Italy: Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Cinema Paradiso, written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, produced by Franco Cristaldi and starring Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi and Jacques Perrin is considered a master piece by many. 

This Italian-French film from 1988, is the story of life in a small Sicilian village after the Second World War. It deals with the memories of a man, Toto, about his childhood and his relationship with the world of cinema. 

His interest in films begins when he is very young and he learns everything he knows from his friend Alfredo, an old man who works showing films at Cinema Paradiso. Alfredo's passion for cinema is transmitted to the child, who becomes his successor. After a fatal fire at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo loses his sight, Toto has the opportunity to work at Cinema Paradiso and becomes an expert in the field. Toto spent his childhood and part of his youth in his village, where the only entertainment is the cinema, but when he gets older, and after completing a year of military service, Alfredo encourages him to emigrate to Rome so that he can prosper and build a better life for himself. In Rome, Toto succeeds in his career and his life certainly improves from an economical perspective. However, the introduction of the film lets the audience perceive that he hasn't found happiness since he lives an empty life and hasn’t found someone to truly love. When he receives a message from his mother letting him know that Alfredo has died, Toto appears to have a “wake up call” about his life. He starts remembering and life seems to explode into thousands of different situations through every image. 

Cinema Paradise was a heartwarming movie, that delicately invites the viewer to a self-examination of his/her life. I truly belief that every single human being has an specific and important purpose in life, but unfortunately not many people give deep thought to this idea. They live their days in a survival mode doing everything they can to be successful and make more money because they think that’s what life is all about. They never stop to think even for a second about why they are here or why they have been put in contact with certain people or circumstances. Sometimes the only way for them to realize they are wasting their lives is by experiencing the death of someone they really care about like Toto. I think that is precisely the theme and the message that the movie wanted to expose. That sometimes we are so worried about having a happy and successful life that we forget what it is to be truly happy.

France: Blue (1993)

Blue portrays the tragedy of Julie Vignon played by Juliette Binoche who was caught by surprise by tragedy after losing her husband and daughter in a traffic accident. This painful situation takes her through  a difficult time of deep,but hidden sorrow and loneliness. Her reaction to her intense pain, is to remove herself from the world with the intention of avoiding her new reality. She makes efforts to star a new life away from everyone and thanks to the magistral work of the director Krzysztof Kieślowski's and the director of photography, the Polish Slawomir Idziak, the audience is able to live the character’s period of grief and reconstruction as if it was it’s own. Idziak plays with light, reconstructs reality, and takes us through a “blue” world reigned by nostalgia.

This illustration of the sometimes exciting and sometimes painful "life goes on" is wonderfully transmitted by Binoche. The audience is caught in the world of her character and can’t take it’s eyes out of her throughout the entire movie. She is able to make us feel her pain through her eyes without the need of crying. She is able to let us see the color blue of her soul without saying a word. 

The presence of music in the film is also very powerful in the film. It is as if “the music” was a character by itself. A very important character which  accompanied every moment, every second of the film. The “music” directed the scenes and gave them power. The “music” was the hidden observer that knew it all. 

"Blue" is a beautiful poem, a beautiful story, a beautiful film that leaves the audience screaming for more. It is not an easy film though, on the contrary, it is slow, intimate, with many silences. 
It is a film that may not be suitable for all audiences. Rather than just watching it, the audience has to perceive it; to truly live it and in order to that, they must be receptive and have at least a minimum of sensitivity.

After this movie, the blue color always seems infinitely sad, but hopeful to me.