Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Since we have been talking about movies, let me tell you about my all time favorite foreign film, “Cinema Paradiso.” (The review I cite here offers an excellent synopsis of the movie, although, I have to throw in a disclaimer. I strongly disagree with the review when it comes to the newer, “director’s cut” released in 2002. Don’t bother. We found it much less satisfying than the original “American” version that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for 1989.)

Briefly, the movie chronicles a young Sicilian boy’s (Salvatore’s) life growing up fatherless (due to World War II) in a small town under the strong influences of the local movies and his mentor, Alfredo, the projectionist. It was a strongly Catholic society, so the children were all in Catholic school and the local priest censored all the the “love” scenes and “romantic” scenes from each and every movie that came to town. Alfredo had to cut out the offending sequences and splice the movies back together without them before anyone could see them.

The movie begins with a grown Salvatore, who is now a famous film producer and director in Rome, getting a phone call from his aged mother telling him that Alfredo has died and that he must come home for the funeral. He then recalls his entire life up until that point through flashbacks to his never forgotten childhood and first and only love, Elena.

The original American version is just stupendous for anyone who likes movies and has fond memories of them growing up as a child and teen. As I said, it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for 1989, but I was in law school and didn’t hear of it until about 1991 or so, when (as fate would have it) the attorney I started clerking for told me about it, as he and his brother had spent their youth transporting movies back and forth in New Orleans between theaters and suppliers, the same thing Tom had done for all the years he had a drivers’ licence and still lived with his dad.

The only difference was that Lenny and his brother had transported movies back and forth across New Orleans, while Tom had transported movies back and forth from Biloxi to New Orleans. They certainly had the same affinity for hot dogs and pop corn. I still have the brochure in my desk here for a quality commercial pop corn machine that Lenny’s brother gave me one day when Lenny and I were out looking for old legal files in a New Orleans warehouse his brother had the key to.

Coconut oil. That’s the key to the best “buttered” pop corn there ever was, they all told me. Forget all the bad stuff in it. Use coconut oil, they said.

But, back to the movie.

I rented and watched Cinema Paradiso before Tom saw it. I don’t remember why, now, but told him after watching it that he absolutely had to see it because of his upbringing in theaters. So, I checked it out again and we watched it together. I cried just as much at the end of the movie the second time as I did the first. It has one of the most eloquent and powerful endings of any movie I’ve ever seen.

The power of the movie and its music led me eventually to buy not only the movie (in both versions) on DVD, but also the soundtrack, which is one of my favorites. (In fact, Josh Groban, who I really like, too, sings the “love” song on his first CD, “Josh Groban,” which I also have.)

I’ve probably seen it now some 10 times, at least, and cry yet today at the end of the movie when Salvatore watches the film clips Alfredo so lovingly saved and spliced together for him. The movie stirs up that much strong emotion.

But, it’s worth it. Believe me. If you haven’t already seen it, go rent it your first opportunity. If you have already seen it, watch it again and revel in it’s wonderful and magical look at “the movies.” You’ll be glad you did.

P. S. By the way – what are some of your favorites we “must” see if we haven’t already?! If you’ve been reading the past couple of days you know how “movie addicted” Tom is, so how about some help for the addict! Ha!