Cinema Paradiso

“I don't want to hear you anymore.

I want to hear about you.”

            These were indeed the sentences left the most powerful impact onto my mind after watching the movie, Cinema Paradiso.

It was really long since Toto left his hometown, Giancaldo without sending back any messages — 30 years. When he came back as a successful director to attend Alfredo’s funeral, he realized almost everything had changed. Perhaps the closedown of the cinema, or the place he spent half of his lifetime at, and the aging of the people he used to interact with were something saddening for Toto to know, but Giancaldo was still the place he could find the genuine nostalgic feeling. When Toto was glancing through the affectionate items that were nicely kept by his mum, I felt that I could also understand or share his sentimental feeling. It was the feeling of being able to go back to the place where one was grown, a place that one can feel safe and warm, a place that one had all sort of intensive feelings, a place that occupies an important spot in one’s heart.

This movie reminded me about my hometown, and the memorable memories I have had at there. Yes, definitely my experience was not totally similar as Toto’s, like being advised by his fatherly figure, Alfredo to leave Giancaldo and explore the world, never returned to his hometown for 30 years, and growing up as a projectionist, but I still felt emotional by looking at all these scenes. Speaking of this, I certainly acknowledged that the director of this movie was success because he had successfully letting the audiences to relate themselves to the contents of the movie.

It was more than 3 years since I left my hometown at Pulau Pinang and studying in Kuala Lumpur, but what is different was that I did return to my hometown during the semester break, or on important dates such as my parents’ birthday. Not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I still remembered how I told myself that not only shall I leave my comfort zone, working hard to be success, but also to give my parents a comfortable life. I admitted that I was being egoistic at certain points, but I have had enough with people looking down on me, and hence, I promised to myself to always work hard, wanting them to hear about me one day, and not hearing from me.

Aging, by all means, is something that nobody can ever escape from, so as my parents. Every time when I returned, I noticed them were getting older bit by bit. It was painful, painfully for me to know that being filial to them is something should not be delayed to do. Every time when I returned, I noticed my old friends had changed. It was happy, happily for me to know that they were becoming better ones, such as achieving their goals, nurturing good habits, and overcoming their weaknesses. Every time when I returned, I noticed my hometown was getting different. It was gratifying, gratifying for me to see how much my hometown was being developed gradually, more job opportunities were being offered, and people at there were being able to live more comfortably. However, every time when I returned, I noticed something was never changed. It was warmth, it was the feeling of being able to go back to the place where I came from, the feeling of being able to meet my own parents, the feeling of being able to see my old buddies, and the feeling of being able to go back to the place where I had the most intensive feelings, period.

In the movie, Toto had lost his own biological father since he was young, and spending most of his time with a male adult, Alfredo to the extent that he was treating Alfredo like his father. I think this movie had significantly portrayed the importance of a father or fatherly figure in one’s life and life development, how much does the figure could influence one’s values, belief and behaviors, and how deep had Toto attached himself to Alfredo. Just like the attachment theory suggested by Bowly (1969), attachment is a strong and extensive emotional bond that one links to the other individual. Since young, Toto tended to share a lot with Alfredo because he could find the sense of security and stability on Alfredo, seeking the proximity with the fatherly figure. For example, he shared his feeling of meeting his crush, Elena with Alfredo, as well as the depressing emotion he had when Elena had to leave him. In return, Alfredo had advised him to go and explore the world outside, and not treating Giancaldo as the center of the world and as the place to settle the rest of his life because there were more things worth for him to chase after, actualizing his dreams.

Toto was influenced greatly by Alfredo because he respected Alfredo a lot, treating him like his father, and always looked after him in order to clear his doubts in life; he was successfully shaped by the presence of the fatherly figure to become an individual who was independent, self-discipline and well-behaved. A study conducted by Meuwissen and Englund (2016) also reported that a fatherly figure is essential in one’s life as it could substantially affect one’s cognitive development or to be exact, executive functioning that is responsible for the ability of one to control his or her behavior in the process of achieving one’s goals.

In short, Cinema Paradiso is a great movie for me because it had successfully provided me not only some insights, but also the emotional feelings from watching it, plus it was also one of the great foreign-language movies I had ever watched.

Rating: 7.5/10

References

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. New York: Basic Books.

Meuwissen, A. S., & Englund, M. M. (2016). Executive function in at-risk children: Importance of father-figure support and mother parenting. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 44, 72–80.