Horizons
From Nuovo Cinema Paradiso ( 1988 ) le decine di film di cui vediamo qualche secondo , lo sguardo va dalla Sicilia al mondo . Poi rimbalza , e offre antipasto di un luogo che è teatro dell ’ incontro tra
natura e storia , e che viene ancora più voglia di visitare . Fermiamoci qui , giacché abbiamo parlato di assaggio , e dunque compito di queste righe non è quello di saziare . Cento altri viaggi come questo , saltando tra luoghi e set , si potrebbero fare in giro per l ’ Italia . Solo un gioco , insomma , potenzialmente senza fine anche se zeppo di “ finali ”. Giocato sapendo che ogni film , come ogni viaggio , può capitare che ci cambi la vita .
Another frame from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso ( 1988 )
home town . The film is actually shot mostly in Palermo and the province of the same name , including a memorable summer arena , on the Molo Vecchio in Cefalù , where part of the audience watches the film from boats . Quintessentially Sicily . So we have the sea , of course , from the very first shot . And we have the island ’ s nature , architecture and unique light . There are ancient traditions , childhood memories , customs that do not exist anywhere else – such as eating a salad off a prickly pear leaf – and , above all , a noholds-barred struggle between nostalgia and the temptation to fight it . Through the dozens of films , where we only see a few seconds of each , our gaze moves outwards from Sicily into the world . And then it comes back and offers us a tiny taste of a place where nature meets history , and that makes you want to visit even more . We ’ re going to stop there , because we did say that this is just a small sample , and the task of these lines is not to give us everything all at once . There are a hundred other trips like this , jumping between locations and sets , that we could make around Italy . It ’ s really just a game , one that is potentially endless and yet full of “ endings ”. And we play it in the knowledge that every film , like every journey , could change our lives .
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