Life isn’t like in the movies. Life… is much harder.

We’re back! Finally. Apologies dear Listener/Reader, Lewis and and I have been, well, a bit rubbish getting back to work after the Christmas break. Last year we released podcasts DURING the holidays. This year, we took the month off. Sorry about that. It won’t (it will) happen again.

Hopefully this first podcast of 2013 is worth the wait. Lewis and I take a look at 1988’s Cinema Paradiso, a film in love with the very idea of film and cinema and the impact it can have on us. Written and directed by Guiseppe Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso is a nostalgic look at small town life, cinema, childhood and young love.

The film follows Salvatore ‘Toto’ Di Vita, a well respected Italian director, who upon hearing that his childhood mentor Alfredo has died, looks back at his childhood and adolescence in a small town in postwar Sicily. As a precocious young boy without a father, Toto develops a close bond with the local cinema projectionist Alfredo. We see Toto not only fall in love with cinema but fall in love for the first time with a girl at his school.

Neither Lewis nor I had seen Cinema Paradiso and we were slightly unsure what to expect. Despite being an adult and someone who enjoys a range of different types of films, there will still always be a part of me that is forever 15 and who, upon being informed he’s about to watch a foreign language film about a young boy learning lessons about life and love from a kindly old projectionist, thinks: “BORING!” Luckily that 15 year old was, as he has so often been, proven incorrect. While not exactly a film full of thrills and spills, Cinema Paradiso is a sweet story, with bittersweet chunks, that Lewis and I both enjoyed. It’s the perfect watch for a Sunday afternoon.

One thing to note – Cinema Paradiso actually exists in 3 forms; an original 154 minute version released in Italy, a 124 minute version for the international market and a 174 minute “Director’s Cut”. We saw the 124 minute version and discuss on the podcast why we picked that version. Anyone who says we just picked that version because it’s the shortest film is lying.

Last, but not least, our Secret Sponsor for this week is Simon’s Film Club (@simonsfilmclub), yet another competing online film reviewer who we plug.

If our review has piqued your interest in the film, you can buy the Cinema Paradiso DVD from Amazon by clicking here (and we get a little bit of cash if you do – thanks in advance)

Anyway, without further ado, let us present our feature presentation:

Click here to download and listen on your MP3 player of choice:

101 Films Podcast 045 – Cinema Paradiso

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We’d love to hear your own film recommendations – please get in touch at 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog. Feel free to say nice things about us on iTunes!

Director: Guiseppe Tornatore  Year of release: 1988  Studio/Distributor: Les Films Ariane/Miramax Films  Country: Italy