Amazon.com Essentials:
Giuseppe Tornatore's beautiful 1988 film about a little boy's
love affair with the movies deservedly won an Oscar for Best Foreign
Film and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Philippe Noiret plays a
grizzled old projectionist who takes pride in his presentation of
screen dreams for a town still recovering from World War II. When a
child (Jacques Perrin) demonstrates fascination not only for movies
but also for the process of showing them to an audience, a lifelong
friendship is struck. This isn't just one of those films for people
who are already in love with the cinema. But if you are one of those
folks, the emotional resonance between the action in Tornatore's world
and the images on Noiret's screen will seem all the greater--and the
finale all the more powerful. --Tom Keogh
