Week 1: Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso is a well-written classic movie by Giuseppe Tornatore and Vanna Paoli. The movie showcases Toto, a naughty but clever boy who loves films and movies. Toto later grew up to become a famous and successful film-maker in Rome, however, the story behind his success is what shapes him into the person that he is. Thus, that is what this movie is about.

In my opinion, I am enlighted with the fact that this movie was not written in the typical happy ending movie format that I have always seen nowadays. Toto's life was filled with ups and downs- similar to our real life. Most movies tend to portray an unrealistic setting in life or even an ending that is far from a normal person's reality. For example, marrying the first love of your life. Such examples are A Walk To Remember, The Fault In Our Star, and The Notebook. Although it nice to see these type of happy endings in movies, but in real life, only a small percentage of people actually marries their first love.

Thus, the love between Toto and Elena, despite being very passionate and intimate, love like these usually do not last long. In my opinion, it takes more than just passion and intimacy to create a strong relationship. Furthermore, the fact that Elena's father opposed their relationship made it even tougher for them to be together. The movies portrays Toto as a man that may be in love with Elena, but my question is, was he actually in love with Elena or in love with the concept of love?

Toto's relationship with Alberto, a projectionist also became one of my favorite aspect of this movie that made it special. Their relationship seemed perfect for each other; Toto did not have a father-figure to look up to in his life, whereas Alberto did not have a child to share his interest and play around with. Their relationship grew out of their same interest, which is films. In my opinion, it seemed like Alberto saw himself in Toto. Thus, the reason why he gave Toto such advice to leave Sicily and work for his dream when he no longer had anything left to fight for. Alberto knew Toto from inside out, he basically raised Toto and taught him life lessons that he learned from his own past life and mistakes.

In my opinion, Toto's and Alberto's love for each other is the essence of the movie. In the end of the movie where Toto watched the clips Alberto puts together, I think Alberto's message to Toto is to let go of the past and find his love. Just like Toto's mother told him that whenever she called, she still couldn't identify a woman's voice that was in love with him. Now that he has reached his dreams, he needs to start finding and follow his heart for what it wants. This however depends, if his heart says find Elena, then he should, if it says move on, then he should. What matters, in the end, is the love for what you do and what you want because without love, life is meaningless. Without love, his fight meant nothing. Such that even after years of not coming back to Sicily, Toto told his mother that it was as if he did not even go away. This may be because he is still stuck or feel vengeful for his past and has yet to move on and truly let go of it.

All in all, this movie captures life beautifully and realistically. I am sure many people, including me, would be able to relate to this movie. Not only that, this movie raises many questions and yet it allows the viewer to interpret it by themselves. Ergo, letting viewers feel and be fully engage with the movie. Sometimes in life, we thought that we have things all figured out once we reach our goals, but at times we actually do not. This may be because we try to put our feelings aside, for example, the phrase 'I do not mix business with pleasure' or 'Do not take things personally, this is business' but we have to note that feelings are what makes us human, and feelings are what makes a journey worthwhile.

References:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070679416/