|
 Movie A+ |
Video B+ | Audio B+
| Extras D | Recommended!
Jacques Perrin, Marco Leonardi, Salvatore Cascio, Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Pupella Maggio,
Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, and Leopoldo Trieste
director Giuseppe Tornatore | Miramax Home Entertainment
2002/1990 | Foreign/Italian - Drama - Romance | R |
174 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-18
anamorphic
widescreen 1.66:1 aspect ratio |
Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Cinema Paradiso: The New Version
adds an additional 51 minutes of never-before-seen footage to the
original 1990 theatrical version. It is
an epic film about the story of a young Italian boy, Salvatore, who grows
up during World War II in a small Italian town of Giancaldo. He has a fanatical appreciation
for movies. "Toto", as he is nicknamed, makes frequent visits
to the movie projection booth and befriends the projectionist, Alfredo.
The portrayal of Toto's persistence in hounding Alfredo to teach him how to run the movie
projector is charming and delightful. Together, they
spend a lot of time enjoying movies over the years, as the art of movie making got more
"mature". During this time, Alfredo and Toto develop a father-son
relationship, as Toto's real father was off in Russia, fighting in World
War II.
As Toto grows into a young man, he gets
more involved in the movie theater business and takes on filmmaking as a
hobby. During one of this amateur filmmaking sessions, he spots and falls in love with a beautiful young woman.
Toto persistently woos her and eventually wins her affection.
But her successful big-time businessman father forbids her to go out with
him. Their semi-secret relationship is hindered when her family moves around and
sends her out-of-town to college.
"Life isn't like in the
movies. Life is much harder...
"Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the
projection booth..."
The movie actually begins 30 years
after Toto leaves his home town for Rome, where he made it big as a film
director. Salvatore is summoned home, and he finally
goes home when his long-time friend Alfredo passes away. During his
homecoming, he comes to grips with his childhood and early adulthood in
Giancaldo. Most of the movie is portrays Salvatore's life in flashback fashion.
Cinema Paradiso: The New Version is profoundly
rich in character study and relationships. With a run-time of nearly
three hours, the movie fully explores the facets and details of the main
characters and their interrelationships. The movie seems a little slow at times
during the first hour and a half, but the detailed plot development
unfolds with deep satisfaction in the second half of the movie. By
the end, I realized I was genuinely moved with this movie. It is extremely
satisfying while at the same time inspires the hopeless romantics among
us. The montages of classic black and white films
are wonderful and capture what must be the early inspirations of today's
filmmakers. This is a film that will delight true movie lovers.
"Bravo" for Cinema Paradiso!
Video & Audio: The picture quality was generally very good, thanks
to the fully restored, digital re-mastering process. There are however
some imperfections in the film transfer. For example, there were noticeable
MPEG-2 compression noise and
grain in some dark scenes. There's also the occasional dirt specks
and imperfections in the film stock. The re-mixed Dolby Digital 5.1
soundtrack is delightful, with a mesmerizing and romantic musical score by Ennio
Morricone.
Special Features: includes both the 1990 original theatrical version &
The New Version; theatrical trailers; sneak peaks for Malèna, The
Star Maker,
and Anelie
DVD released on 2/18/2003 | Reviewed 3/9/2003
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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