Customer Reviews

Cinema Paradiso [Import]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For me, there is no movie in existence that compares with Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso. It is beyond cinema; it is nothing less than pure art -- painting, music and poetry --in its most sweepingly beauteous form, the soul of which is weakened in attempt to convey here through words. Others before me have reviewed this work of genius, and from them you can take the plot, but if you want to know what this movie is really about, you must see it and only then will you be captivated and beguiled.

I lived with the older, shorter version for over ten years and had no idea I would be even so much more moved with the longer, more recent, uncut version.

Even if you're not one to enjoy foreign films, make a point of seeing this one. This movie is truly a modern classic. It slowly endears itself to you, and the ending is beautiful -- leaves you with a lump in your throat that you just can't shake.

Also noteworthy is the score, which is easily one of the best filmscores of all times. There's no way you CAN'T like this music -- pick up the CD and I guarantee it will become one of the permanent CDs in your 5-disc player.

Cinema Paradiso is one of the best films I have ever seen. However, I recently bought the New Version on DVD and was completely disappointed with it. The original plot and version were what made the film so good, the new version is too much. It tells too much of what happens afterwards and makes the most heart-warming character, Alfredo, seem like a bad guy. A terrible dissapointment, buy the original if you want to purchase this film.

This review is for the "new version." If you are like me and absolutely have to watch the new version no matter what, then I suggest not reading the ongoing. On the other hand if you don't mind peeking into the new version before purchasing the DVD, read on.

The 51 extra minutes in the new version is devoted to the rendez-vous of Toto with Elena -- Toto's first love, whom he met as a teenager -- in their later years. These scenes are inserted around the scene in which Toto converses with his mother after returning home from Rome after 30 years. In brief, Toto runs into a young lady who surprisingly resembles the young Elena; he pursues her and finds out that she is indeed the daughter of Elena. Toto meets with Elena and talks about days long past...

Many minutes of the extra footage are wasted on Toto trying to find out how he and Elena missed each other on the day Toto departed for Rome. Equally if not longer minutes are spent on explaining how all that happened. It turned out that on the day of departure Elena did come to see Toto at cinema paradiso, albeit a bit too late. She greets Alfredo instead. Alfredo persuades her to allow Toto to leave. As had been portrayed in the original version, Alfredo sees a great future in Toto, and for this he asks Elena to understand. He pretends to Toto that he did not hear from Elena.

I am tempted to make an intellectual argument that, by creating an additional character -- the old Elena -- important to Toto, Tornatore had made the plot of the wonderful original messy (Remember the scene where cinema paradiso gets blown up? The poignancy of that scene gets lost due to the additional footage). However I won't use this argument. I was disappointed by the fact that Alfredo had to be reduced to a liar, whereas in the original Alfredo had remained the one who cared for Toto the most, the one who believed in Toto the most. Ok, ok, I admit that I am attached to Alfredo. But if you weren't, you wouldn't be reading this to begin with, would you?

There are stories better left untold. I had no concrete examples of this saying till I watched the new version.

If you are like me, you'll watch the new version regardless.

What would possess a director to take his award winning film and add 51 meandering minutes to it? Ego? Greed? I bought this edition because I thought it included both the old and new versions (the jacket is a bit misleading...), I was sadly mistaken. By the end of this film I knew more about these people than my own family and I felt as if I'd been watching them in "real time". There were no thoughts left unspoken, no questions left unanswered, wrapped up nice and tight like an episode of "Murder She Wrote". I only hope that Quentin Tarentino doesn't decide to add an extra hour to "Pulp Fiction" to explain what was in the suitcase...