“Going to the movies always felt like something sacred.” That is how I opened my first Catholic Movie Club column back in June 2023. I realize it is obnoxious to quote yourself, but this is my 100th column and I am feeling a little retrospective.
That insight also perfectly sums up this week’s movie: “Cinema Paradiso” (1988), written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Inspired (very loosely) by his childhood and filmed in his hometown of Bagheria, Italy, Tornatore’s film was a passion project with a troubled production. It went on to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best International Feature, and now enjoys a reputation as one of the greatest movies of all time. It also marked Tornatore’s first collaboration with famed composer Ennio Morricone, whose score is as sweeping and romantic as the film itself.
I chose “Cinema Paradiso” not because of its reputation and accolades, but because it is about what this column is about. Going to the movies is a way to relax, to bond with others, to forget our troubles—but it’s also more than that. Going to the movies puts us in touch with something bigger than ourselves. Going to the movies is sacred.
The film opens with Salvatore Di Vita (Jacques Perrin), a successful Italian director, receiving a call that his mentor Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) has died. He returns to his hometown of Giancaldo, a tiny village in Sicily, for the funeral—his first time back in 30 years. We flashback to his childhood as a precocious kid nicknamed Toto (Salvatore Cascio) in the years immediately following World War II. His father is dead, his mother is grieving and overwhelmed. The one place he feels at home is the Cinema Paradiso, the village’s movie theater.
The Paradiso is the center of village life, where people from all backgrounds and social strata mix. The theater gets film reels from all over Europe and America, which are screened only after the town priest has previewed them and marked any illicit scenes (which mostly means on-screen kissing) for removal. The man who cuts the film and stitches it back together is Alfredo, the Paradiso’s gruff projectionist. He has been doing the job since he was a child himself and initially sees Toto, who hangs around his booth, as a nuisance. But over time a bond grows between the two and Alfredo agrees to teach Toto his trade.
We follow Toto into his adolescence (where he is portrayed by Marco Leonardi), during which he experiences his first love, first heartbreak and eventually decides to leave Giancaldo for a better life. Alfredo is there for him through it all—as is the Paradiso. But despite how many times the boy hears it, there is one lesson that he will have to learn for himself: everything changes.
“Cinema Paradiso” presents cinema as sacrament. In his youth Toto is an indifferent altar boy, falling asleep when he’s supposed to be ringing the altar bells, but he approaches his work in the projector booth with devotion and care. You can tell that he considers himself at the service of something sacred. At the Paradiso we see people fall in love, fight, nurse babies, celebrate, mourn, laugh and even die in the seats of the theater. Going to the movies connects them to one another and to the very heart of life. The films they watch transport them to other places and times, inspire them to reach for things they never thought were possible.
That’s exactly what a sacrament is: a chance to experience transcendent grace on earth. Maybe you think that sounds too grandiose when discussing an artform that includes “Madame Web” and the “Trolls” franchise, but it’s true. Have you ever had a movie heal a heartache, through laughter or tears? Has a movie ever helped you make a difficult decision, or inspired you to pursue a new dream? Has a movie ever made you look at another person, or yourself, differently?
They have for me, more times than I can count—and those were all occasions of grace. Movies opened my heart and mind, expanded my imagination and helped me grow closer to the person God calls me to be. Movies aren’t a distraction or an escape from my life, but an essential part of living them.
Movies are also a way to return to times and places that have long since passed. By revisiting his hometown for the film, Tornatore both reflects on the inevitability of change and freezes a place he loved in celluloid, preserving it against the decay of time and memory. This is another way that movies are sacred, as Salvatore discovers in the film’s ecstatic ending: They are a slice of eternity where what is lost can always be found.
“Cinema Paradiso” is available to watch on Kanopy and MGM+.
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