Time and Distraction

As a poignant homage to cinema, Giuseppe Tornatore’s dramatic 1988 film, Cinema Paradiso, explores the alluring effect of cinema to create meaning and purpose through a state immersion and distraction (Cinema Paradiso). Through this state of being, the story is told through the point of view of Salvatore Di Vita, an Italian filmmaker, who remembers his first appreciation of the cinema and his first love (Cinema Paradiso). In many ways, Salvatore, better known as Toto, owes his appreciation and love of film to a veteran film projectionist named Alfredo (Cinema Paradiso). Through the loss of innocence in his past, Salvatore is conflicted between the distracting and protective qualities of cinema, and the immersive qualities of love to expose the full range of human emotions and sensations. This review will focus on how cinematography reflects how cinema acts as a shield of distraction for Salvatore, and love as an immersive stimulus for the precarious feelings of love.

After hours on the phone trying to reach her son, now an accomplished filmmaker, Maria Di Vita says to her daughter, “He’ll remember, I am sure he’ll remember, I know him better than you” (Cinema Paradiso) Maria’s certainty in her son’s response to the past not only sets the tone of the film, but also foreshadows Salvatore’s reaction to the news of Alfredo’s death. Alfredo’s death forces Salvatore to reconnect to his past after thirty years, and break his promise to never return to his hometown of Giancaldo (Cinema Paradiso). In essence, the film is a long flashback which reflects Salvatore’s memories, but throughout the film the continuous flashback is interrupted by his reaction to the memories (Cinema Paradiso). As a boy, Toto’s responsibilities as a good altar boy and son are in direct conflict with his love for movies. As a teenager, Toto’s infatuation with Elena threatens his overwhelming infatuation with film (Cinema Paradiso). After losing his father in a war, Alfredo becomes Salvatore’s surrogate father, and Alfredo mentors Salvatore through the illusions that will protect him from difficulty realities of life (Cinema Paradiso).

Image#1 Cinema Paradiso. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore. Perf. Philippe Noiret, Agnese Nano, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin. HBO Home Video, 1988. DVD. Screenshots.

Almost anticipating the news of Alfredo’s death in the beginning of the film, Salvatore peeks out his apartment as a thunder storm begins to descend upon Rome (Cinema Paradiso). The camera quickly cuts to an interior view of a stranger’s apartment facing Salvatore’s window, but a wind chime hangs in the foreground of the shot, see image1 (Cinema Paradiso). Later in the scene, the camera holds a “medium close up” of Salvatore’s face with the sound of the wind chime, thunder, and wind slowly increasing in intensity (Raj). While focusing on the entire composition, the camera's depth of field shifts from a deep focus to a shallow focus to identify the symbolic significance of the wind chime (Raj, Cinematography). Tormented by his past, thunder casts a frontal shadow of wind chimes upon Salvatore’s face, see image#1(Cinema Paradiso). With the sounds of wind chimes in the foreground, the scenes transport Salvatore to his earliest memory as an altar boy in a dark church interior, (Cinema Paradiso).

As the arrangement of actors and objects in a scene, the Mise-en-scene of Cinema Paradise is not only effective in furthering the plot (Raj), but also in reflecting the tone of the film, and Salvatore’s tension over the things he has lost. In addition, the camera is also able to incorporate important asymmetrical elements within the shot by using an aspect ratio of 1:66:1 (Spurlin). The wider shot allows the director to highlight specific objects by manipulating the depth of field to create a shallow focus. For instances, a long shot with a strange figure out of focus, and   people in a balcony of Cinema Paradiso in focus (Raj, Cinematography ); the camera reverses the shallow focus to highlight the ceramic figurine in the foreground, see image#2 (Cinema Paradiso). As a symbol of the Catholic Church and Father Adelfio, the placement of the figure in front of the projector's cone of vision and adjacent to Father Adelfio visually reinforces his role in what is seen and what is hidden, see image#2 (Cinema Paradiso).  With the high contrast of the shot and the grainy aspect of the film (Spurlin), the praying figurine leaves you with an unsettling and dreadful feeling of what is to come.

Image#2 Cinema Paradiso. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore. Perf. Philippe Noiret, Agnese Nano, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin. HBO Home Video, 1988. DVD. Screenshots.

Sometimes, what the camera omits is more powerful than what the camera shows. Because we are saturated with low angle shots of the side of the church, the camera manipulates us to perceive the church more as a symbol and less as a space. Conversely, the camera usually frames Cinema Paradiso in a frontal shot to highlight the commercial appeal of the cinema (Cinema Paradiso). In the film, notice how the camera tracks through the church’s bell tower to incrementally frame the town square with Cinema Paradiso to the left of the shot (Cinema Paradiso). Because of the large amount of shot that present the façade of the church, we may place a higher value on the few shots that portray the interior of the church. An interior aerial shot of the church (Raj), we see Father Adelfio performing mass with a younger Salvatore causally sleeping through it (Cinema Paradiso). The high contrast between light and darkness in shot, and Father Adelfio and Salvatore being bathed under a bright spot light; the rest of the church is left in darkness (Cinema Paradiso). This shot creates a vivid comparison between the sparse interior of the church, and the crowded interior of Cinema Paradiso.

As a signal of continuity, the bell becomes an invisible extension of the Catholic Church, and its power to sustain moral traditions through censorship. The character that perpetuates this power the most is Father Adelfio, who rings the bell to signal which kissing scene to omit from the negative reel of the film (Cinema Paradiso). The close-up of Father Adelfio's hand ringing the bell of censorship acts as a transition for the shot represented in image#4 (Cinema Paradiso).

Image#3 Cinema Paradiso. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore. Perf. Philippe Noiret, Agnese Nano, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin. HBO Home Video, 1988. DVD. Screenshots.

With Alfredo in the projection booth synchronizing the sound of the bell to the omitted scene, and Toto hiding behind the a red curtain; the camera places Father Adelfio in low angle shot to project his power and dominance over the city of Giancaldo, see image#3 (Cinema Paradiso). The church’s power over mass entertainment is also expressed in the dialogue between some of the patrons of Cinema Paradiso, “Twenty years, I’ve gone to movies, and never saw a kiss,” while another patron responds with a sagacious question, “And when will we” (Cinema Paradiso)? This response is significant because it alludes to the potential for a new cinematic experience not controlled by the church but by the citizens of Giancaldo. Sadly, in order to create a new cinematic experience, the old one must first fade into the past, see image (Cinema Paradiso).

While the camera connotes Father Adelfio’s power, it also foreshadows the precarious exchange of power from the church to the collective hands of people, see image (Cinema Paradiso). For example, while the camera frames Father Adelfio in a “medium close up,” the camera’s low angle also places the light of the projection at the top of the shot, see image#3 (Cinema Paradiso). The fact that the light of the projection dominates the shot may reflect the power of the projector to cast a spell of distraction over its viewers. The church and Father Adelfio want to guard the masses against the illusive and immerse distraction of the cinema, while the people want to experience the full immerse qualities of film.

After the climax of the film, Salvatore, now a teenager, is intensely infatuated with a girl named Elena Mendola, who is also the daughter of a prominent banker of Sicily (Cinema Paradiso). Similarly to his struggles to express his love for cinema, Salvatore also has to struggle to obtain the affection of Elena (Cinema Paradiso). Salvatore’s struggle and his ultimate failure to stay with Elena are immediately reflected by the shot of Salvatore and Elena being visually separated by Mr. Mendola, see image#8 (Cinema Paradiso). Focus on how the camera reflects the power and size of Mr. Mendola by placing him within an "eye ranking level" shot, while using Salvatore and Elena to frame Mr. Mendola (Raj, Cinematography). 

Through Salvatore’s memories of Alfredo, we can appreciate the immerse quality of film to temporarily distract the audience, which is reinforced by what Alfredo said to Salvatore, “It’s no kind of job for you. You’re like a slave and always alone. You see a film 100 times. You’ve nothing else to do” (Cinema Paradiso). However, through an immerse distraction; film can also over saturate the viewer with information. After cautioning Salvatore about the dangers of unprotected film catching fire (Cinema Paradiso), the camera frames Alfredo and Salvatore inside the tight space of the projection booth (Raj). In this scene, focus on how the camera’s depth of field stays in a deep focus to allow the photos and film receipts on the wall to occupy the composition equally with both actors, see image#9 (Cinema Paradiso). Also focus on how after sustaining a profile of the actors within the projection booth, the camera cuts to “straight on close up” view of the black and white photos from the history of Hollywood, see image#10 (Raj). While viewing this scene, consider why the camera places so much emphasis on these photos?

As Salvatore learns, Alfredo can quote every movie star like “John Wayne” and “Spencer Tracey,” but Alfredo’s most significant quote is the one that was never written or rehearsed: “life isn’t like in the movies. Life is much harder” (Cinema Paradiso). Alfredo’s fateful words highlight the cinema’s affect to distract the viewer from difficulties of life, but his words also caution us from not becoming consumed by the distraction of the cinema or the emotional tension created by love. Through Alfredo and Maria Di Vita, the film also warns us to be caution of the power of nostalgia, because in order for us to grow, we must also lose from time to time. Mrs. Di Vita reinforces his sentiment by saying the following words, “…but your life is there [Rome], Here there are only ghosts. Let go, Toto” (Cinema Paradiso). Ironically, Cinema Paradiso ends with a fascinating ending that does not offer a resolution for Salvatore’s future, but instead offers closure for the past that has always tormented him. As the two main protagonist of film, Alfredo and Salvatore is essentially the same person with the same characteristics, who are separated by ideological constructs of their time. Overall, Salvatore becomes an interior reflection of everything Alfredo wanted to be but could not become.

 

 

Works Cited

Cinema Paradiso. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore. Perf. Philippe Noiret, Agnese Nano, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin. HBO Home Video, 1988. DVD.

Cinema Paradiso. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore. Perf. Philippe Noiret, Agnese Nano, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin. HBO Home Video, 1988. DVD. Screenshots.

Cinema Paradiso. The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc, nd, Web. 27 Jan. 2014. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/

ICEM. “Camera Angle-Reading.” St. Thomas University, Institute for Communication, Entertainment & Media. 2013. Web. 16 January 2014.

Raj, Sony. “Cinematography.” St. Thomas University. Miami Gardens, Flordia. 20 January 2014. Lecture.

Raj, Sony. “How to Analyze a Film.” St. Thomas University. Miami Gardens, Flordia. 16 January 2014. Lecture.

Spurlin, Thomas. “Cinema Paradiso (Theatrical Cut) (Blu-ray).” DVDTalk, 11 Nov. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/51194/cinema-paradiso/

"Cinema Paradiso: Official Trailer." Youtube.com. 03 Feb. 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2-GX0Tltgw