Cinema Paradiso - The New Version

Cinema Paradiso - The New Version
by Giuseppe Tornatore

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Movie Reviews of Cinema Paradiso - The New Version

Movie Review: Welcome to the Paradiso.
Summary: 5 Stars

Having seen the extra scenes, I feel, like many of you, that the story had changed. The original theme or point, which to me always has been, the love of the cinema and movies was now regulated to the background. This change didn't diminish my love for the film, but I feel the sweetness, the innocence, the spirit of the first version was lessened. Like so many have said before me, the extra sex scenes were completely unneccessary, as were the scenes of Toto visiting with his sister's family. But a few others added to the story. The scene where Alfredo mentions having a another wife and child die in childbirth added to his sad state. It only reinforces his quote that he was a slave to the cinema. He probably loved the movies as much as Toto did, but he was not rewarded. He suffered losses, both emotional and physical.

The added scenes at the end where Toto finally learns what happened to Elena and that they are able to meet are a good closure to their story, though I did feel the scenes were longer than needed to be. I liked knowing Toto finally finds his Elena again, but I would have been content in seeing that he learn she always loved him and ended it at that. Like another viewer said, it is the soldier and princess story. They were never meant to be together. If should have been enough for Toto to know, Elena loved him so he could move on and not let her loss haunt him anymore.

As for the scene where we learn it is Alfredo who asks Elena to let Toto go, I am unsure whether this added to the film or altered it. I will say it does add a bit to the story which is Toto's love for the movies. I have read many other viewers comments saying the film is about the love between Toto and Alfredo, or between relations and how they affect your lives. I agree in part, but I feel this film centers on Toto's one true passion, his love for movies.

We see it early on before he even starts to develop his unique and special friendship with Alfredo or before Elena enters the picture. Toto's main love affair has always been with movies. The relationships he developed with Alfredo and Elena only added to this. Toto felt strong ties to his family, to Alfredo, to Elena, to the cinema paradiso, and to his little village. But they are only a part of what made him the man he is. The driving force has always been his desire to do what he always loved, making movies. Alfredo knew this, that is why he felt it neccessary to end the relationship between Toto and Elena. His mother knew this, that is why she wished him love and good fortune when he left for Rome, knowing it was right. Elena knew this, that is why she left the cinema before Toto could return. Although leaving the note was her was of saying, "Yes, I do love you."
A curious scene in both versions always stuck with me. When an adult Toto returns for Alfredo's funeral, there is a scene between him and his mother when he tells her, he feels as though he abandoned her. I felt it was just the opposite, that he was the one who felt abandoned. When he left for Rome as a young man, he found success, but he was alone. He did not have the comfort of his mother's love, of Alfredo's love and guidance near him, nor the sense of belonging, the familiarity of his village. That sense of loss, or abandonment shadowed his life. He still fulfilled his dreams but he wasn't happy. He forgot how much the movies meant to him. He wallowed instead in the loss of Elena and how he never set foot in his childhood home for 30 years. I feel it was Alfredo's parting gift, the film of Kisses, that reminded him how much he truly loved the movies. He just needed someone to remind him.

The scene where the Cinema is destroyed is dramatic and poignant in the way that it shows the passing of time in the real world and Toto's life. Keeping away from his old town preserved the place and the people there to the same time as when he left. To him, the town remained as he wanted to remember them. But seeing that it did change, that everyone grew older, and that the Cinema had to go because it had no place in this new day was the cross over into reality which he had not wanted to see in 30 years. He felt abandoned because it all changed without him. But he had Alfredo's gift and it was the way he could remember it. With all the passion each kiss gave, and the power to move him to tears.

Summary of Cinema Paradiso - The New Version