Cinema Paradiso, written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, is a film that fulfils this objective. It makes us feel. What movie lover hasn't cried with cinema paradiso? It's almost impossible not to shed tears while watching the film. A work that is a declaration of love for cinema and for life. It doesn't matter that the era in which the story takes place was not the one we live in. The nostalgia for the experiences of childhood and youth makes us identify with the main character.

The film begins with an old lady trying to communicate by phone with her son. A famous film director, who lives in Rome and has not returned to the village since he left thirty years ago. We see the successful director arrive at his home, where one of the lovers informs him that his mother has called him to inform him about Alfredo's death. The story takes us to the past, when Salvatore ( Toto) was a child, dazzled by the cinema. He became friends with Alfredo, the projectionist of the cinema paradise, the cinema of a small town in Sicily.

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The Cinema Paradiso becomes another character in the film. It is the place where the whole village meets to have fun. Different social classes, workers, policemen, children. The theatre that will house the laughter, fears and cries of the spectators. Some will know love and others will even have their first experience within those walls. The cinema acting as a common entity for all. The magic of the cinema.

The scene of the collapse of the cinema paradise is painful. With the few survivors from the glory days. The disappearance of the place, was also the disappearance of all the stories he witnessed. The cinema where the whole town was impressed when they saw the first kiss on the big screen, after long years, being censored by the priest, who was the censor who determined that it could be seen.

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_{the first and eternal love...}

Alfredo becomes a father figure for Toto, whose father died in the war. And Toto becomes that son Alfredo never had. A father always wants the best for his son. That's why Alfredo asks young Toto, who must leave that village. Go away and never come back. If you do, don't look for me. If Toto stayed in the village, he would have spent the rest of his life as a projectionist. He had to find his way in life and do it with passion.

Toto has not returned to the village for over thirty years. But he's still tied to the past. To first love. This bachelor, changing women from time to time. His mother says: every time I call you, a different woman attends. None of them wants you. Toto still thinks about his youthful love. Alfredo hid from her that he had talked to her. He did, because otherwise he would never have left the village. He sacrificed love, to achieve a greater good. Was it worth it? Hard to answer. On a new viewing of the film, I realize that Toto is returning to Rome, but I see him just as sad. Although he tries to convince Elena. Whoever still has feelings for him, it's too late.

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_{Salvatore looking at the frames he collects from the projection room}