Cinema Paradiso

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Movie
German title Cinema Paradiso
Original title Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
Country of production Italy , France
original language Sicilian
Italian
Publishing year 1988
length Cinema: 118 minutes
Director's Cut: 168 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Giuseppe Tornatore
script Giuseppe Tornatore
production Franco Cristaldi
Giovanna Romagnoli
music Ennio Morricone
Andrea Morricone
camera Blasco Giurato
cut Mario Morra
occupation
synchronization

Cinema Paradiso (Original title: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) is an Italian film from 1988, written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore . The film tells the story of the people of a village in Sicily and their cinema from the 1940s to the 1980s.

action

The film deals almost entirely through flashbacks with the childhood of the film director Salvatore di Vita in the fictional Sicilian fishing village of Giancaldo. The cinematic narration begins with a scene in Rome in the 1980s. Salvatore, an internationally successful director, returns home and learns from his much younger friend that his mother has called from Sicily to convey the news of the death of the old projectionist Alfredo. The film uses this event on the one hand to return the now grown-up Salvatore to the place of his childhood so that he can attend the funeral; on the other hand, death triggers an imaginary journey into the memory of the time when Salvatore was still a child (“ Toto ”) was.

Salvatore remembers his childhood in the late 1940s, most of which he spent as a half-orphan in the local cinema, the “Cinema Paradiso”. After his fatherly friend, the projectionist Alfredo, lost his eyesight in a fire in the cinema, the little boy was allowed to work in the rebuilt cinema, the “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”. As a teenager, he falls in love with Elena, daughter of a wealthy banker. However, the love comes to an unhappy end when Elena's family moves away. They arrange to meet at the cinema, but Elena does not show up. After Salvator's military service, Alfredo urges him to move to Rome to make something of his life. Alfredo forbids him to return or visit him.

Only after 30 years does Salvatore return to Giancaldo. He and the place have become different. This is particularly clear in the building of the “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” itself, which is vacant and is to be demolished to make way for parking spaces. Alfredo, however, left Salvatore a remnant of the cinema and its history, a film role with strung together kissing scenes, which he had to cut from the films over the years at the request of the village pastor.

background

Although Tornatore does not deliver an autobiographical film, Cinema Paradiso is linked in several ways to his own career. For one, the general living conditions of the film character Salvatore and the director Tornatore are similar. Both spent their childhood in Sicily, both left the place of their childhood and youth and both turned their love for film into a profession. On the other hand, this relation takes shape in the fact that Tornatore chooses his Sicilian hometown, Bagheria , as the film location.

In addition to the narrative level that describes Salvatores growing up, the film also tells the story of the cinema, not only of the building in Giancaldo, but also that of film and watching films. Tornatore uses the scenes with film screenings again and again to pay homage to classics of film history and to tell and comment on his story with the help of these overlays. Among other things, he shows scenes from Renoir's night shelter (1936), Fellini's Vitelloni (1953), Chaplin's The Knockout (1914) and Visconti's Die Erde quebbe (1948). Because of these inter-film references, critics treat Cinema Paradiso as a “nostalgic, post-modern film”.

Director's Cut

In addition to the theatrical version, a 50-minute longer Director's Cut was made. This is not just an "extension" of the film; rather, he massively shifts the weighting of the content. While the relationship between Toto and Alfredo forms the central element in the theatrical version, the long version focuses on the love for Elena.

After his return to Giancaldo and Alfredo's funeral, Toto discovers a young girl who immediately reminds him of the young Elena. He follows her and finds out that the girl is the daughter of his childhood sweetheart. After initial doubts, he brings himself to call Elena and asks her to meet him. She denies him this wish, but later changes her mind and there is an emotional reunion. Salvatore wants to know why she didn't come to the Cinema Paradiso as agreed. She explains to him that she was there, but just at the time when he was looking for her. So she met Alfredo, who asked her not to see Toto anymore, because he believed that this love could endanger his future. Alfredo tried to convince her that it would be best to leave Salvatore behind. But she was unsure and left a message for Toto, which he did not find.

This expansion of content gives Alfredo's character another interesting trait. Through his actions Toto turned into a successful filmmaker, but he was denied the love of his life. Thirty years later, Toto and Elena get together again and spend a night together. Salvatore wants to revive her love, but Elena decides to live with her family. In her opinion, there is no future for her love, only the past. So Salvatore returns to Rome and looks at the film role Alfredo left him.

criticism

“A nostalgic film that tells the story of the cinema as a place of experience and a haven of dreams as well as the fragmentary history of Sicily. It ties in with the idea of ​​cinema as the 'art of emotions' and develops a fascinating force in this regard. Sentimentalities are always broken by fine humor, gentle irony and pointed jokes. "

- film service 24/1989

"Cinema Paradiso is a fun, warm, sentimental celebration of going to the cinema, using cinema as a metaphor for an era, a lost innocence and an irretrievable past."

- Philip French (2013)

Awards

Cinema Paradiso won in 1990 the Oscar for best foreign language film . Giuseppe Tornatore won the “Grand Jury Prize” at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989 and was honored with the European Film Prize. Philippe Noiret also received the European Film Prize for best European actor for his portrayal of Alfredo.

synchronization

role actor German voice actor.
Alfredo Philippe Noiret Wolfgang Hess
Father Adelfio Leopoldo Trieste Norbert Gastell
Salvatore Di Vita Jacques Perrin Hartmut Reck
Spaccafico Enzo Cannavale Mogens von Gadow

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gaetana Marrone: The New Italian Cinema. In: Elizabeth Ezra (Ed.): European Cinema. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, ISBN 0-19-925571-7 , p. 234.
  2. Millicent Joy Marcus: After Fellini: national cinema in the postmodern age. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (Maryland) / London, 2002, ISBN 0-8018-6847-5 , p. 99.
  3. ^ Philip French: Philip French on Cinema Paradiso . In: The Guardian . December 2, 2013, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed July 8, 2020]).
  4. Cinema Paradiso. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on April 19, 2020 .