Cinema Paradiso (1988)

*SPOILER FREE

Dear Cinema Paradiso,

I am writing you today with eyes full of tears and a heart full of passion. It has been a few years since we last had a drink. Much has happened and much has changed. Yet, the priest is still playing God at the movie theater deciding on what we should and what we shouldn't watch, culture and tradition still dictate who is the right person and who isn't based on class and race, and love has yet to prevail.

I still remember all the sleepless summer nights, and all the moments of joy, the moments of wild laughter, and the moments of brokenheartedness. I remember all the words you said to me, that I should move on and that the world is mine, and there's no limits for my dreams, and I should let go of my nostalgia and let the past not take hold of me.

Thank you for showing me that in the end, I shall always get what's mine. My love, my aching desire, and my peace. And that at the end of the day it will be just me and you, and the movies. And we shall do everything we please, we shall have endless sex and be carefree, and we shall make love and art, and the night shall be ours.

Until we meet again, keep rolling.

Love,

Hamzeh

...

This coming-of-age drama is one of the ultimate nostalgia gemstones in cinema history. A cinema on cinema, a love letter within a love letter. And an ending of triumph for cinema and for art.

Following Sicilian young boy Salvatore 'Toto' growing up loving the pictures and creating a special bond and friendship with middle-aged projectionist Alfredo at the local movie house named 'Cinema Paradiso'.

It is a no easy job for me to describe my favorite and most personal character in Italian cinema, my boy (and man) Toto, whether I am the man and Toto is the child inside of me, or I am merely the child and he's the man I seem to look up to!?! Toto is the mischievous, rebellious, ambitious and committed child inside of all of us variously. And the innocence that slowly loses its essence, and has to make reconciliation with one's self.

Lastly, I want to pay tribute to the immortal legend Ennio Morricone for the timeless score that never stopped echoing in my ears and vibrating in my heart.

Grab a drink, a whole lot of tissues, and you want to look for the director's cut of the film.

If Cinema Paradiso is a love letter to cinema, this, is my love letter to Cinema Paradiso.

Available to watch, rent/buy on The Criterion Collection and on Amazon/Prime Video

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