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Essay on Cinema Paradiso
Introduction
Cinema Paradiso is an Italian film by Giuseppe Tornatore about one man's love affair with film and the story of a very special friendship. The film is about the memories of Salvatore (nicknamed Toto), a boy who grew up fatherless in a small Sicilian village in the forties and fifties. Salvatore has made a success of himself directing films and he has returned home to attend the funeral of an old friend who was a projectionist at the local cinema when Salvatore was a child.
The film presents flashbacks of Salvatore's childhood adolescence memories of people and places that he has not seen for decades. The role of adult Salvatore is acted by Jacques Perrin, while the young Salvatore is played by Salvatore Cascio (Berardinelli).
The adult Salvatore reminisces about how as a boy he used to abscond with the milk money to buy admission to a matinee showing at the local theater, a small place called the Cinema Paradiso.
At the local cinema, Salvatore or Toto watched all kinds of movies from many different sources including Akira Kurosawa, Jean Renoir, John Wayne, and Charlie Chaplin. These films taught him and also made him appreciate cinema. Over a period of time, he developed a friendship with the grizzled old projectionist who takes pride in his presentation of screen dreams for a town still recovering from World War II, Alfredo played by Philippe Noiret, whose funeral he has come to attend.
He reminisces about how he used to work as the unpaid assistant to Alfredo and how the local father from the Church insisted on all kissing scenes in the movies be deleted and used to view the movies prior to screening. Toto also remembers the advice and guidance that he used to receive from his friend Alfredo and how....
