Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988)

As I’m a movie blogger it won’t be a shock to find out that I love movies, but it might be sometimes difficult to explain exactly what that feeling is to someone who doesn’t love them as much. I now no longer need to find words for it, I just point to this film. If you don’t understand that love after watching this then I’m sure you will never get it.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso tells the story of Toto, a young boy who grows up being obsessed by movies. The small town he lives in only has one cinema (Cinema Paradiso) and the whole town seems to go to the movies all the time. Toto constantly tries to learn everything he can from the projectionist Alfredo and get pieces of film so he can look at them at home. As he grows up he gets to know Alfredo better and the two spend a lot of time together allowing Toto to get the hang of operating a projector. A lot happens in his life, but it all is connected to film, even a girl he falls in love with.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso is a long movie, but it could have been even two hours longer and I still would not have minded. I love the way it paints the picture of a post World War 2 town where everyone goes to the cinema. The church decides which parts of movies need to be cut (which is basically all the kissing) and once the movie is fit for release both kids and adults enjoy looking at the big screen. As you are watching this you get a feeling of how this cinema brings people together and bonds them. It’s an era where there still is no television competing for attention and the big screen seems to have lots more magic than it does now. This movie has a love story, but in itself the movie is a love story about movies and the effect it can have on those who watch it.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso plays with your emotions as it looks at relationships through various decades. It manages to transform the town and the people living in it as they get older. After watching it I had the feeling that I knew what kind of life Toto lived. This movie played with my heart-strings and because of that it’s a movie I love and will be revisiting a lot in the future. Go see it if you haven’t done so yet.

Score: 10