Credo - I Believe in Cinema (Cinema Paradiso (DVD))

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Cinema Paradiso (DVD)
Date:	12/08/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, artistic, accessible

Disadvantages: Some may be put off by the subtitling

Foreign language films are rarely top of my watch list although I have seen some cracking examples. Invariably those that I like tend to the arty side of cinema. Occasionally there'll be a foreign language breakthrough like Amelié which brings this genre to the attention of a wider audience whereas films such as Tous les Matins du Monde will remain forever in the background.

Cinema Paradiso is, however, a film that is both accessible and beautiful and cannot fail to be appreciated by anyone with a love of cinema. That it is subtitled is far from distracting, the photography taking care of the story for the most part and one is quickly subsumed into a world that is all encompassing.

Post-war Italy was a very different place to the society in which we live now. Cinema was true escapism and heavily censored by the church. The act of going to the cinema was akin to going to church with the same sense of occasion and importance. Through a series of flashbacks we follow the life journey of a young boy (Salvatore aka Toto) obsessed by the movies and the life that they breathe into the town. Cinema Paradiso is romantic without being soppy and manipulates the audience's emotion with complete disregard to decorum. There's a warmth to the film despite the audience's emotions going though the whole gamut of feelings; funny, sad, anger and love are all experienced and leave one feeling that this was indeed a clever film.

The plot is simplicity itself - a fly on the wall style reminiscence of a man who, as a boy, would abscond with the milk money in the hope of catching a moment on the screen. A boy who became obsessed with the cinema and who, in turn made it his life. The mystique of the cinema remains to this day and, for this reason alone I think the film works. We can all empathise with the feelings yet still know nothing of the circumstance.

The culmination of the story sees us torn between sadness and pure joy as some of the best cinematic moments of years gone by are played in succession, a very irreverent freeing of the soul.

The characterisation in the film is first class, the only weakness perhaps being the adult Salvatore (or Toto) with whom we get little opportunity to know. The direction and acting serve to draw the audience into the story and you genuinely feel part of the action. That you finish the film wondering just what has passed in the preceding 2 hours is, I think, testament to the quality of this piece of art.

The soundtrack for the film is superb. One would expect no less from cinematic giants Ennio and Andrea Morricone (more oft associated with the spaghetti Westerns). It serves to enhance rather than detract from the pictorial image.

Cinema Paradiso has been released in two formats, a shorter version used for the cinema and a longer "director's" version that is worth seeking out as it draws far more together in terms of the lost years over which we look.

For some this film might seem a tad too sentimental, to simplified in its look at life, for most I suspect, it will draw you in and delight. It's a picture of a regret which has as much relevance today as it would have had at the time. Grow with the film, be subsumed by it, and go away in peace...

... but don't switch off before the end of the very clever credits!


Italian with English Subtitles

Summary: A piece of cinematic history in more ways than one