I guess I have Italian films on the brain. What Bicycle Thieves and Neorealism did for the Italian movie industry in the 40s, Cinema Paradiso revived in the 80s. Considered one of the greatest films of all time, Cinema Paradiso is a movie about youth, realizing your destiny, nostalgia, and the power of movies. Basically, it’s a full-length version of that Nicole Kidman AMC ad, but actually good (Side note, but I need people besides just my wife to know this: Rewatch that ad sometime. She goes on about “we come to movie theaters to live, laugh, love, blah, blah, blah” and then she says, “and to go someplace we’ve never been before”, and when she says that, it shows a movie clip on the screen. Originally, it was a clip of Jurassic World, but recently, it changed to Avatar: The Way of Water. You know…places we’ve already been before! How are you going to say a line like that in all seriousness and then show clips from sequels?? End of rant).
Anyway, Cinema Paradiso is about young Salvatore, a boy in a Sicilian village post-World War II who gets into all sorts of trouble. By visiting the local theater, Cinema Paradiso, Salvatore develops a deep love of movies. Alfredo, the projectionist, encourages Salvatore’s passion and lets him sit in the projection booth with him as the movies play. Alfredo acts as a friend and father figure to Salvatore, who lost his father in the war, and lets him watch as Alfredo cuts out scenes of kisses and hugs from the films because the owner of the theater, the local priest, demands it despite audience reactions. One night, Cinema Paradiso catches on fire with Alfredo inside. Salvatore rescues him, but Alfredo is left permanently blind when reel of film explodes in his face. Cinema Paradiso gets rebuilt, and a teenaged Salvatore becomes the new projectionist, having been taught by Alfredo. He also purchases a camera and films random things around the village, including a girl named Elena. Salvatore falls head-over-heels for Elena, but her father does not approve, and eventually her family moves away. After a brief stint in the military, Salvatore is convinced by Alfredo to leave the village and never return, and instead become a filmmaker, and so he does. Thirty years later, he returns for Alfredo’s funeral and discovers a gift Alfredo left for him after he passed: a film reel of all the romantic scenes cut from movies being shown at Cinema Paradiso.
What a picture! The ending where Salvatore watches the film reel Alfredo left him is considered one of the greatest film endings of all time, and with good reason. It’s a montage of passion, love between man and woman, sure, but a love for how movies can make us feel. And it just goes to show that spying on people is creepy, but if you do it with a movie camera, it’s sweet and beautiful. I think that’s the message of the movie, but if that’s not it, then nostalgia for one’s childhood is. Nostalgia is a pretty hot commodity these days. It’s a selling point for movies and television, remakes of video games, increasing viewership on Facebook pages, and getting you to buy a cable plan with MeTV. Nostalgia brought back Dunkaroos from extinction, so I have surely benefitted from it. But it’s all surface-level, remember-the-good-ol’-days-type stuff. Cinema Paradiso begs you to look deeper. Yes, there’s the good, but there’s bad too in every childhood, and it’s up to you to make peace with the fact that both helped shape who you became.
Bonus Review: La La Land
Another movie about nostalgia, just geared towards old Hollywood musicals, this time. La La Land was a surprise hit from the guy who made J.K. Simmons more than just the Peanut M&M – a jazz musical, with all original songs choreography, would be a tough sell in our modern days, but after the success of Whiplash, writer-director Damien Chazelle got carte blanche to make his dream project. La La Land is an ode to the Hollywood of old and an amalgamation of Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort.
Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are two struggling artists that run into each other pretty frequently in one of the largest-populated cities in the country. Sebastian dreams of opening his own jazz club and tickling the ivories every night, while Mia wants to be a leading lady. They bond over their mutual lack of luck and quickly fall in love. While together, they push each other to pursue their dreams, but even with the added support, it doesn’t get any easier. Mia writes a one-woman play, which tanks, and Sebastian joins his friend in a pop band for the steady income but hates it. Their differing schedules keep them from seeing each other very much. After a fight, Mia goes home to Nevada, but after she leaves, a producer who caught her play wants her to audition for a role. Sebastian drives out to Nevada to convince her to come back and audition, and she successfully gets the part. Five years later, Mia is a successful actress and married with a child, but not to Sebastian. She and her husband go out for a date night and accidentally come across Sebastian’s jazz club. Between songs, Sebastian and Mia’s eyes meet, and for a brief eight minutes, they imagine what their lives could have been like together before returning to reality, briefly smiling at one another, and going their separate ways.
Sometimes, dreams don’t work out, and sometimes you have to choose which dream to make a reality. Not everything gets tied up in a neat little bow like in the movies. La La Land is a contradiction in how it fawns over movies and then demands you believe that things don’t always work out despite what the movies tell you, but it’s an enjoyable one to watch. It has all the flair and color of its inspirations, the music is surprisingly catchy, and Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone seep with chemistry (but if you’ve seen Crazy, Stupid Love, you already knew that). A love letter to a dead genre, La La Land fits right in on the shelf with the musicals that came before.
Destined for Mediocrity 