Cinema Paradiso is a celebration of the power of films, says Giuseppe Tornatore

Giuseppe Tornatore’s sentimental film Cinema Paradiso (1989) made its way to select screens in Delhi and Mumbai recently as the director visited the country at the invitation of the Film Heritage Foundation and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Mumbai. After sharing anecdotes about the film with cinephiles in Mumbai, Giuseppe received an invite he couldn’t refuse, a screening in Delhi.
When the film was screened at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi recently, movie buffs queued up hours before the showtime, eager to watch the classic. The Stein auditorium filled up within minutes, but an equal number of hopeful movie buffs lingered outside, hoping for entry.
‘THE MOVIE IS NOT THE SAME ON A TABLET AND IN A THEATRE’
As audiences interacted with Tornatore at the screening, he talked about how the film seems different on different mediums of viewing, and said, “It’s unusual to introduce the film after 40 years to the audience; it’s really strange. When I made the film, I could never have imagined something like this could happen. Watching a movie on a tablet and in a theatre is a different experience. The movie is not the same. On a tablet, it’s one movie, and in a theatre, it’s a different movie.”
Cinema Paradiso is a nostalgic celebration of not just the power of films but cinema as a communal experience. An attendee asked that when the film first came out, was it considered a swan song for moviegoing – and now, over 35 years later, as Tornatore is still showing the film in theaters, what does he think about the death of cinemas? The filmmaker replied, “I don’t believe in the death of cinema. It’s impossible. I can give you a very simple reason – despite the crisis, the decreasing number of movie thea tres, the number of people who go to see movies is getting bigger day by day. So, we’re forced to make movies because people want to see them. What’s changing? The only thing that is changing is the way people see movies.”