Movie Reflection – Cinema Paradiso

This classic 1988 movie brings us back to the olden days in a rural Italian town through a famous filmmaker's childhood memories. In this movie, we can see how important passion and a few close relationships can shape one person, as well as the influence of film development to the society. 

As this movie is set up on the years after World War II, we can see how little entertainment people used to have. In the town of the village, there stood an one and only cinema called Cinema Paradiso, which gathered all the villagers together to watch the movies played. It is very different from the cinema we have in the 21st centuries. Movies played has to be generated and guarded by a projectionist all the time to make sure it doesn't catch on fire due to the heat of the machine and also the clarity of the movie. The projectionist also had to cut of the film tape himself for censorship. These are so different compared to the ones we are having now which are all computerized. Not only so, we can see how this one and only entertainment brings the whole community together. They had a shared emotions between them that make them a whole when they watch movie. They laughed together, cried together, shared tissues, popcorn, cigarettes with everyone.This can hardly be seen in the modern society especially sharing our own belongings. As the movie goes along, it shows how film slowly develops and people no longer need a cinema due to the commercialize of televisions. 

This movie portrays 3 important relationships of the protagonist (Toto): Toto & Alfredo (old projectionist in town), Toto & Elena (first girlfriend), Toto & Mother.   

As this movie evolved through Toto and Alfredo, we can clearly see how Toto and Alfredo has a special relationship. At first, Alfredo was scolding Toto all the time because he is always in the cinema sneaking around. But slowly, we can see Alfredo helped Toto when he lost his money and how he taught Toto about everything of being a projectionist. As since Alfredo does not have any children and Toto lost his father at a very young age, Alfredo views Toto as his own son and gives him any advice and suggestions when he needs. we can explain this behavior through Erik Erikson's psychosocial development theory. In this case, Alfredo is at the seventh stage, Generativity vs Stagnation. Through his contribution to the next generation (Toto), Alfredo has successfully passed this stage achieving the virtue of care, which is demonstrated in the movie. 

According to Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love, Toto and Elena's relationship can be labeled as romantic love, which consists passion and intimacy. As Toto and Elena were at their young adult stages, they both have a strong sexual passion which physically drawn them together. Furthermore, their high in emotional intimacy can be seen when they tell each other everything even when the truth hurts (eg. Elena's father wants to marry her off to someone from the same social class). However, despite how much they enjoy each other companions and love, they do not have serious commitment between each other which is also why they broke up later on. 

Lastly, one of the most touching relationship in the movie is Toto and his mother. As shown on the beginning of the movie, although Toto has not been home for 30 years, his mother still tries her best to reach Toto to tell him that Alfredo has passed away. She never mind how Toto left her and his sister alone in the village. In the end, she even told Toto that she was never angry of him and always supports and understands his situation knowing Rome is the best for him and he needs to cut ties in the village in order to develop a better future. Despite what Toto did, she never withdrawn her love and would always care for her son and make sure he is safe. This shows that Toto's mother has an unconditional positive regard towards Toto which she accepts and loves him for who he is.

*All pictures are found in google images and none of them belongs to me