Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cinema Paradiso

Chugging along on my resolution to watch 5 foreign films this year (with the new stipulation that no more will be French) Sunday night I watched the Italian film, Cinema Paradiso. Wow. First off, I'd never heard enough about it before to know that there were two different versions- the original and a later released director's cut with almost an hour of extra film. I ended up watching the director's cut, simply because that was the disc that Netflix sent me. Somebody (I guess me, huh) should tell them that their sleeve however gives the running time of the original version. I can't say I would have watched the movie when I did had I known it was actually much longer, as I started it rather late. But I am so glad that I have seen this movie. I can't say anything to the original version, since I had no idea that wasn't what I was watching and some people have complained that the extra scenes make it too long, and change the storyline of the original which was already a wonderful film. All I know is I absolutely loved this movie, and found myself crying for probably the last 30 minutes. As corny as it may sound I think a part of me really identified with the movie-loving main characters in part because of my years working at a theater myself. If you can sit still for the long haul you should definitely watch this film.

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