Yet there are very few that I can relate with for each stage of my life. There is problem no other film that does this as much as Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso.
Paradiso is a film that won many of the most prestigious awards including the Oscar for Best Foriegn Language Film, BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, and the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the film. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary Arrow Academy released a special version of the film on BluRay making its US Home Media Premiere is the 174 minute Director's Cut.
So this marks the first time I have seen this film outside of its International Cut at 124 minutes.
Synopsis: Salvatore is a successful man who lives in Italy. Salvatore receives a call from his mother in Sicily asking him to come home. Salvatore's other relatives don't think he will, but his Mom thinks he will because of the mention of the name Alfredo.
Flashback to World War II Sicily, Salvatore is a young, annoying, and curious boy who has a love for film. He sneaks into the local theater to watch the films as the local priest previews any film that will be showing in this theater. The priest gets ultimate say in what scenes will get cut.
Salvatore curious in this process sneaks up to the projection booth to watch the process in person. In the projection booth is Alfredo the theater's projectionist for years. Alfredo comes across as a bitter old man similar to Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men.
Alfredo doesn't seem to appreciate Salvatore's curiosity and willingness to touch anything without permission. Alfredo makes a promise to Salvatore that he can have all the film clips Alfredo was unable to splice back in, but he has to promise to leave the clips there and never come back up to the booth. That is the start of strange, but beautiful friendship.
Salvatore will come to the theater and watch the crowd's reactions, while Alfredo gets to watch Salvatore grow up and eventually become a father like figure to Salvatore since his dad is missing. Alfredo eventually starts showing Salvatore how to operate the booth, make cuts, and while at the same time giving him life lessons.
One day a fire breaks out and Alfredo becomes blind and the only person who can operate the booth is a young 10 year old Salvatore. Salvatore is given the job as projectionist in the upgraded theater and continues this for years.
Flash forward about 7 years Salvatore is a teenager in a new stage of life. He has fallen inove with the new girl in town Elena. Yet her family disapproves of the relationship and forbids her from seeing him. Yet that doesn't stop them from trying to get together. In decisions, that will ultimately lead to Salvatore asking Alfredo for relationship advise in his darkest hour. Advise that will effect the rest of his life.
It's present day and Salvatore arrives back in his hometown. Salvatore spends the rest of his time trying to tie up loose ends and questioning did he make the right decision to leave all those years ago. A decision that only he can judge once he has all the information he can obtain from the people in his past who affected his life as a kid and young adult.
BluRay Review: For this being my first time watching the Director's Cut, I can honestly say this is the must watch version of the film. The cut spends almost 60 minutes on each stage of Salvatore's life. What that means for the viewer, is you get to see more of Salvatore's backstory a larger focus on his relationship with Alfredo and his love Elena. Honestly most of my favorite scenes from this film comes from the 1st third of Salvatore's story. The performance from Salvatore Cascio as Salvatore and his screen chemistry with Alfredo portrayed by Phillipe Noiret, is pure cinematic gold. It's like Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson, sure they are friends yet the friendship can get rocky at times because of the age gap. I love that I get to watch more of that relationship. That is what is great with this release the film finally feels complete.
As far as the release itself what can I say, but it is different from the Lionsgate release of the film on BluRay. The Lionsgate release seemed to have richer and brighter colors as well as less grain. This is not uncommon for studios to do they tend to give releases a color bump and grain reduction through digital means to give that film a bit of pop in your face. Studios do this for many reasons the main reason is they are tying to appease a mass audience who may not understand the grain is supposed to be there.
Arrow is a video distributor different from your big studios. Yes they are going to go in and clean up the film from the best negative they can get their hands on removing thousands of instances of dirt, scratches, and fallout. Arrow will even do a color correction themselves and a grain reduction. Yet it will be a minor grain reduction if they feel the grain might get accentuated for them at home display. The color correction is done to make sure the scenes are uniform and look proper.
So what you have here while the colors are darker with this release is a much more natural presentation purists and cinephiles will enjoy over the Lionsgate release. Both the international cut and directors cut have the same video quality so if you are not in the mood for the 3 hour version you can watch the 2 hour version on this release.
Arrow Academy finally gave the love to Cinema Paradiso that both the film deserved and the US audiences deserved to see.
This release gets a 10/10
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