Cinema Paradiso - Director's Cut (1988) ****

This was my second time seeing Cinema Paradiso (1988) and the first time seeing the 174-minute director's cut. It's a wonderful film when viewed in either version but I prefer the shorter 124-minute theatrical cut, which expresses the key elements of the film in a more concise nature and spends less time in the second and third portions of main character Salvatore (Toto)’s life—the first (child) portion is my favorite. 

Giuseppe Tornatore's film is a heightened, melodramatic version of real life, but it's beautiful and poetic, funny and touching. It plays like the less violent cousin of Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In America (1984)—exploring the bulk of one man's life and employing the same grandiosity and scope, but with a gentler touch. The performances are spot on, the images masterly, and the score by Ennio Morricone sweeping and consuming.

Cinema Paradiso is a love letter to the power of film to build community, of the many emotions that love (of cinema, of humans) can instill. It's a story of lost romance, of nostalgia, of the loss of youth, of family (by blood and otherwise), of following your dreams at the expense of all else.

Screencaps courtesy of Filmgrab