Cinema Paradiso Page #2

PRIEST:

All right, Toto, get moving, I've got

things to do. Say hello to your

mother.

SALVATORE:

Can I...

PRIEST:

(Interrupting him)

And don't ask if you can come...

Because you can't!! Shoo, shoo, off

with you!!

SALVATORE gives a shrug and leaves. The PRIEST goes down a

corridor, opens a door, another corridor, and finally a door

leading to an outside courtyard. He cuts across it and disappears

into another door.

5 CINEMA PARADISO AND PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. MORNING

The PRIEST enters a movie house. Not very big 200 seats on the main

floor and another seventy in the balcony. Along the walls, posters of

films to be shown are stuck up between the light fixtures. In one corner,

a statue of the Virgin Mary with flowers. The CLEANING LADY has

finished work and is leaving. Up in the balcony, over the last row of

seats, are the holes of the projection booth. The middle hole is

camouflaged by the huge head of a roaring lion, all in plaster, and the

lens of the projector can be glimpsed between its sharp teeth.

there are two smaller holes, through which the figure of a man can be

made out, appearing and disappearing...It is ALFREDO, the

projectionist. He is around forty, skinny and bony with a tough

peasant face. He has finished loading the projector and is checking the

carbons in the arc lamp. Then he removes the glass from one of the

holes and looks down into the theatre, at the PRIEST who waves his

hand.

PRIEST:

OK, Alfredo, you can start!!

He sits down an by himself in the middle of the empty theatre.

Up in the booth, ALFREDO lights the arc lamp and sets the

projector going.

Down in the theatre, the light goes off and out of the lion's mouth

streams the glowing ray aimed al the screen. String music, sweet

and ominous, spreads through the theatre. On the screen appear

the credit titles of an American film of the 1940s. The PRIEST

screws up his face and holds the bell in his right hand resting on

the arm of his seat.

At the back of the theatre, behind the last row, a curtain moves,

opens a crack and SALVATORE'S gaunt little face appears. He

has managed to sneak in somehow and stands there without a

word, spellbound, watching the 'movie' on the glowing screen.

The credit titles have long come and gone. The story is at a

turning-point.

Up above, in the hole of the booth next to the lion,

ALFREDO watches the film, but his eyes keep looking down at the

PRIEST, who is now drumming the bell with his fingers. On the

screen, the male and female lead, two Hollywood stars, are in

close-up; the dialogue is passionate, romantic. SALVATORE,

carried away by those faces, by the way they talk, by the beauty

of the woman, slowly slips down the length of the curtain until he

is sitting on the floor, his eyes glued to the screen.

The love scene reaches a climax, the music crescendos, and the love-struck

couple finally fall into each other's arms and kiss. Instinctively, the PRIEST

raises the bell into the air, as in some age-old ceremony, and gives it a loud

ring...

Up in the booth ALFREDO hears the bell; it's the signal he's been

waiting for. He takes a slip of paper from a pad prepared for that

purpose and sticks it into the loops of the film containing that

specific scene as it winds on to the reel. The projection

continues...

...And also the kiss of the two actors. The PRIEST'S nervous look lingers on

those black-and-white lips meeting and now pulling apart for one last

declaration of love before separating. SALVATORE is wide-eyed, he's probably

never seen a man and woman kiss before, it's a vision that for him has all the

attraction of forbidden fruit, the horror of sin. The screen is now filled with

the figure of a woman getting undressed, showing for one instant the white,

voluptuous flesh of her broad, naked shoulders. SALVATORE stares in open-mouthed

wonder. The PRIEST, in a fury, grabs the bell and shakes it for all he is worth.

From the sound of the bell to another sound...

6 GIANCALDO. MAIN SQUARE. EXT. DAY

The tolling of the bell-tower rings out over the

square. It is noon. The vast square, pale and dusty, is alive with people. A

noisy line of men, women and cows waits in front of the fountain to get water.

Peddlers hawk their wares in mournful cries. People come and go in front of the

town hall. The working men's club is deserted. The entrance of the Cinema

Paradiso is shut. Hanging outside is the poster of the film that has just been

seen on screen. Up above, the windows of the projection booth are open. The hum

of the projector can be heard and the loud, lofty music typical of 'THE END'.

Then dead silence. The showing is over.

7. CINEMA PARADISO. PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. DAY

Despite the speed, numerous white streaks spin around on the reel,

created by the slips of paper ALFREDO has inserted into the loops. He

is rewinding the film by hand on the film-winder. When he's not

talking, ALFREDO usually sings to himself. SALVATORE stands beside

him, taking in everything he does with those quick, thieving eyes of his

ALFREDO:

(Harshly, shouting)

You must not come here! How many

times do I have to tell you?

(And he slows down the

reels with his hand. The

slips of paper

are about to arrive.

Here's the first.)

If the film catches fire, runt that

you are, you'd go up in a

burst of flame...whoosh! And turn

into a piece of...

SALVATORE:

(Overlapping him)

...and turn into a piece of

charcoal!!

He's used to his terrorisms, pays no more attention. Not even his

grim look scares him. Anyway, ALFREDO catches the joke, starts to give him a

slap, but instead reaches over and picks up a pair of scissors.

ALFREDO:

(Angrily)

Christ, that's a sassy little tongue

you've got! Watch out, or someday

I'll snip it off.

And he snips a piece of film, pastes the ends together and goes on turning the

handle. SALVATORE picks up the strip of film and gives it a closer look. He sees

a series of frames all alike with a man kissing a woman.

SALVATORE:

Can I have it?

ALFREDO snatches it out of his hand, furiously, at the end of his string. He

shouts.

ALFREDO:

No!!! Are you deaf or something? I've

got to put this back in when we wind

up the film again! You're a real pain

in the neck!

SALVATORE reaches into a basket full of strips of film. He takes out a handful:

all kisses that have been cut.

SALVATORE:

Then why didn't you put these back

when you wound up the films again?

ALFREDO is caught out. He stops the film where another slip of paper is stuck

in and cuts the scene:

ALFREDO:

'Cause sometimes you can't find the

right place any more and so...well,

actually...they stay here.

(Finding an excuse)

Besides, there are more kisses than

you can count.

SALVATORE:

(Excited)

So I can have these?

(ALFREDO explodes, flies

off the handle. He grabs

SALVATORE by the shoulders

and shakes him.)

ALFREDO:

Look, Toto! Before I kick your ass

all the way to China and back, let's

make a deal. These strips here are

yours, I give them to you. However!

One you're not to stick your nose in

here any more. Two I'll keep them

for you, because you can't take them

home for God forbid and save our

souls, if they catch fire, all hell

will break loose! OK? Oh!!! And now

scram!

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