Connectivity: Cinema Paradiso (Director’s Cut)

In Cinema Paradiso (1988), filmmaker Salvatore “Totò” Di Vita (Jacques Perrin) returns to his small Sicilian community of Giancaldo to attend the funeral of Alfredo (Philipe Noiret), the town’s longtime film projectionist, who had served as Salvatore’s mentor during his childhood. Through a series of flashbacks, the film revisits the local cinema where a young Salvatore first discovered the power of movies and formed a deep bond with Alfredo.

The Carsey-Wolf Center is excited to bring director Giuseppe Tornatore’s rarely-screened 2002 director’s cut of Cinema Paradiso to the Pollock Theater. In this more complex version of the film, Salvatore returns to Giancaldo to discover what he left behind, including a secret that was excised from the theatrical version of the film. The New York Times argued that the director’s cut is “more romantic, more emotional and ultimately more satisfying than the teary-eyed original. By adding 48 minutes to that two-hour release, and bringing back a character that had been deleted from it, the director’s cut sabotages the earlier version’s message, a variation of the old admonition that you can’t go home again.” An intimate coming-of-age story, a brooding rumination on the complexity of adulthood and adult decisions, and a touching reflection on cinema’s broader cultural role, Cinema Paradiso is one of the medium’s most heartfelt tributes to the collective experience of moviegoing.

This event will begin with a critical and historical introduction by Ross Melnick (Interim Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center), who will discuss the film’s relationship to our yearlong programming series Connectivity. A reception in the Michael Douglas Lobby will follow the screening.