MAS138 MARTINEZ, CAMILLE F.B1FILM CRITIQUE: CINEMA PARADISO

Cinema Paradiso is the second Italian film Ive watched and a great film that made me realize that old movies are never forgotten. The film is outstanding from the start right up to the very end. It never let me feel bored instead made my interest grow deeper throughout watching the film. It has everything a film could offer: humor, romance, and drama with a good music, script, casting and direction. .The Script is a complete excellence. It fairly balances the humor and drama and romance throughout the film. There are twists that are very unpredictable like the fire accident, and when Salvatore came back to his hometown and found out that Boccia, his best friend back then, is the one who married his long-time love, Elana. I can say that the script is very successful, it made the whole film very successful also. However, it saddens me a bit when the Cinema Paradiso is bombed and bulldozed, the people no longer watch films in the Cinema Paradiso because there are newly invented televisions that are on the rise up.The cinematography of the film is almost perfect. The scene where Alfredo let the public watch the movie outside before the fire accident is one of the scenes I admired the most. The long take shot were used there to keep the emotions flowing and also not let the viewers have misinterpretations which I think one of the best techniques in cinematography. And the shots wherein Toto and Alfredo are in the window looking happy as they watch the public people lift up when they finally watch the film before Toto went downstairs to see near the movie outside. A very touching scene that shows how theyre connected with a great and unique bond. However, as the film encounter the fire accident, Toto proves us that he really loves Alfredo when he saves him and it pinched my heart when I knew Alfredo gone blind. The scenes wherein Toto runs the new Cinema Paradiso, the transition wherein Alfredo visits him then they talked and Alfredo held Totos face then Toto now became a teenager. That was a good transition I say but still thought of missing the boyhood character of Toto in the back of my mind.Meanwhile, the production design is near-perfect. The settings let the viewers feel the nostalgic feeling when Salvatore went back to his hometown, especially in the funeral scene where Salvatore looked up and saw the old Cinema Paradiso. The entire production is very effective as it simply chose the right location for the film. The sound effects/music background in the film is really superb. It is simply the most suitable and emotive that will surely a satisfaction to hear in the films. It is neither overrated nor boring. The sound made its purpose, to add more emotions to the film that made it more enjoyable to watch.As for the actors, the kid who portrayed young Salvatore caught my heart. He introduced the movie with a humor that surely made the viewers smile. His love for the films is very lovely. He didnt act as if he pretends; the emotions he delivers are raw. The scene where he convinced me that he misses her father very much and how he stood up with a metal heart when all along he knew his father is dead. The scenes where Toto and Alfredo bond are the ones I really liked the most. It seems like they both feel the son and father bonding in their own selves. Alfredo also made my heart pound as he act as a precious kind-heart old man. Even though at the very first I already know hes dead, I still cant help myself from being emotional when he doesnt even had a chance to talk to Salvatore before his last breath. However, I was a bit dissatisfied of how Salvatore looked when he became older. It seems like the Salvatore from the teenage years doesnt really match how Salvatore looked in the present. I even thought in the first place that theyre two different people. But that doesnt mean that they didnt portray well their own characters. I might say, not only the protagonist, Salvatore De Vita, is the only one who acted well, but everyone from the movie are really well-developed from minors to majors throughout the film. It amazes me how the characters are present in the funeral of Alfredo and everyone of them are well distinguished even when they get older, to the man who owns the second Cinema Paradiso, to the man and a woman who have met in the Cinema Paradiso and became lovers, to the old man who memorized all the lines from the movies that are shown in Cinema Paradiso, to the man who has a mental disability that always claims he owns Cinema Paradiso, to the man whos the right hand of Alfredo back then and also became the right hand of the owner of Second Cinema Paradiso, and to the woman whos addicted in sexual desires who looks like she never changed. I also miss the presence of father from the first scenes of the movie who always orders Alfredo to cut the kissing scenes in the films he watches. I think he already died also. Ive known them well because they are given fair exposure and each one of them made the film more effective.All in all, Cinema Paradiso has made it to the top of my favorite and best films of all time. Then ending serves right. It isnt bad that Elena and Salvatore didnt get back together but the time where Salvatore went back to London and while he watches the film that Alfredo gave him, I thought of something that it is greatly done. Id sure watch it again if Im not busy. This movie has no special effects, just pure emotions and feelings, love, fear, sorrow and regret, reminiscence for childhood and youth, memoirs of places and times that will not come back, memories of the loved ones. superb all-in-one film that is worth watching.