Personal response to movie analysis and interpretation

Cinema Paradiso

When I was child, I saw the world through my father's eyes and the lens of his camera. It was as if I were watching a movie, yet acting in the movie at the same time. I traveled the world, hopping from one country to the next, and protected under my parents' loving wings. At the age of 15, our global spin ended. Soon I would leave the nest and be on my own.

Perhaps memories of these fledgling years arose and stirred me when watching Cinema Paradiso. Rarely has a film touched me as this one directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Why should I be surprised? This movie in so many ways reflects my own life. The relationship -- friend, mentor, father -- between Salvatore (ToTo) and Alfred resembles that between my father and me. Salvatore sees the films and life, itself, through his own eyes and also through those of Alfredo.

Throughout Cinema Paradiso, Alfred nurtures Salvatore's love for moving pictures. He plants a seed that grows first into a young boy who becomes a projectionist, then a struggling filmmaker, and finally a successful director.

More important, Alfredo prepares Salvatore to go out into the world to discover and experience life for himself. Yes, pain will come. So will joy. As in the movies, life does not always proceed as planned. Many times, the script changes midstream, and the scene becomes unexpected. To be an artist, it is necessary to bare one's heart and soul and feel all the possible human emotions.

When the whirlwind stopped and we came down in Manhattan, my parents prepared me to meet the world on my own. They enrolled me in a school that provided the final grooming for my future career in film. Instead of getting my foundation in cinematography by watching scores of movies as Salvatore, I became a novice videographer and took college preparatory courses in photography and film.

One of the most poignant scenes of Cinema Paradiso occurs when Alfredo makes Salvatore promise to leave the town and make a life for himself elsewhere:

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 Life isn't like it is in the movies. Life is much harder." Then he commands Salvatore: "Get out of here. Go back to Rome. You're young. The world is yours. And I'm old. I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I want to hear others talk about you."

This dialogue couples with a shot of Salvatore actually going on his way. Here, the camera captures several images of Salvatore's hands embracing his mother and his sister. He then leans over and says "goodbye" to Alfred, who grabs him and whispers: "Don't come back. Don't think about us. Don't look back. Don't write. Don't give in to nostalgia. Forget about us."

Salvatore says, "Thank you, for everything you've done for me." They embrace. Alfred whispers, "Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth, when you wee a little squirt," and pushes his apprentice and son away. A tracking shot from the train shows Salvatore's point-of-view. Then the camera watches his reaction shot as the train pulls away from town.