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Cinema Paradiso (1988)
'A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.'
The film projectionist warns the boy that the life of film is no life at all, and that he will become isolated from the world as he watches movies 100s of times over. But the boy falls under the spell of film and escapes into a world of movie fantasies and that's what we see...the older director looking back at his boyhood and seeing the town and it's people as if they were characters in a film.
The boy loses himself into a world of movies and by that ruins his own life. Cinema Paradiso warns us not to live inside a dream, and that, the illusion of cinema is so strong that one can live a lie, instead of living a life.
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Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (original title)
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writers: Giuseppe Tornatore (story), Giuseppe Tornatore (screenplay)
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
Genre: Comedy Drama
Language: Italian
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writers: Giuseppe Tornatore (story), Giuseppe Tornatore (screenplay)
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
Genre: Comedy Drama
Language: Italian
'A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.'
When Cinema Paradiso was over and the credits rolled...I was sure I hated it, due to the over abundance of quirky cuteness and oodles of nostalgia...But then a funny thing happened, I put those images of the grinning boy and quaint Italian village aside and I started to think about the underlying theme of the movie. Some might describe this as uplifting and get misty eyed from the warm tale of a boy who loves the magic of movies and grows up to be a successful director and that is what the film shows you...but it's not what it's truly about. Those happy coming of age aspects hide the devastating truth from plain sight, and in that truth lays the films greatness.
'when dreams become more important than reality'
The film projectionist warns the boy that the life of film is no life at all, and that he will become isolated from the world as he watches movies 100s of times over. But the boy falls under the spell of film and escapes into a world of movie fantasies and that's what we see...the older director looking back at his boyhood and seeing the town and it's people as if they were characters in a film.
The boy loses himself into a world of movies and by that ruins his own life. Cinema Paradiso warns us not to live inside a dream, and that, the illusion of cinema is so strong that one can live a lie, instead of living a life.
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