A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 25 wins & 32 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBy the end of 1956, Italy had 17,000 movie theaters, the most in Europe.
- GoofsWhen Toto is young, the films that Alfredo gave him catch fire. They burn and ruin the only picture that his mother had of his father. When Toto is a grown up, this "burnt" picture is hanged on the wall totally unharmed.
- Quotes
Alfredo: Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born. But now, no. It's not possible. Right now you're blinder than I am.
Salvatore: Who said that? Gary Cooper? James Stewart? Henry Fonda? Eh?
Alfredo: No, Toto. Nobody said it. This time it's all me. Life isn't like in the movies. Life... is much harder.
- Alternate versionsOriginally presented at the EuropaCinema Festival in a 173-minute edition. It was there released in Italy at 155 minutes; after a very poor box office performance, the film was pulled out of circulation and shortened to 124 minutes. After it won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes festival and the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it was re-released in Italy on video first in its initial 155 minutes cut and then in the original 173-minutes director's cut.
- ConnectionsEdited into Lo schermo a tre punte (1995)
- SoundtracksNuovo Cinema Paradiso (Titoli)
Written by Ennio Morricone
This story follows the life of Salvatore. He's born in a tiny Italian village and we see him as a little boy in the 1930s, an adolescent in the 40s-50s and an adult in the 80s. It basically is about his love of movies and the one true love of his life--Elena. They are in love but she comes from a rich family and he lives in poverty. How can they be together?
POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILER IN NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!!
The cut movie in the US excised a lot of the Elena subplot and concentrated on Salvatore's love of movies. There's nothing wrong with that, but Elena disappears quite suddenly. This full version explains what happened between them and fleshes out the characters more. It also reveals a crucial surprise at the end.
The performances are all fantastic--especially by the gorgeous young actor playing Salvatore as a teenager. Elena is also stunning. The film has beautiful cinematography and a haunting music score. The 3 hours flew by for me. I didn't want it to end!
So...beautiful music, attractive stars, good acting, compelling story and some incredible romantic sequences. A must-see!!!!
Bring plenty of Kleenex though--I cried a least 5 times!
- preppy-3
- Jul 1, 2002
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Cinema Paradiso: The New Version
- Filming locations
- Cefalù, Palermo, Sicily, Italy(film screening in the port, Elena's house at Via Umberto I°, 3)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $5,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $12,397,210
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $16,552
- Feb 4, 1990
- Gross worldwide
- $13,020,497
- Runtime2 hours 54 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1