Cinema Paradiso (Director's Cut - The New Version)

Cinema Paradiso offers a nostalgic look at films and the affect they have on a young boy who grows up in and around the title village movie theater in this Italian comedy drama that is based on the life and times of screenwriter/director Giuseppe Tornatore . The story begins in the present as a Sicilian mother pines for her estranged son, who left many years ago and has since become a prominent Roman film director who has taken the advice of his mentor too literally. He finally returns to his home village to attend the funeral of the town's former film projectionist and, in so doing, embarks upon a journey into his boyhood just after WW II when he became the unofficial son of the town projectionist. In the dark confines of the Cinema Paradiso , the boy and the other townsfolk try to escape from the grim realities of post-war Italy. The town censor is also there to insure nothing untoward appears onscreen, invariably demanding that all kissing scenes be edited out. One day, Salvatore saves the projectionist's life after a fire, and then befriends the new projectionist. A few years later, Salvatore falls in love with a beautiful girl who breaks his heart after he is inducted into the military. Thirty years later, Salvatore has come to say good-bye to his life-long friend, who has left him a little gift in a film can. In 2002, over a decade after the film's original release, Tornatore brought the original 170-minute director's cut to American screens for the first time. — Sandra Brennan