Cinema Paradiso

This movie is such a treasure and I have owned it over the years in a number of different formats.For those who love sentimentality, you are in for a delight as a successful movie director returns home after many year’s absence. Through interactions with his little, old mother, his fellow citizens of the little town and various sentimental items his mother has kept, he is transported back to his youth.Tornatore has captured a beautiful age where community and family were everything and life was simple but lovely too. He takes us back to a time we all look back on with an attachment and fond memories.Maestro Morricone’s score will capture your heart and have you in tears, especially the tracks the great violinist Stefan Grapelli plays on. Listen to those songs and you will realise you are listening to a maestro.The ending of the theatrical release is a real tear jerker and one of the most beautiful endings in cinematic history. It’s worth watching this movie if just for the ending alone.Cinema Paradiso is a terrific tribute to the movie industry and especially the Italian film industry.It is one of those movies you will watch a few times over the years and enjoy each time as much as the first time. Hopefully, your children and grandchildren will experience it too.

Cinema Paradiso is one of my all-time favorite films. It tells the story of a successful Italian movie executive who looks back on his early life growing up in post-World War II Italy. We see him as a mischievous altar boy with a love for movies, and then as a teenager who falls in love with the new girl in town. Guiding him along the way is Alfredo, the grizzled projectionist at the movie theater, who becomes a father figure to him.This is a sentimental movie, but it is not cheesy. There is both love and heartache. A love for movies oozes from every pore of this film. In fact, it may be the best movie ever made about movies. The final sequence is one of the best scenes ever filmed--it brings me to tears every time. Cinema Paradiso is currently rated #73 on the IMDB Top 250. It won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as a slew of other awards.The quality of the Blu-ray transfer is mostly good. Most daytime scenes are richly detailed. There are a couple shots, however, that are very poor in quality. They looked like VHS. Thankfully, they were brief. Nighttime and indoor scenes vary in quality. Some are sharp, while others are grainy (although never to the point of being gritty). The sound varies as well. The dialogue at the beginning of the movie sounds like it was being uttered in a tin can. But this was soon corrected. Thankfully, the moving score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone comes through well.My old DVD version had both subtitles and a dubbed version that was actually pretty good. This Blu-ray edition has only subtitles, however; the dubbed version is missing. Nor does it have any special features other than the original theatrical trailer. Thankfully, this disc did not include the director's cut, which I hate. It adds about 30 minutes of material that wraps up the love interest portion of the film, but there is a reason that it was cut from the US theatrical release. It turns Cinema Paradiso into a different movie, and that is not a good thing.Parental Advisory: This movie is rated PG for a few instances of sexuality, mostly implied. There are a couple of very brief scenes that show upper female nudity (they are clips of old black-and-white movies) and one scene that shows bare buttocks. There is some mild violence. In a couple of scenes, a mother slaps her child repeatedly. There is also a scene where a teacher is punishing a student for poor performance in the classroom. A scene involving a fire might be intense for younger children.I highly recommend Cinema Paradiso. It is one of the best films ever made. It is a "must see." If you are considering an upgrade from DVD, the improved video clarity makes it worth it. But the loss of some of the special features, particular the dubbed version, is a bummer.

Okay, this is important, really important:1. If you possess a romantic bone in your body and you haven't seen Cinema Paradiso, you absolutely need to. It is, for many of us, one of the most beautifully romantic films ever made. A love story - and also a love letter to the magic of movies - it possesses a romantic grandeur which encompasses in its great sweep of a tale love, joy, pathos, the exhilaration of youth, and a good deal of melancholic nostalgia. You'll laugh, you'll cry... and you'll absolutely fall in love with the last scene, which is one of the most wonderful endings to a film ever.BUT2. If you *haven't* seen the film before, PLEASE watch the original version first. Trust me on this... first impressions are really important, and if you watch the "new" 3-hour version first you'll never be able to enjoy the original as you would have if you'd been new to the story.Why do I say this? Two reasons. First, the new version adds 51 minutes, mostly towards the end, and in doing so takes what was a pretty much perfect film and transmutes it into something that is diluted and at times more mundane. Second and more significantly, the additional footage "explains" what actually happened between Salvatore (the central character) and the love of his life, a girl named Elena who in the original version disappears after her parents (who disapprove of the romance) leave the area. Why is this bad? Well, some will argue that it's not... but for me, the "true" story (the one you didn't get in the original version), by dispelling the mystery, significantly weakens the romance. A girl who disappears and leaves her lover forever wondering and cherishing her memory is poignant but crushingly romantic in its perpetual mystery; a film that reunites the two characters in middle age and reveals a sad twist to their story is - again, for me at least - a lot less magical.The additional parts in the new version come across rather like a sequel to the original that demystifies and drags down the brilliance of the original story.As i said, others may disagree, and if you're one of those people who loves this new version and what it reveals, more power to you. But if you've never seen Cinema Paradiso, see the original first, and immerse yourself in this gloriously romantic film, which also features one of the most beautiful of soundtracks (by Ennio Morricone). Then, if you want, see the longer version and decide for yourself. You'll certainly have some lingering questions answered, but you may well find yourself wishing that you hadn't.

Arrived quickly! Would buy from them again

Love this movie. A classic.