“Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” – Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988


In 1988 Giuseppe Tornatore signed this unforgettable film that would go on to win a 1990’s Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.  When Nuovo Cinema Paradiso came out in theaters it had little success in Italy, except in Messina, where the cinemas would offer a free viewing of the film that viewers, upon exiting the theater, could pay if they felt so inclined. This film is bursting of Sicily.  Starting with the character Alfredo, who was inspired by Alfredo Vaccaro, a Syracusan puppeteer who met Tornatore and told him the story of his profession along with all the limitations of the time.  The village of “Giancaldo”, the setting for the story, was actually constructed to be a mountain town above Bagheria, in the province of Palermo.  The scenes filmed in the so-called “Giancaldo” were actually filmed in Palazzo Adriano, Castelbuono, Cefalù, and other locations in the Palermitan provinces.