‘Cinema Paradiso’ revels
in joy and power of movies
■The friendship between
a boy and an old man grows
through a shared love of film
FORGOTTEN FILM
‘Cinema Paradiso’
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Salvatore
Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin,
Antonella Attili, Enzo Cannavale
★★★★☆
By Mason West and Rebecca Wilson
Oregon Daily Emerald
The world of foreign cinema is
shamefully overlooked by Ameri
can movie-goers. The only hope
foreign movies have of gaining
widespread American attention is
by receiving an Oscar nomination.
Then, when we rent movies, we
can see those honors on the cover
and it will entice us to rent it. That’s
pretty much what we did, and it
worked out just peachy.
“Cinema Paradiso” won the Os
car for best foreign film in 1989
against such competitors as “What
Happened to Santiago” and “Jesus
of Montreal.” The film is from Italy
and is thus performed in Italian,
surprisingly enough. But the subti
tles are yellow — the best subtitle
color — so you don’t have to worry
about not being able to read them.
The movie is about the impact of
one cinema on a small post-World
War II Sicilian town. The town’s
only source of community enter
tainment is the ramshackle Cinema
Paradiso. The movies, mostly
American, break up the monotony
of the depressed villagers’ lives.
However, there isn’t too much to
stir them up because the town
priest has all the steamy scenes re
moved before public viewing.
Mason — It’s like biting into a
Twinkie and not finding any cream,
filling.
Rebecca — Or like when your
parents said they were taking you
to Disneyland, but they took you to
Nebraska instead.
Salvatore, or ‘Toto,’ is a mischie
vous urchin, as well as the village
altar boy, and he secretly watches
the forbidden scenes. This creates
hell for Alfredo, the theater’s pro
jectionist. Alfredo is played to per
fection by Philippe Noiret, who is
best known to American audiences
for his portrayal of Pablo Neruda in
“II Postino.”
Despite Toto’s hyperactive per
sonality, he and Alfredo eventually
strike up a deep and lasting friend
ship as Alfredo teaches him the
craft of movie projecting. The film
is set in the 1940s, and it is impor
tant to understand that back then
projectionists needed to constantly
attend the film because it was in se
vere danger of catching fire. As luck
would have it, one night the film
does go up in flames, along with
the theater and Alfredo’s eyesight.
The theater is rebuilt and Toto,
being the only person with the nec
essary skills, manages the projector
throughout his childhood and ado
lescence. In this new era of the Cin
ema Paradiso, the kissing scenes
stay in the movies, and new com
ponents are added to the movie
watching “experience.”
Mason — Yeah, Regal Cinemas
should looking into a merger with
an escort service of some kind.
Rebecca — Hmm ... the movie
and prostitution industries in one
convenient location? Well, it cer
tainly worked in Sicily.
But this “paradise” isn’t for Toto.
Alfredo tells him that he is destined
to break free of the monotony and
repetition of small-town life. Toto
takes the advice and doesn’t return
until years later when he is in
formed of Alfredo’s death.
This nostalgic movie is cool on
the basic principle that Italian is an
elegant language. If they were to say
“I stink of rotten tomatoes” in Ital
ian, it would sound romantic and
sexy. It is even funnier when you
see John Wayne, dubbed in Italian,
saying “I’m off to Oregon!”
Here are some other quotes that
sound better in Italian:
“By God, they’re kissing!” — the
ater patron
“I won’t watch pornography!” —
priest
“Everyone get out! This is my
plaza! ” — village idiot
“Go work in Germany, you and
your Stalin!” — villager
Rebecca — Italian is an exclama
tory language.
Mason — Yeah, and there sure is
a lot of hitting in movie. Good to
see that the Italians embrace their
own stereotypes.
But humor aside, it is easy to
think highly of foreign cinema be
cause we don’t have a good frame
of reference for the dialogue (see
above paragraph). Still, the acting
in this movie is excellent on all ac
counts, especially by the young
To to.
Mason — Why do other coun
tries always have better child actors
than we do?
Rebecca — I hear they genetical
ly engineer them.
Also, in keeping with the stan
dards of foreign film, the cine
matography is beautiful — some
thing the bulk of American film has
only recently caught up with. But it
is the heartfelt story, not the images,
that make this movie a pleasure to
watch.
For the true movie lover, there is
little more exciting than watching a
movie about how great movies are.
It’s some kind of self-indulgent
thing that is very common among
the snooty movie-types who watch
lots of foreign films.
. Editor’s note: Rebecca Wilson is
a former Pulse editor and currently
freelances for the Emerald.
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