In Film: 'Cinema Paradiso'

Strange, how time flies. I've had this film lying around since 2006, and somehow put off watching it until today, a day spent lying in bed, slightly feverish, and watching film after film. This method appears quite effective, together with eating a lot, I'm sure I'll be well tomorrow.



So 'Cinema Paradiso' is several things, but most of all the story of a boy called Salvatore, growing up in a village. He falls in love with cinema and becomes one of those person's in the back, rolling the film for everyone. It's the kind of job, if you ever worked in a cinema, that everyone there dreams of doing. His father is lost in the war, but he is semi-adopted by Alfredo, the original projectionist, who teaches him the craft. And things ensue from there.

Some great conversations in the film, such as when Alfredo tells him about how places change after you come back from a break.

Living here day after day...
you think it's the center of the world.
You believe nothing will ever change.
Then you leave for a year or two.
When you come back, everything's changed.
The thread's broken.
What you came to find isn't there.
What was yours is gone.
You have to go away for a long time...
many years...
before you can come back and find your people.
The land where you were born.
But not now. It's not possible.

And a great romance, with a moment which is definitely inspired by all the classic romances in the world. But, I'll leave you to find out about it…