Cinema Paradiso [1989] [DVD]

Giuseppe Tornatore's beautiful 1988 film about a little boy's love affair with the movies deservedly won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Philippe Noiret plays a grizzled old projectionist who takes pride in his presentation of screen dreams for a town still recovering from World War II. When a child (Jacques Perrin) demonstrates fascination not only for movies but also for the process of showing them to an audience, a lifelong friendship is struck. This isn't just one of those films for people who are already in love with the cinema. But if you are one of those folks, the emotional resonance between the action in Tornatore's world and the images on Noiret's screen will seem all the greater--and the finale all the more powerful. --Tom Keogh

Wide Screen
DVD 5
Italian
Region 2
Dolby Digital Italian
Dolby Digital
Interviews
Scene Selection
Stills Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
Star And Director Filmographies
English

Guiseppe Tornatore's timeless masterpiece and 1989 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film.

Cimema Paradiso traces the relationship between the fatherless Salvatore nacknamed 'Toto' and Alfredo the projectionist at the Paradiso, the local cinema in their tiny Sicilian village. Toto adores the gruff but loveable Alfredo and makes the cinema the centre of his universe. A loving, evocative and warmly nostalgic celebration of the magic of movies, the film climaxes with a seductive collection of the classic screen lisses from the films of Chaplan, Fellini, Visconti and others censored by the local priest, compiled by the faithful Alfredo.