CINEMA PARADISO

An award-winning festival favorite and Academy Award Winner for the Best Foreign Film, CINEMA PARADISO celebrates the cinema's magical power to make us laugh, cry and dream. In his small Sicilian hometown, young Salvatore spends almost all of his time in the local movie theater, entranced by Italian, French and American movies. Disobeying his mother, who wants her boy at home, Salvatore makes daily trips to the theater and soon becomes close friends with cinema's projectionist, Alfredo (Phillipe Noiret). A crusty but loveable old man, Alfredo charms the boy with lessons about life and love which he has borrowed from the many movies he has seen. Then the nitrate film in the booth goes up in flames one night, Salvatore saves his friend's life. But Alfredo is blinded by the fire, and Salvatore must take his place behind the projectors. Eventually AIfredo urges Salvatore to leave their small town and find his destiny in film. Salvatore returns thirty years later, now a world famous director, to remember the magic of his childhood with Alfredo at the Cinema Paradiso. Giuseppe Tornatore's second film is a loving tribute to the wonders of the cinema.