Rent Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut (1988)

Bitter-sweet Comedy - and a Homage to Cinema - Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut review by AndyM

I stumbled on this while searching for Cinema Paradiso when I first joined up after Amazon had bought up, and then closed, Love Film, getting rid of one of their sources of competition. I enjoy foreign films, because they give insights into a different culture, with different customs, values, and sense of humour. Often, foreign films deal more with relationships, and emotions, rather than the Holywood diet of "action", and so are more my kind of film. This film also portrays the importance of cinema in the social life of a small town before the days of TV and the characters are all bound up in the local cinema, the "Cinema Paradiso", and the action is interspersed with clips from old classic films that the towns-folk somewhat rowdily enjoy. There are side issues, making comedy out of the strange discord between the hot-blooded passion of Italian romantic love, and the prudery of the Roman Catholic Church, which furnishes a rather amusing ending. There is also the story of the relationship between Alfredo, the projectionist, and Toto, the cinema obsessed boy, and also Toto's life story, growing into manhood, and middle age, and his one true love.

I found this a very engaging and amusing film, even if a little poignantly sad, in parts. It is well worth watching.