Cinema Paradiso

“An enchanted village. A wonderful friendship. Star-crossed lovers. And the magic of the movies.”

In a small village in postwar Sicily, the one place that matters is the local movie theater. Young Totò (Salvatore Cascio) hangs around the projection booth until Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), the man who runs the projector, lets him in. Giuseppe Tornatore frames it as a filmmaker's memory (Jacques Perrin plays him grown), and Totò is the boy who learned to love movies from an older friend.