Square screenings of international documentaries and shorts, Italian and foreign guests, jazz music, folk and re-enactments enlivened the square of Palazzo Adriano for three days. “Paradiso Film Fest” tonight closes its doors and does so in the most poetic way, with the inevitable outdoor screening of “New Cinema Paradiso.”
As in Tornatore’s film, the famous square will be transformed into an arena, to share the excitement of outdoor cinema: 30 years after the unforgettable film was released in theaters, an immersive, multisensory experience in the very square that enchanted the Bagheria-based director. Special guests of the evening were the actors Marco Leonardi and Agnese Nano: the interpreters of the characters of Salvatore and Elena arrived yesterday afternoon in the small town of Palermo to attend the screening of the film in its restored version and reveal the most curious behind-the-scenes details of the moments they experienced on the set. It was a real blast from the past, including walks through the streets of the town, visits to museums, and the many encounters during these hours with the many citizens with whom they shared the set and lived together during the months of filming in the late 1980s,
An event strongly desired by the administration of Palazzo Adriano and the mayor, who as a young boy, along with many other citizens, experienced firsthand the experience on the set of Cinema Paradiso as an extra: “A cultural event of great value,” Mayor Nicola Granà tells Magaze. “Through the gaze of the camera, but also through music, we addressed a challenging topic, that of migration: people responded well, appreciated the theme and were glued to their chairs every night, and we were on time with our festival in addressing such a sensitive issue. At this moment in history many of our institutional representatives convey messages of hatred and division among people, but our beautiful square, through the “Paradiso Film Fest,” echoed the values of sharing and being together. In addition,” Granà concludes, “30 years after the theatrical release of Tornatore’s award-winning film, we are dedicating the final evening to our square and to ‘Nuovo Cinema Paradiso’: we already know that it will be a magical moment, an enormous emotion.”
“The hope of this first edition of the Paradiso Film Fest,” recalled artistic director and Italo-Belgian musician Pierre Vaiana, “was to travel together toward a fantastic utopia: that of knowing how to live together, in tolerance, in respect for every culture, and above all in imagination and creativity. Culture is travel, a journey that takes us through extraordinary sensory paths that completely transform us, a journey that opens our minds, that makes us understand other perceptions. This small country has so much to tell and share in reflecting on the world of today and yesterday, and certainly tomorrow.”
The “Paradise Film Fest” has thus reached the halfway mark. Here are the last appointments of the day with “La Piazza è mia – Piazza in festa”: an afternoon of musical processions with the traditional Sicilian fanfare sung by the historic Alessandro Scarlatti band of Palazzo Adriano, the gathering with the harnessed mules through the streets of the town, organized in honor of the festivities of the Most Holy Crucifix, and the repertoires of carter songs interpreted by Giovanni di Salvo, member and leader of the Bagheria Singers, among the last heirs to the tradition of the elaborate and archaic songs that accompanied the hard work of Sicilian carters. Also in Umberto I Square, the setting that served as the backdrop for the picturesque scene of “U strattu,” the ancient art that saw the women of the village work the tomatoes exposed to the sun on wooden boards, will be reconstructed. An installation dedicated not only to the citizens who lived with director Tornatore and his cast of actors in the late 1980s, becoming part, if only for a few months, of the fascinating world of cinema, but also to photography enthusiasts and instagrammers who will want to enter the scene and immerse themselves in a photographic tour to capture the re-enactment and share it in real time.The film screening, however, is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m.
