Movie: Cinema Paradiso

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the scene i chose is the ending scene from an italian movie called Cinema Paradiso. It’s one of my absolute favorite movies of all time! Its about a famous filmmaker who  returns back to his small Sicilian town after an old friend dies. the course of the movie is reflects on his life after he left his war torn town. His escape from everything happening in his childhood was the cinema in their small town, Cinema Paradiso. The theater was owned by an old man named Alfredo, who took Salvatore under his wing, teaching him about films and feeding his love for the cinema. The church in their town forbid Alfredo from showing any films with kissing or sex, so he would cut them out of the film rolls. 

Now grown and very successful, Salvatore's mother calls him to inform him that Alfredo had passed and Salvatore flying from Rome back to Sicily for the first time since he left. 

This scene is when he is given a film canister that Alfredo left for him. He plays the film and its every kissing scene that he cut out from the films over the years. Salvatore begins the tear up as he relives his childhood and remembers how Alfredo instilled the love of cinema in him. Alfredo was the one who saw potential in Salvatore and urged him to flee Sicily, make something out of himself. my favorite quote from the movie is when. Alfredo tells Salvatore “Get out of here! Go back to Rome. You're young and the world is yours. I'm old. I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I want to hear others talking about you. Don't come back. Don't think about us. Don't look back. Don't write. Don't give in to nostalgia. Forget us all. If you do and you come back, don't come see me. I won't let you in my house. Understand?” Its just heartbreaking that he tells him to forget us all.

I love that in this scene it goes back and forth from Salvatore to the movie screen. You can see all the different emotions that Salvatore experiences through out the film; happiness, sadness, joy, surprise, etc.

 Lighting in the scene was rather dark because its in a theatre, but when the movie comes on, the scenes are light and happy. The camera sometimes pans to behind Salvatore, so you watch him watch the film.

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I don't know how to explain it but Cinema Paradiso is one of those films that doesn't feel like a movie, it feels like a story you are watching unfold. Its beautiful and heartbreak, but the ending gives you some sort of solace. The music in the movie was created by Ennio Morricone and Yo Yo Ma, its absolutely amazing. Its so melancholy and sweet sounding. It makes you feel also nostalgic, even though you've never experienced anything close to what the movie is about.