Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso tells the tale of a young boy, and his relation to movies and the man who showed them to him. The film, set between the 1940s and the 1980s in a rural italian town in Southern Italy, is heart-warming, funny, and romantic - all at the same time.
What is truly remarkable about Cinema Paradiso, is that it is so honest in its portrayal of a peoples love for movies. Directly following WWII, Italy has been ravaged by war and is left in a grim state, with little more than a scrap of hope for happiness it seems. Yet, amongst all the misery, we see a vibrant lifestyle fueled by the majesty of film, which offers an escape for the otherwise depressing lives of the people who live in the village. When the reel starts rolling, and the lights go down, you truly see the lives of these people change, literally become better. The Cinema Paradiso becomes such a great escape from life, that it becomes their lives - people are conceived there, babies are nursed there, people sleep there, people eat there, people even die there occasionally.
It may sound odd, but i think that if this movie were American, it wouldn't be half as touching. There is something about the sadness of post- WWII that excentuates the beauty of the escape that the Cinema Paradiso.
What makes this movie so heart-warming to those who aren't physically in the Cinema Paradiso, is the fact that the audience can relate to the love for film. Because the escape of the movies is timeless. Everyone loves movies, and i love this one