Italy Through its Cinema - Cinema Paradiso

A filmmaker looks back on his Sicilian childhood and the cinema that shaped his life in a moving celebration of memory and the magic of film
About this Event

Italy Through its Cinema - Cinema Paradiso

Our journey through Italian cinema comes to an end with Giuseppe Tornatore’s beloved Cinema Paradiso (1988) - and there could hardly be a more fitting film with which to conclude it.

Through the memories of successful filmmaker Salvatore, we return to his childhood in a small Sicilian town and to the local Cinema Paradiso, where his friendship with projectionist Alfredo awakens a lifelong love of the movies.

But Tornatore’s film is also the story of an Italy disappearing and transforming. As Salvatore grows up, traditions fade, communities change and the local cinema - once the beating heart of the town - gradually loses the central place it once occupied in everyday life.

After travelling through more than four decades of Italian history - from Fascism and the Second World War to Neorealism, post-war reconstruction, the economic miracle and the political and social upheavals that followed - Italy Through Its Cinema ends by looking back.

Nostalgic, funny and deeply moving, Cinema Paradiso is both a celebration of the movies and a reflection on memory, change and the extraordinary role cinema plays in preserving the lives, places and moments that would otherwise disappear.

Join us for the final film in Italy Through Its Cinema as we bring our journey to a close with a film that celebrates not only Italian cinema, but the very reason we gather together to watch films in the first place.