Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1353 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-05-21
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Director's Cut, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 170 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Giuseppe Tornatore's beautiful 1988 film about a little boy's love affair with the movies deservedly won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Philippe Noiret plays a grizzled old projectionist who takes pride in his presentation of screen dreams for a town still recovering from World War II. When a child (Jacques Perrin) demonstrates fascination not only for movies but also for the process of showing them to an audience, a lifelong friendship is struck. This isn't just one of those films for people who are already in love with the cinema. But if you are one of those folks, the emotional resonance between the action in Tornatore's world and the images on Noiret's screen will seem all the greater--and the finale all the more powerful. --Tom Keogh

Special Features
Wide Screen
DVD 5
Italian
Region 2
Dolby Digital Italian
Dolby Digital
Interviews
Scene Selection
Stills Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
Star And Director Filmographies
English

Synopsis
In this delightful Academy Award-winning film, a young boy (Marco Leonardi) in a small Italian village is overjoyed when the local movie projectionist (Philippe Noiret) reveals to him the mysteries of moviemaking, beginning his lifelong love affair with cinema.

Customer Reviews

See the Director's Cut
Some of these Amazon reviews have got it wrong. The Director's Cut is the original version of the film, the way the director wanted it. It was then shortened because it was thought to be too long for an American audience. The method of shortening was basically to cut off the end of the film, thus distorting, really removing, the plot.
If you have seen the short version, you will find very few changes or additions in the first two hours, but the extra section near the end will give you a new perspective on the main characters.
The original version is certainly darker but Alfredo is not manipulative in a selfish way, he simply interferes once in Toto's life for, as he sees it, Toto's own good. At the end, Toto realises that this is the real message of the "kisses": Alfredo has cut out the love from Toto's life.
Will Toto and Elena continue their relationship? She says no and he says yes.

A film about a film lover loved by a film lover
As a film and media studies graduate, you are expected to like everything from Eisenstein to Spielberg, but we all have our favourites. This is mine.
It tells the story of a little Italian boy, who becomes obsessed with film through his inquisitive nature and friendship with the local cinema projectionist. This film tells a beautiful story, in the form of a flashback. Very European in that respect but follows a timeline like any other 'mainstream' picture.
This is the longer version of the film, but it is the way that it was meant to be viewed before it was butchered for overseas video release. Despite this butchering, the film went onto win the 1989 oscar for best Overseas movie.
Johnny Vaughan states " If you don't watch this film on your first date, then your'e not serious about love."
Even if you cannot stand films in foreign languages (this being in Italian), just get this film, the story it tells is so beautiful, that it overcomes this obvious barrier to English Speaking Audiences.
Even if you are not a film lover, like myself, just buy this one movie. I'm sure you'll fall in love with it, like I have
Magnifico!

Perfect
This is without doubt the best foreign film I have ever seen, with the possible exception of Das Boot (for which the latter falls into a totally different category anyway). Even if you are not facinated by cinema, don't let this put you off, because the shear quality story, acting, direction and romantic passion drive this film like a beautiful Ferarri. The locations are stunning and the story one of the best ever written. If you aren't really keen on films with subtitles. Please give this one a chance, because if any foreign film can sway you to watch more foreign films it is surely this one. It is nostalgic, romantic, beautiful and above all simply perfect. Buy it or rent it now! You will see what I mean.