Framed to Perfection 30

CINEMA PARADISO (1988)

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Cinematographer: Blasco Giurato

Uh oh, mum alert.

We’ve all had that look, although I remember once coming home late from whatever 8-year-old me used to get up to and mother not even noticing. Phew! I guess parentally-enforced bedtimes are just to give said guardians a quiet reprieve from their hyperactive brats. Charmed, I’m sure. My mother didn’t quite get that I was never going to be as rebellious as my provocative eldest brother, nor as passive as my middle brother.

I just wanted to be left alone to read, write, draw, or play “action movie” with my eclectic set of random toys.

I’ve never been as enamoured with Cinema Paradiso as, well, everyone else on the planet. I watch it every now and then to try and work out why my reaction is different. My best assumption being that I’m let down by the second half, wherein little Salvatore AKA Cutest Kid Ever TM, grows up to be a flawlessly handsome twink, rather than a dour nerd who shuffles about the place in the shadows. I remember thinking on my first viewing: “Is this supposed to be the same kid?!”. I just didn’t buy it. From what I can tell by casually witnessing such pretty people floating throughout society, adolescent/adult Salvatore, in reality, would surely never know hardship.

I’m not bitter.

A more offbeat-looking actor would have been better. See below photograph of grotesque teenage me, complete with practice camcorder for a filmmaking career that never happened, as a prime example of such a nerd. Still, Cinema Paradiso works, for this viewer at least, as a sweet short film about the platonic love between a bright-eyed street urchin and lonely old man, as I tend to tune out once the narrative skips forward a decade or so.

I find the above shot striking for its sparse production design and sudden appearance from a tight close-up, with the viewer unable not to notice the hypnotic actress offset to one side. I’m less impressed by the nostalgia in the film, even though I’m currently distracted by such movies, and more by the recreation of its period. I mean, what a big fucking pain in the arse that must’ve been! Saying that, there probably are still towns out there frozen in time like this, so perhaps the producers didn’t have to do all that much to establish time and place.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of going to the cinema, which is why Cinema Paradiso’s charm is slightly lost on me. Not only are cinemas intimidating places due to my nyctalopia, or “night blindness”, but also crowded social settings where you and complete strangers are awkwardly crammed next to each other. I’ve always felt incredibly vulnerable in such situations, with certain tragic events in recent history not helping this feeling.

And, yes, I am referring to The Minecraft Movie’s “chicken jockey” meme/trend/bollocks.

Maybe in the next life my body and brain will get things right, so that I’ll be able to immerse myself in what everybody else loves about Cinema Paradiso.

Just not this time. Not this time.

Basically, it’s a film everybody loves because it is without fault, with my ambivalence to it being for the same reason. I’m just a contrarian prick like that.

Do stay in touch, darlings.

Toodles!