Cinema Paradiso

Life and cinema are one. A celluloid gem. (16.02.2018)

"Welcome, dear film enthusiasts, to our Cinema Paradiso and please do come in! Welcome to a celluloid world full of humour, emotion and pleasant nostalgia for the old days, when the biograph was still a miracle of the times, a visit to the cinema a social event and the projectionists rescued film strips from the fire. And when little Tornatore was perhaps secretly going to the cinema to spend his mother's shopping money while devouring every frame, and then decades later made a beautiful, moving film full of emotion." (01.08.2004)

God, I let myself be stirred again… A beautiful film, tailor made for cinephiles. It’s a little one-dimensional, but who cares when it looks so beautiful. And the music! (16.05.2010)

What Bohumil Hrabal is for us, Czechs, Giuseppe Tornatore is for the Italians. Beautiful poetics with love for the film, which almost effortlessly convinces us that life is beautiful. And successfully. (23.03.2016)

Crystal clear beauty inscribed in old celluloid. The Amarcord atmosphere of a small run-down Italian town, a cheerful storytelling style and the beautiful metaphor of human memory, inscribed in places and things... Although Tornatore is not a particularly demanding narrator (you really don't have to particularly look for a few allusions like Odysseus's dog and Ariadne's thread - just like the point, they of course come without other allegories), but he is able to empathize incredibly with his images. The camera by Blasco Giurato is also beautiful, and of course Ennio Morricone's music provides a much-needed leitmotif that is not forgotten due to its nostalgic fragility and delicate melancholy. The acting may be exaggerated in some parts, but this is certainly not the case for the key part of Alfred's "initiator" (the wonderful Noiret). To the sound of the calm tempo of the saxophone, Cinema Paradiso plays with the most fundamental questions of human existence. It does not bother with philosophical complexity, but it corresponds to the simple melancholy of a lost paradise. Not unlike the one that František Hrubín captured in Romance for Bugle. This place of pilgrimage smells of celluloid and the lost beauty of black and white hits. A film that completely wrapped me around its fingers. I can't wait to see the director's cut. (31.12.2007)

Or why it took me years to go to a multiplex. Along with the first Indy, this was the film that most sparked my love for cinema. (16.08.2004)

Just like Alfredo, I will say something to the actors on the poster, just like Salvatore, sometimes I have an almost religious feeling when entering the cinema. Every minute, a more touching testimony of an obvious film creature, where for the first time in my life, I forget how much I dislike Italian screaming naturalism. A tribute to films and cinema in an irresistibly sentimental coat. (19.07.2007)

I don't like reviews full of pathos and slick metaphorical phrases, but in this case I just can't help myself. For film enthusiasts who are in bliss at the mere sight of a filmstrip and a small glimpse of Morricone's talent, Cinema Paradiso is as delicious a morsel as Mozart's Little Night Music is for lovers of classical music. An amazing timeless story, the beginning of which had me rejoicing and putting my worries behind me, while the ending gave me a little watery eyes, which I am not ashamed of in retrospect :D The second half is unfortunately too much about feelings, but the first one is at least 7*.. :))) 95% (08.12.2013)

At first glance, it is a neorealist film like crazy, at second glance it is a bit on the nose film about how the world around a person is changing. And at the third glance, it is a beautiful film that is not only intended for film lovers, but for all viewers who can show us how beautiful a medium film actually is and how it can influent us. (01.02.2016)