Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 23, 1990 TAG: 9006230270
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was this year's Oscar winner for best foreign-language movie and no wonder, considering the movie crowd that voted on it. This is a movie lover's movie, a picture that celebrates the powerful lure of film and the special places where movies once were commonly shown - the small-town theaters.
It begins when middle-aged Salvatore Di Vitto (Jacques Perrin) receives a call informing him that an old friend has died. The dead man's name is Alfredo and he was once the projectionist at the Paradiso, the movie house in the Sicilian village where Salvatore grew up.
At the sad news, Salvatore flashes back to the 1940s and '50s, the years of his childhood and adolescence. With no father and few friends, Salvatore spent most of his time at the Paradiso where Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) put movies from such greats as Ford, Visconti and Renoir on the screen after the local priest excised all kissing scenes. Movies were Salvatore's escape from the provincialism of the village and Alfredo becomes the friend and kindly father figure who ultimately insists he leave the security of the theater for the larger world. The theater itself is a gathering place, the community's lively social center where the dynamics of village life and the glamour of cinema converge.
In the first part of the movie Salvatore Cascio plays the bright young Salvatore Di Vitto, the child obsessed with the moving image on screen. The touching relationship Cascio and Noiret develop is reminiscent of such screen buddies as Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper and Spencer Tracy and Freddie Bartholomew. Cascio is an expressive and immensely likable child actor and Noiret is grand as the uneducated, sad-faced and understanding projectionist.
When adolescence descends on Salvatore, Marco Leonardi, a capable young actor, takes over the role. At this time, Salvatore's enthusiasm for movies is diverted by Elena, a newcomer to the town played luminously by Agnese Nano.
Tornatore treats his subjects with a straightforward sentimentality and a heart-tugging sense of nostalgia for a simpler time before television, shopping malls and cultural homogenization put an end to such things as small-town theaters. His devotion to movies and his sense of past are expressed through many fine, moving touches that make hankies obligatory for viewing this richly satisfying movie about movies and people who can't go home again.
VIEWER GUIDE. A Miramax release at the Grandin Theatre. 345-6177. Subtitled. Unrated but certainly milder than an R. Two hours and three minutes.
by CNB