50
They don't make movies like they used to, and this Oscar-winning Italian-French co-production spends the better part of three hours proving it.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
A few moments of sly inspiration are not enough to carry an entire feature; along with the tears, it leaves behind an aftertaste of phoniness. [16 March 1990, Friday, p.H]
80
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Just about everything you ever loved (or hated) about Italian films can be found.
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Jay Scott
Cinema Paradiso converts you to the credo that art can indeed be holy.
70
A sweet, funny exercise in nostalgia, though it's also self-congratulatory and awfully calculating.
50
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Originally a two-part film running about three hours, this treacle has been reduced by almost a third, though it still seems to run on forever -- a bit like life but much less interesting.
100
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
You leave Cinema Paradiso with that feeling that's kind of like getting kicked in the stomach, but nice. It's one of those breathless, swept-away-by-a-movie experiences that you might have once a year, if you're lucky. [16 February 1990, Daily Notebook, p.E-1]
75
Lovely “memory'' film. [2 March 1990, Life, p.4D]
100
Remain open to fantasies but not be consumed by them. These are good lessons for a would-be director. They are good lessons for everybody. And no recent movie has taught them with more patient sweetness. [Feb. 5, 1990]
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Anyone who loves movies is likely to love Cinema Paradiso.