Set in a small Sicilian town, the film centres on the friendship between a young boy and an aging projectionist who works at the titular movie theatre.

This Italian-French co-production stars Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio.

In 1988 Rome, Salvatore Di Vita, a famous film director, returns home late one evening, where his girlfriend sleepily tells him that his mother called to say someone named Alfredo has died.

Nicknamed Toto, he discovers a love for films and spends every free moment at the local movie house, Cinema Paradiso.

Although they initially start on tense terms, he develops a friendship with the middle-aged projectionist, Alfredo, who often lets him watch movies from the projection booth.

During the shows, the audience can be heard booing because there are missing sections, causing the films to suddenly jump, bypassing scenes with romantic kisses or embraces.

One day, Cinema Paradiso catches fire as Alfredo is projecting The Firemen of Viggiù after hours, on the wall of a nearby house.

Back in the present, Salvatore realizes that he is very satisfied with his life from a professional point of view but not from a personal one, so decides to return home to attend Alfredo's funeral.

Cinema Paradiso was shot in director Tornatore's hometown Bagheria, Sicily, as well as Cefalù on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

[6] Told largely in flashback of a successful film director Salvatore to his childhood years, it also tells the story of the return to his native Sicilian village for the funeral of his old friend Alfredo, the projectionist at the local "Cinema Paradiso".

Ultimately, Alfredo serves as a wise father figure to his young friend who only wishes to see him succeed, even if it means breaking his heart in the process.

Elena explains to Salvatore that, against Alfredo's instruction, she had secretly left a note with an address where she could be reached and a promise of undying love and loyalty.

The next morning, Salvatore returns to the decaying Cinema Paradiso and frantically searches through the piles of old film invoices pinned to the wall of the projection booth.

There, on the reverse side of one of the dockets, he finds the handwritten note Elena had left thirty years earlier.

It is also compatible with all region codes and includes different special features such as Umbrella Entertainment trailers, cast and crew biographies and the Director's filmography.

The critics consensus reads, "Cinema Paradiso is a life-affirming ode to the power of youth, nostalgia, and the the [sic] movies themselves.

[3] The famed "kissing scene" montage at the end of the film was used in "Stealing First Base", an episode of The Simpsons that aired on 21 March 2010, during its twenty-first season.

American progressive metal band Dream Theater 1992 album Images and Words' song "Take the Time" features in the lyrics the sentence spoken by Alfredo after the fire, "ora che ho perso la vista, ci vedo di più!