Cinema Paradiso is a movie all about what movies are all about, if you get my drift. Its romantic, its nostalgic, its funny, its soppy, and it should touch a chord with everyone whos ever loved the experience of settling down in their local cinema and waiting for the curtains to open and lights to fade.
The film tells the story of Salvatore, an Italian bloke whose love of all things cinematic has shaped his life ever since he was an ankle-biter. We see him in the films first segment as a cheeky kiddy-winkle (played by Salvatore Cascio) who spends his mums loose change on catching whatevers on at his local village movie theatre. Eventually, he grows to form a firm friendship with the places ageing projectionist Alfredo (Phillipe Noiret) and, by the time hes moved into his teenage years and is being played by Marco Leonardi, the old man has effectively become a father to him.
It effectively becomes a familiar coming-of-age yarn as our protagonist loses his virginity, falls in love (in that order), experiences rejection, the pleasure and pain of coupledom, and this being Italy the all-out inconvenience that is national service. Then, in the films third and final section, he returns to his home town after a lengthy absence, this time played by Jacques Perrin and, somewhat disconcertingly, looking a bit like Robert Kilroy-Silk.
This directors cut version has been criticised in places for shifting much of the focus away from Salvatore and Alfredo and onto his relationship with adolescent sweetheart Wotshername. Where the original offering was left more or less open-ended, this one adds almost an hour of once-deleted material onto the final third, and pulls the point of the whole thing away from the cinema centrepiece in an attempt to add some degree of closure to Salvatores romantic anguish. The problem is, as those of us whove seen the original know, the extra stuff just isnt necessary: the film was already a classic.
Thankfully, the somewhat self-indulgent level of directorial tampering doesnt detract too much from what is a tremendous piece of film-making. Its touching, sets itself extremely high standards and, given that much of it looks a lot like an extended Dolmio ad, might even make you feel a little peckish. Its a film thats just like mama used to make.