Cinema Paradiso: Tornatore’s Homage to Film, Essay Example

“Cinema Paradiso” pays tribute to the director’s love of film and movie theaters. In the movie, Salvatore’s love of film clearly mirrors that of the director in a nostalgic tale located in Sicily. Tornatore succeeds in achieving his purpose of demonstrating the ways in which movies can bring happiness, love, and romance, as well as heartbreak to audiences of film lovers. In Tornatore’s town, the cinema is the center of the social world in the small village. The film evokes many memories of childhood as well as growing up in the universal panoply of small towns where people pay just a little too much attention to each other’s business. Salvatore takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster of love and heartbreak that culminates in the beautiful final collection of movie kisses that is bound to reduce even the most emotionally controlled viewer to tears.

The main subject of “Cinema Paradiso” is the relationship between life and film, and it revolves around the emotional rather than the intellectual lives of its characters. In the film, Toto loves movies during his childhood, and he grows up to become a great film director; the message is that in life, people can accomplish their dreams, Toto being the ultimate personification of that theme. Another important subject in the film is home, demonstrating both the benefits and disadvantages of remaining in the place where one has his or her roots. Toto has perhaps his most important relationship with Alfredo, the projectionist at the cinema, and as long as he remains in his little village, that connection becomes the most inspiring and sentimental attachment he forms. On the other hand, his village is the site of his romantic heartbreak with Elena and it is only after leaving his home that he is able to become successful in his chosen career, a film director.

A central element of the film is the aspect of change: Toto grows up in a poor family, fatherless, but ultimately finds a father figure in Alfredo and achieves financial success as a film director. His personality, from his young age, becomes heavily influenced by the relationships he has and those which surround him, as well as his love of film. With the onset of success, both for Toto and for others in the town, simplicity is replaced by a need for more complex forms of excitement; wealth changes people and produces complications that are not necessarily desirable. A major character of the film is cinema itself, which provides the townspeople with the world outside their imaginations and which brings them wonder and awe.

This is an ambitious film because it seeks to examine many issues, both significant and trivial, on a micro and macro level: individuals are endearingly portrayed, the community itself is filled with all sorts of characters and the ambience is characteristic of so many Italian films that are set in small villages and highlight the quirks of its people in a loving way. The film succeeds on many levels because it involves a diverse group of themes that are touching, relatable, and universal: friendship, love, heartache, ambition, success and failure, and so many others. One of the ironies of this film is that although the point of it is to honor cinema and those who love films, when it was released in the United States, nearly an hour of the film was cut out because of the perception that American audiences would not be interested in such a long movie. Considering that this film focuses on the magic and love of films, it is sad that this awe of the power of movies and the theaters in which they appear was not projected onto an American audience until much later, when the full version of the film was finally released in the United States.