Prepare+to+have+your+heart+melted...

The Magic of Cinema Paradiso Nuovo Cinema Paradiso is a heart-warming film about the coming of age and how the magic of movies can create a bond that transcends time and distance. So what's the problem? We're teenagers so we're growing up and can appreciate the strife, and we're all in a film class so we must Toto and Alfredo love at the very least like movies. Are you all cynics? No, I have discovered the problem, every single person in Mr. Masson's fifth period media class loves this movie they're just afraid to show it! That's ok, I understand, in America it's not ok to show your emotions but this is an Italian movie so let your inner European out. Get emotional. Cry when Alfredo is in trouble, laugh when Toto gets into mischief and feel that overwhelming warming-fuzzy when the film ends in all its infinitely sweet and corny glory. What surprises me most is that no one was able to identify with this film when the town is so similar to Highland, small, rural, a little scary. Alright, it might be a dramatization, but I honestly believe the sentiment still applies. Small towns have a siphoning effect, it's hard to get out and stay out. As Alfredo so beautifully illustrates, “Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born. Le piazza del Toto ed Alfredo But now, no. It's not possible. Right now you're blinder than I am.” Does that sound a little bit like Highland? I think it does with some cinematic flair. If only we had our own beautifully crafted soundtrack with songs composed by Ennio Morricone. The classical music served purely to pull at your heart-strings even more. And the traditional pulling in, and fading out maneuvers compliments of Guiseppe Tornatore add to the nostalgic mystique. If we had all the fixin's we could make Highland our very own Sicilian town. However we would all be much more sarcastic and there would be absolutely no hanky-hand-panky in the movie theater. (That memorable scene was brought you in part by Vanna Paoli who co-wrote the script form a screenplay with Tornatore.) Toto, whom is played by the cutest child actor known to exist,

Salvatore Cascio. The underlying message being, “GET OUT, SEE THE WORLD!!!” mixed with a little, “Do what you love to do.” with a dash of “You can only reminisce about home if you were once far away.” Doesn't that sound like bits and pieces of a tear-jerking graduation speech? Was Mr. Masson just preparing us seniors for up coming graduation, pushing us out into the world using the clever banter and humor of Alfredo, (played by Philippee Noiret) and the hunky pining of Toto as a teenager, (played by Marco Leonardi)??? I choose choice D, all of the above, and I go further, saying you don't like this movie is like saying you don't like memories and young love, and all things Italian, and I know I've seen half of you guys out eating at the Olive Garden, so by proxy, deep down, right next to you Pee Wee Herman video cassettes is your overwhelming love and appreciation for Cinema Paradiso.