Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso is the story of a filmmaker’s, Salvatore, childhood. Salvatore was an usher boy and liked look at the filmstrips that are cut from film reels because they are deemed inappropriate. He gets into a lot of trouble and the projectionist, Alfredo, kicks him out. He gets in trouble with his mom for using the grocery money for going to the movies but Alfredo gives her the money to make it look like Salvatore dropped it. Another day, the slides that Salvatore kept in his room, caught on fire and got in trouble with his mother and got Alfredo in trouble too. Salvatore tells Alfredo that he told his mother that he stole the slides. Later on, Alfredo comes into Salvatore’s school to take a test and asks for Salvatore’s help with it. Salvatore agrees to help him in exchange for getting to work in the projection room with him. Salvatore learns the ins and outs of working in the projection room. During one of the movie showings, the film reel caught on fire and Alfredo gets stuck in the building. Salvatore tries to get him out. Alfredo lives, but becomes blind. The movie jumps to Salvatore as a teenager. He falls for a girl who is not sure if she likes him in the same way. He tells her that he will wait for her until she changes her mind. She finally changes does and they have a love scene. Her parents do not approve of their relationship, so they take her away.  They try to sneak away and spend time with each other but eventually are forced to give up. Eventually, Salvatore has to leave for the army. When he comes back, the place is different and he cannot get used to it so he leaves to fulfill his dream of making movies. Alfredo warns him never to return. Salvatore finally returns after so many years of being away to attend Alfredo’s funeral. He comes to find out that Alfredo left him a roll of all of the kissing scenes that Alfredo used to cut out.

            The themes of this movie are relationships and attraction. The whole town is attracted to the theater because it is their only connection to outside world. Salvatore does not know much of his father since his father died in the war and Alfredo has no children, so when they are together, they treat each other like father and son. Salvatore, from the beginning has an attraction to film so he tries to spend time in the projection room. He is excited to learn how to operate the projector. When he is older, he becomes attracted to a new girl. Alfredo warns her to stay away from him because he knew that if they ended up together, Salvatore would have never gone into directing.

            Cinema Paradiso is my favorite movie that I have seen in this class so far. I loved the storyline and the characters. The back and forth between Alfredo and Salvatore is comical and entertaining. It was very heartfelt at the end.

Central Station

            Central Station is about an older woman, Dora, who works in central station as a letter writer for illiterate people. A young boy, Josue, and his mother come in almost everyday to write to Josue’s father whom he has never met. One day, his mother gets hit by a bus and dies. He has nowhere to go so he stays in central station. Dora decides to buy him a train ticket and take him home with her. At her house, he finds a drawer full of unsent letters that she has written, including the ones to his father. Dora ends up selling Josue to a couple that traffics children and with the money buys a television. Her friend makes her feel guilty about it so she steals him back and runs away. She decides to take the trip with him to find his father, but later decides to leave him on a bus and slips money into his backpack. He wakes up before the bus leaves and gets off, forgetting his backpack. They decide to hitch a ride from a truck driver. Josue tells the truck driver that he wants to be a truck driver when he is older. At a stop, Dora tries to hit on the driver, which drives him away, leaving Dora and Josue there. Dora and Josue fight on and off as they visit other cities. Dora gets a job for one night writing letters to saints for the town’s people. They finally reach the town where Josue’s father is supposed to be, but he is not there, but he does get to meet his half-brothers. Dora leaves to go back home and decides to leave Josue with his brothers. As the bus drives away, Josue tries to chase after her.

            The theme of this movie is religion. There is not many signs of religion in central station, but as they get further away from there, there are more signs of it. The trucker they meet is very religious. In one of the last towns they visit, they have a town wide worshiping party. When Dora is writing letters in the town, the people ask her to send letters to the saints instead of to people.

            I liked the storyline to this movie, but I was not a fan of the characters. Dora is a selfish, grumpy woman so I did not understand why she bothered to take Josue. It made sense when she dropped him off for him to get sold so that she could get money out of it, but she keeps helping him and keeps regretting it and it felt like an unending cycle.

Strawberry and Chocolate

            Strawberry and Chocolate is about a gay man, Diego, who does not agree with the rules of Cuba; he believes in free expression of one’s self. He attempts to befriend and develop a relationship with David, a homophobic communist who, at first believes in what communists believe. He studies political science because he believes that people should get jobs in what is important and what is needed. At first, David only befriends Diego to see what he is doing with all of the art and literature in his apartment, which could be illegal to the communists. David does not feel comfortable around Diego, however, because he keeps trying to flirt with him. David is secretly only there because his roommate thinks it is a good idea to get information on Diego and report him. David makes it clear to Diego that he is not interested in him in that way and if the relationship should continue, he must stop, in which Diego agrees. David also befriends Nancy, one of Diego’s neighbors. Diego is Nancy’s only friend and is a danger to herself. She gets upset and cuts herself and is rushed to the hospital with Diego and David in the ambulance. Diego’s friendship with David ends up breaking up his partnership with his artistic friend. Diego decides he has to move so that he can accept a job that was offered to him. David’s relationship with Nancy grows and they end up dating.

            The theme of this movie is friendship. At first, David is just interacting with Diego to see what he is up to, but Diego wants to be more than friends with David. Slowly, they get used to each other and become friends, which David’s roommate does not like. Diego is also friends with a Nancy and it is like his friendship helps keep her alive. Nancy tries to take care of David and protect him from whatever Diego has up his sleeve like a friend would. David and Nancy become more than friends as Diego is leaving so that they can be there for each other. Diego is like the glue in the relationships.

            This movie was interesting. I am not one for politics, but I respect the pride in Diego’s beliefs. I like that this movie is about being comfortable in your own skin and being comfortable around people that are different than you are.

Bombay

            Bombay is about a Hindu man, Shekhar, and a Muslim woman, Shaila, who fall in love despite their differences in religion and their parent’s protests. Their families get into a fight and they decide to run away to Bombay. They get married and are forced to live in an overcrowded apartment for a few weeks until the other family is able to move out. When the other family finally moves out, they create a family of their own, giving birth to a set of twins. One of the twins takes the religion of Hindu, and the other takes the religion of Muslim.  As the children grow up, the feud between Hindus and Muslims grow as well. Fights break out in the streets over religion. Both Shekhar and Shaila’s parents come to their house to meet their grandchildren and to stay awhile. They attempt to express their differences in private but the twins always end up overhearing. At one point, the Hindu father goes to pray with the Hindu grandson and the Muslim grandfather does the same with the other grandchild. The one pair almost gets attacked until the other pair steps in to protect them. A war breaks out on the streets and in attempts to escape the house the grandparents get blown up. The children get separated from their parents and then later from each other. They end up finding each other and, in the end, find their parents who attempted to put a stop to the war between the two religions.

            The themes of this movie are family and religion. Religion was very important to both families and would not accept a person from a different religion in either of their families. However, for Shekhar and Shaila, they would not let religion get in the way of their love and wanted to have a family of their own. It was not that religion was not important to both of them, but they did not think it was a good enough reason to separate them. Their children took on the two different religions. Their family symbolized that the two religions could live harmoniously together which is what Shekhar argues about towards the end of the film when he is looking for his children. The parents living together under the same roof but bickering was symbolic to the bigger fight that was going on right outside their apartment. But even towards the end, the one father protects the other father and treat each other like family before they die together.

            This was a very violent and unsettling film. The savagery of the town’s people was very upsetting. I did not like the movie very much. The violence reminded me of old war documentaries. However, I did like when both sets of parents were living in the house. The tension was comical.

Legend of Eight Samurai

Legend of Eight Samurai is about young Princess Shizu. Her family is killed and she is on the run from people who are after her. She encounters a bandit, Shinbei, but is rescued by two men who claim it is their fate to protect her. They tell her a story about a curse that had been put on her family and that it will take eight samurai who hold a special crystal to lift the curse. They are also in search of a mother and son duo that killed Shizu’s family, but require all eight samurai to do so as well. Shinbei returns and kidnaps the princess for the reward, but they end up having to run from trouble. Throughout the two samurai’s journey they find five other samurai that hold the crystals, but they are still in need for one more. While on the run, Shinbei and Shizu find the seven samurai, but the samurai do not trust him. He runs away, and meets the evil mother and son and finds out that he is part of their family. They turn him evil and he attacks the samurai, but they knock him out and when he awakens, he is back to normal and receives a crystal making him the eighth samurai. They get together and attack the powerful mother and son. Many samurai die during the fight, but the ones who survive prevail and kill the mother and son.

            I think the theme of this movie is loyalty. The seven original samurai are very loyal in their cause to lift Shizu’s curse and to defeat the mother and son who are out to kill them. Shinbei is, at first, only loyal to the money that he will receive for handing over the princess, but as he spends more time with her, he becomes loyal to her. However, when the samurai show their distrust towards him, and he finds out who his family is, his loyalties turn to them. Then, when Shinbei gets knocked out and wakes back up, his loyalties are back to Shizu and he even receives the last crystal of the eight samurai, which proves his loyalty.

            This is my favorite movie so far. It was humorous and action packed and that is something that I love in a movie. The fighting was not that convincing, but that is to be expected during the time it was filmed. The characters were interesting and entertaining and worked well together.