Cinema Paradiso (4 Disc Deluxe Edition Box Set) [1989]

Customer Reviews:

Stolen kisses.......2007-12-05

If Nuovo Cinema Paradiso isn't one of your favourite films, you probably haven't seen it.

With the Paradiso serving as the focal point for a small Sicilian village, its changing sense of community and values beautifully realised and mirrored through the changing cinematic trends, few modern films have so many wonderful moments - the village priest censoring movies with his hand bell ever at the ready; a villager asking another what a rolling title says only to find out that he's illiterate too; the young Toto acting out a film while he holds a discarded strip of celluloid to the light; that great final montage... the list could go on for ages.

Still a deeply emotional experience, some of the film's most moving moments are its most understated, such as the young Toto editing out a newsreel reference to war dead in Russia to save his mother's feelings or the sadness in Alfredo's face as he watches the villagers in the square marvel at the film he shows on a townhouse wall.

But the version that won its way into the hearts of millions of filmgoers and critics alike in 1990 was not the original film. Originally called Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, it made its bow in Italy at 156-minutes to appalling reviews and bad business before being cut by half an hour for the foreign markets and taking the Cannes Film Festival by storm and later causing a minor storm of controversy after it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (since then, films re-edited from their original version are no longer eligible for the award). Such was the film's success that by the mid-90's, Giuseppe Tornatore was able to not only restore the deleted footage but add other scenes he was forced to cut in a near three-hour director's cut. While some of it is merely additional shots or, in a couple of cases, redubbed dialogue, the film's last act was massively extended as the grown-up Toto (Jacques Perrin) meets his first love Elena (Brigitte Fossey, cut out of the two hour cut entirely) and learns what really happened and gets the chance to give their love story a proper ending...

Is it a better film? In many ways yes, though it is a much darker, more melancholy one with more of a sense of loss and missed opportunities. The cuts had the effect of making sections of the film give in to nostalgia, which this version undercuts more adeptly. This is more about the terrible price that the love of cinema exerts - Alfredo's sight, Toto's one true love. When Salvatore returns from the village at the end of the picture, he has no-one to return to or anything to return to but a film award, the glittering prizes of work devalued as he realises he has no life but film. One of the all-time great endings, the stolen kisses at the end of the film now seem that much sadder and carry a much more real and painful sense of loss.

This recent 4-disc UK boxed set from Arrow is at least the fifth time round on DVD for Giuseppe Tornatore's perennial, though if you already have it you may be able to rationalise buying it yet again on the grounds that it was worth it for the CD of Ennio Morricone's hauntingly emotional score or the extras. Containing remastered transfers of the two-hour overseas theatrical version and the superior three-hour version (both now bearing the original title Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, unlike previous issues) as well as a disc with a good documentary on Tornatore's Sicilian films, a half-hour retrospective on the making of the film featuring Phillipe Noiret and a grown-up Salvatore Cascio, a featurette on the kissing sequence, stills gallery and director's cut trailer, it's certainly the best presentation of the film to date - but with the original two-and-a-half hour version that played to disastrous business in Italy still unreleased, don't be surprised if somewhere down the line there'll be a sixth issue `ultimate edition' to get people to buy it all over again.

Magical film presented in a super box set.......2007-07-01

Many box set deluxe editions are something of a disappointment, the barell being well and truly scraped for a morsel of an extra which will justify the repackaging and re-labelling of a film. Not this one. This edition offers both the original theatrical release, the far superior extended cut, a disc of great extras and the CD of the film's memorable score. The packaging is also quite innovative with a nice double page opening type of thing, not one I have seen before. I really don't think there is anything more to ask for in a de-luxe edition.

In terms of the film, it is masterful and touching with just the right mix of emotion throughout. The film is beautifully shot and the director's eye for detail and attention to the images are evident in almost every shot. The acting is brilliant, especially from the two lead actors.

This package is worth double the price and it is a great presentation of one of the best Italian films ever made.

Sublime cinema.......2007-03-29

This film is one of my favourites of all time, and I'm glad it's finally been done justice with this... a huge improvement to the picture and sound compared to the previous version, and the extras are fantastic - really informative documentaries and features, and it's almost worth buying just for Morricone's stunning soundtrack!

I can't rate this highly enough, and it's obviously been lovingly put together... recommended to all!

A stunning bittersweet experience.......2007-03-26

Originally released in 1988 Cinema Paradiso , is a hymn to love .Not just the love of a man for a woman or vice versa , but the love between a boy and an adult and their mutual love for a medium -cinema. It's the sort of subject matter that would normally have me running for the cinema exit so fast that I'd be outside before my chair had flipped up. But persuaded to see this at the cinema at the time by a friend I reluctantly went along. I was completely enraptured .Cinema Paradiso is a sumptuous film , funny, absorbing and moving.
The version I saw all those years ago was the truncated 121 minute rendering, foisted on the audience by a studio who thought American audiences would deem it too long. This they did by cutting off the end of the film thus robbing it of it's real emotional resonance .Even so it ,s still a magnificent movie. The directors cut restores the butchered 51 minutes and is the film as director Giuseppe Tornatore originally envisaged it so it makes more narrative sense .The cut version is wonderful but the directors cut is an absolute masterpiece. Both versions are on this DVD as well as a making of documentary and a CD version of Ennio Morricones sublime soundtrack.
An element of autobiography is surely integrated into the screenplay as Tornatore pays deference to his formative years in a small town in Sicily . Toto( an incredibly cute Salvatore Cascio) is a young altar boy who finds the whole thing a bit of a chore. He prefers to spend his time at the cinema , either watching the movies or harassing the projectionist Alfredo ( Philippe Noiret) His mother is a single parent as they both wait for his father to return from the Russian front and she struggles to contain the boys mischievous ways.
The towns cinema is a central place for the community, packed out for every screening,. Alfredo a believer that everyone should enjoy the magic of cinema even projects a film onto the white wall of a nearby building so all those locked out can see it too. The towns priest acts as a censor , viewing the films before the public and ringing a bell to let Alfredo know that a scene is unsuitable for the communal palate, usually scenes involving kissing .These Toto collects from the projectionist booths floor .
Alfredo and Toto form a bond and he trains the boy in his profession , even a tragic incident with flammable film stock that costs Alfredo dear doesn't destroy their camaraderie. Toto eventually succeeds Alfredo but his head is turned away from his love of cinema for the first time by the arrival of the beautiful Elena ( Agnese Nano) who he struggles to express his love for.
When Toto is called away for National Service he loses touch with Elena and when he returns home Alfredo tells him to leave for ever , to make the most of himself and follow his dreams .So we learn that Toto became a successful film- maker in his own right .But hearing about the death of his boyhood mentor Alfredo causes him to confront his past for the first time. Can he return home for the funeral and face all those memories of lost love and friendship. Here the film becomes a transcendent wallow in nostalgia as Toto re-watches all those snippets of the censored clips from his childhood. This is a scene so powerfully moving it has brought a lump to my throat the size of a golf ball just writing about it .Quite sublime.
A truly inspirational movie that had a dyed in the wool cynic like me gushing like the Trevi Fountain. It deservedly won an Oscar The Palme Dor at Cannes( it actually shared it with "Trop Belle Pour Toi") and a host of BAFTA,s. It's unsurpassed as a monument to lost love and the power and pull of memories , a quite stunning bittersweet cinematic achievement that will never be bettered in my opinion.

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