Cinema Paraíso

Salvatore walks off towards the viewing theatre.

Salvatore is by himself in the small viewing theatre. Now the lights go down. The beam of light shines out of the little square hole of the projection booth and the screen lights up. A number trailer goes by and then Salvatore sees the first shots.

A start of intense amazement and joy suddenly runs through him, astounds him, delights him. It's the best piece of film he has ever seen...

It consists of all the kisses Afredo cut out of the films and kept for him, when he was a little boy. They have been spliced together, one , after the other, at random, same of them even upside down. And yet it looks like a first- rate editing job.

In rapid sequence the passionate kisses between actors and actresses, names famous and names unknown in the history of movies. Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Alida Valii, Rudolph Valentino, Ingrid Bergman, Clark Gable, Anna Magnani, Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Amedeo Nazzari, Luisa Ferida, Vittorio De Sica, Rita Hayworth, Tyrone Power, Doris Durante, Massimo Gironi, Marta Abba, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Assia Noris...
A whole movie season summed up in a few fragments, a few seconds. A bizarre, poignant, melancholy parade.

Salvatore is overwhelmed, moved to tears. It is the most profound act of love he has ever seen. He laughs as tears shine in his eyes. Up on the screen, another kiss, the last kiss marking the happy ending of a film. And the age-old words appear 'THE END'.

Extraído do script original, de Giuseppe Tornatore