The Movie that Made Me Cry

Now that I'm done writing posts about what I've been up to since my last post a few years ago, I thought I'd start with some new things. But I'm afraid that the title is a bit misleading. I've seen several movies from different genres that have made me cry. A Little Princess, Up, Inside Out, Big Hero 6, etc. But this one was different.

Several years ago my dad asked for Cinema Paradiso for either Father's Day or his birthday. He wanted it because of his Italian heritage, and because he had seen it when he was younger. After he got the movie on DVD, he started asking both my mom and I if we ever wanted to watch it.

That lasted for years up until 2016 or so when we finally relented and watched it. Because it was a foreign film, there were English subtitles, and it was a bit difficult to focus on the story and characters while also trying to read the subtitles.

In the beginning I was reluctant to watch the movie, but thinking back on it, I really don't know why. It's possible my reluctance was because of how often my dad insisted that we watched it. He didn't bring it up that much, but to my young self, it felt like the insistence went on and on and on.

After getting into the groove of watching the characters and the subtitles, I realized how great of a movie it was. I loved hearing the language being spoken by native speakers, except for the actor who played the adult Salavatore. I had a qualm about that because in the flashbacks, the two actors that played the child and teenager versions of Salvatore were darker in skin color, whereas the adult was played by a white French dude. It really disrupted the flow for me, but it must not have been that much of a bad thing in the 80's because it won an Oscar.

The story that this movie told turned on the complete waterworks for me. I couldn't stop crying and I went through so many tissues just to try to stop the runny nose! In the big scheme of things, I was really glad that I watched the movie that my dad had talked about for years on end.

Comments

Grumpy said…
Never heard of it but I'll have to look for it. Thanks for not including any spoilers.

Dark skinned guy turning white is a little far fetched, but then...Michael Jackson.

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