What do you do when you watch a movie? Do you watch the movie for the actors, the settings, or are you one of the few people that watch movies for the plot? Every movie, no matter what genre or what age group it’s aimed at has a plot or narrative. Each plot or narrative follows a specific formula in their movies. There is a protagonist that is introduced to the viewer. In most movies you are supposed to relate to the protagonist and have an emotional connection to them. In the movie “Cinema Paraiso,” we are introduced to Toto, a young boy that becomes infatuated with cinema while peeking in on the censoring process of films in the town’s local movie theater.
I felt a connection to this protagonist because I felt as though I was Toto as a child. I felt I had the same level of curiosity and interest that Toto demonstrated in the beginning of the film.
After a protagonist is established, a conflict must arise. The conflict in “Cinema Paraiso” is that Toto is not allowed to learn how to become a projectionist because his mother feels that it is going to ruin his life. Toto, however, fosters a relationship a father-son with the projectionist since Toto’s father has yet to come back from war and is most likely dead.
Throughout the whole movie, the scenes connect to one another, leading up to the final part of the movie when Toto returns to his old town to go to his mentor’s and “father’s” funeral. As he is brought into his house once again, his mother shows him that she put together all his old stuff. He looks through all of the pictures and goes back to his childhood.
I feel like this film has something for everyone. I feel that it touches so many different aspects of Toto’s life that you are able to connect with him. Since the film goes through all of Toto’s life you can pick any point of Toto’s life and try to relate your life to his. Even though there I have yet to live my whole life, many parts of Toto’s life really hit me hard. There were parts in the movie where one could get very emotional and cry. Not that at was at that point while watching the film, but one could still want to cry because of the movie.
This film also had everything one could ask for in a film. It had parts that were funny, parts that were serious, and parts that made you think. I wasn’t expecting to be so engrossed by the film because of the language barrier, but the scenes were so good that they were not ignored even though there were subtitles.
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Greetings Dominik,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Alexis and I am the person responsible for grading the blog component of this course. You do a good job of incorporating your personal experience and perspective into this post. Your experience of the film will be an important entry point into your critical writing. However, in order to make compelling arguments out of your observations it will be important to use specific examples from the film to support your claims. For example :) it would have been great for you to explain more specificallyhow the scenes in the film connect to each other. What exactly does that scene where Toto looks through pictures look like? What is the relationship between those pictures and the scenes in the film?
Looking forward to your thoughts on the other films in the course!
Best,
Alexis
I think its interesting that you said that the film had "something for everyone", and also that it had "everything one could ask for in a film." Although the film does cover many aspects of Toto's life, he is living in post-world war Italy in a small Italian town. How do you think this movie obtains that sort of universality despite the specifics of Toto's situation?
ReplyDeleteSimilarly to Kevin I thought it was interesting that you stated that the film had something for everyone; I completely agree. It is also interesting to note that this film does NOT follow what our reading claims, which is why I think many audience members can relate to this film.However, I think it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the other conflicts in the film such as his love for Elana and him having to turn his back on his home town.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that a serious focus of this film was in situating, or creating, Toto in such a way as to allow the audience to connect and relate with him to a large degree. Cinema Paradiso was certainly successful for me in this respect as I know that I felt Toto’s nostalgia rather poignantly at several points throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have to disagree with you that the conflict of this film was Toto’s struggle to become the projectionist. In my opinion, the problem, or factor which caused the initial situation to be “knocked awry”, as Bordwell put it, is much more complicated. I have a feeling that this centers on Toto’s thoughts about his past and how he reconciles and judges his current situation based on the manner in which those past events transpired.
http://softlighthardfocus.blogspot.com/2009/01/feature-presentation-as-films.html
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