of them returned to their hometowns, and the once brilliant cinemas were severely damaged and will soon be dismantled. A lot of sisters handed him a bag of old Alfredo's leftovers, which was a film clip that was clipped and reconnected in the past. From this, many memories and thoughts followed.

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Unlike traditional directors, director Tornatore has always deliberately moved away from the traditional Hollywood production model. He inherits the Italian postmodern style and presents his works with a beautiful and almost unforgettable lens language and narrative style. Including human nature, questioning the fate, and reflecting on all aspects of modern society, this also makes his film always touch the softest and warmest corner of people's hearts, allowing viewers to resonate emotionally from the inside out after watching. The film uses flashback narrative structures to evoke memories from the perspective of El Salvador. Therefore, the film has always brought people a continuous nostalgic atmosphere from the beginning. The director chose a lot of his childhood memories of what he saw and heard. From a lot of perspectives, everything was given a novelty and warmth. This method of filming laid the foundation for the film, which is warm and beautiful style.

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"Cinema Paradiso" is a nostalgic film about the collective experience of a generation of film. The director makes the audience immersed in the movie through the depiction of the collective face. The film has a lot of personal desire for the movie, and the director once recalled the movie era into the work. The film uses lifelike scenes to describe the era. Under the director’s lens, the film projection theater in the story is like a “paradise” built by people on the earth, which dispels the difficulties and troubles in real life. At the same time, the use of the scene, color and light is very accurate. He tried to pursue a dreamy aesthetic experience, and the audience can always feel the beautiful memories of the water. In the director's rich audio-visual language, the charm of light and shadow can travel through time and space, and the emotionally-colored lens can be well integrated with profound text. It can be said that from the plot to the character image, the film is a good presentation of the perfect combination of art film and commercial film by director Tornatore in the filming.

Movie Trailer from youtube
On the other hand, looking at the family from the film seems to be a less obvious clue in the emotional structure of the whole movie. Because when the audience watches the movie, the most concerned may be the memories of the old Alfredo and the emotions of a small amount. However, the understatement of family relationships does not mean that the director completely abandoned the importance attached to it. On the contrary, it has been carrying and promoting the continuous development of other emotions and relationships in the film. It has a very important role in the story, and the various emotions in the film about joy and sorrow constitute each view. The filmmakers are enough to participate in the memory of life. Throughout the film, although this is a new attempt by director Tornatore's realism style, it is easy to see that in his series of works, it shows a very strong humanistic feelings. The director's mastery of the subject matter of the film, as well as the clever use of the art of picture and narrative, are very good. The director has brought us new enlightenment behind the story, awakening people's inner desire for human nature and beauty. On the other hand, it also allows people to re-examine the essential meaning of life. The variety of emotional beauty and human nature of the film touched generation after generation, making this "Cinema Paradiso" a rare iconic work in the director Tornatore's life.

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11216-nuovo-cinema-paradiso?language=en-US
Critic: AAA