Connectivity: Cinema Paradiso (Director’s Cut)

In Cinema Paradiso (1988) , filmmaker Salvatore “Totò” Di Vita (Jacques Perrin) returns to his small Sicilian community of Giancaldo to attend the funeral of Alfredo (Philipe Noiret) , the town’s longtime film projectionist, who had served as Salvatore’s mentor during his childhood. Through a series of flashbacks, the film revisits the local cinema where a young Salvatore first discovered the power of movies and formed a deep bond with Alfredo. The Carsey-Wolf Center is excited to bring director Giuseppe Tornatore’s rarely-screened 2002 director’s cut of Cinema Paradiso to the Pollock Theater. In this more complex version of the film, Salvatore returns to Giancaldo to discover what he left behind, including a secret that was excised from the theatrical version of the film. The New York Times argued that the director’s cut is “more romantic, more emotional and ultimately more satisfying than the teary-eyed original. By adding 48 minutes to that two-hour release, and bringing back a character that had been deleted from it, the director’s cut sabotages the earlier version’s message, a variation of the old admonition that you can’t go home again.” An intimate coming-of-age story, a brooding rumination on the complexity of adulthood and adult decisions, and a touching reflection on cinema’s broader cultural role, Cinema Paradiso is one of the medium’s most heartfelt tributes to the collective experience of moviegoing. This event will begin with a critical and historical introduction by Ross Melnick (Interim Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center) , who will discuss the film’s relationship to our yearlong programming series Connectivity. A reception in the Michael Douglas Lobby will follow the screening. This event is free but a reservation is recommended in order to guarantee a seat. Ross Melnick is Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara and Interim Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center. He was named an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Scholar and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for his book Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World (Columbia University Press, 2022) . He is the author of American Showman: Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry (CUP, 2012) , co-editor of Rediscovering U. S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television, and the Archive (AFI/Routledge, 2018) , and co-author of Cinema Treasures (MBI, 2004) . His research has appeared in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Film History, The Moving Image, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and in numerous other journals and edited collections. This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center and the James Hayman (’75) fund for CWC Classics. The Carsey-Wolf Center’s 2025-26 feature series Connectivity examines the evolving meaning of connection in our contemporary moment. While the term “connectivity” often invokes our ever-increasing entanglement with digital infrastructure and social media networks, this series reimagines the term not only as a technical feature of media, but as a humanistic value and a condition of social and public life. This series embraces connectivity as a framework for thinking critically about the ways in which people use media to connect with ideas and with one another, from the shared experience of moviegoing to the collective bonds forged through storytelling and public dialogue. The CWC Classics program celebrates cinema’s rich history, bringing classic films back to the big screen for critical viewing and discussion. These events feature filmmakers, academics, and professionals who can contextualize the production and historical impact of the films. The series occasionally presents classic films in their original 16 or 35 mm formats. CWC Classics events celebrate the history and significance of cinema’s enduring legacy.