Cinema Paradiso Page #5

Cut to:

The funeral is over. The PRIEST and SALVATORE are walking back

to the village. ALFREDO appears out of the countryside on e bicycle

with a hoe and other farm tools in the basket. He comes pedaling up

beside them.

ALFREDO:

Good morning, father. It's hard on

the feet, huh?

PRIEST:

(Breathless)

Yeah!...Getting there's downhill and

all the saints help you. But coming

back! The saints stand there watching

you, that's all! God's will be done.

SALVATORE is about to open his mouth, wants to say something

to ALFREDO, but he doesn't have time. ALFREDO pedals harder

and rides off.

SALVATORE is crestfallen. He looks et the PRIEST, then at the bicycle riding

away. His eyes light up an idea! He suddenly yells:

SALVATORE:

Ouch! Ouch! My foot! I can't walk!

He limps. Throws himself to the ground as if a snake had bitten him. The PRIEST

leans over in alarm. Up ahead in the distance, ALFREDO turns around to look.

Cut to:

There is a smile on SALVATORE'S face. He is riding on the crossbar of ALFREDO's

bicycle. On their way back lo the village.

SALVATORE:

Alfredo, did you know my father?

ALFREDO:

Of course I knew your father. He was

tall, thin, pleasant, and had a

moustache like mine. Always smiling.

He looked like Clark Gable.

There's something SALVATORE wants to talk about, but he doesn't know how to

start. He has a try with an innocent stratagem.

SALVATORE:

Alfredo, now that I'm older, I'm not

saying I can start coming to the

projection booth, to the movie

house...But...maybe, why don't we

become friends?

ALFREDO knows exactly what the little rascal is up to, and answers in a

strange, theatrical tone, as if he were repeating something he knows by heart, a

remark taken from some old film.

ALFREDO:

'I choose my friends for their

looks, and my enemies for their

brains...'

(Laughs)

You're too smart to be my friend.

Besides, as I always tell my kids, be

careful to pick the right friends!

SALVATORE:

(Surprised)

But you don't have any kids!!!

ALFREDO:

(Spluttering)

All right, all right! When I've got

kids that's what I'm telling them!

(The outlying houses of

Giancaldo finally heave

into sight.)

14 SALVATORE S HOUSE. EXT. DAY

LIA, SALVATORE'S kid sister, is crying outside the front door, terror

stricken. Her face is smeared with smoke and her little dress half

scorched and soaking wet. MARIA is distraught, damp with sweat, and

tries to console her, hugging her in her arms.

MARIA:

Stop crying...The fire is out...I'm

here...That'll do, that'll do...

(ALFREDO and SALVATORE

come up behind them.

SALVATORE has barely leapt

off the bicycle when his

mother sails into him like

a fury, shrieking:)

Miserable boy! You're the ruin of me!

Your sister would have been burnt

alive if I hadn't been there! And all

your fault!

SALVATORE darts off, chased by his mother, swift as a deer.

ALFREDO doesn't understand what has happened, leans over

LIA, who goes on bawling her eyes out, and sees on the ground, in

the middle of the water, a flowery box all charred and still

smoking, and all around scraps of film reduced to ashes and

several singed photographs, the photos of SALVATORE s father.

ALFREDO gets the message now, looks up at MARIA, who has

caught SALVATORE and is dragging him home, hitting and

slapping him all the way. SALVATORE covers his head with his

hands to stave off the blows. MARIA turns to ALFREDO, in a

stern, indignant voice.

MARIA:

But aren't you ashamed of yourself,

Uncle Alfredo, playing with a little

boy at your age?!

ALFREDO:

(Cowed)

But...what's it got to do with

me?...

MARIA:

And who gave him all those films?

Promise you won't give him any more

of this trash! Don't let him set foot

any more in the movie house. The

boy's crazy! Crazy! All he talks

about is movies and Alfredo' Alfredo

and movies!!

ALFREDO is crestfallen, didn't think that SALVATORE'S craziness, his morbid

passion for movies, could go this far.

ALFREDO:

I give you my word, Donna Maria.

(MARIA now turns one last

time to her son.)

MARIA:

God's got to grant me one wish! Send

your father back home! And he'll see

you get what's coming to you!

(SALVATORE lowers his

hands, looks at her and

with the dreadful

sincerity of children:)

SALVATORE:

Daddy's not coming back...He's dead.

(An icy flash runs through

MARIA'S eyes.)

MARIA:

It's not true! No! It's not true!!!

I'll show you he's coming back!

And she beats him desperately, as if to enforce her stubborn hope, slap after

slap. This time ALFREDO doesn't step in, lets MARIA give vent

to her rage and fury, but SALVATORE'S cries make him feel guilty.

15:
SQUARE AND PROJECTION BOOTH. EXT/INT. DAY

Another Sunday. A crowd of men has gathered in the square around the café where

there is a loudspeaker. They are listening to the running commentary of the

soccer games. They check their Sisal pools coupons. NICOLO CAROSIO'S VOICE

...We're at the seventh minute of the second half. Turin is leading one to

zero. The goal was scored by...(The scene is seen from above, by ALFREDO who

peers out of the window of the projection booth. CAROSIO'S voice drowns out the

soundtrack of the film being shown. ALFREDO is bored. He goes over to the

projector, looks through the hole...It's the last sequence of the film. The

music swells to a climax as 'THE END' appears on the screen. Swift as ever,

ALFREDO turns on the lights in the theatre' stops the projector. Looks back

through the hole, to see...)

16:
CINEMA PARADISO. INT/EXT. DAY

...the house packed to the rafters. Voices and laughter of the children. Smoke,

ice-cream, soft drinks. The USHER has opened the emergency exits to let in air.

He fights off the gate-crashers who are trying to get in free. The sound of the

sports commentary fills the theatre. The village BLACKSMITH is sleeping in his

seat, his head thrown back and his mouth wide open. The KIDS blow up the empty

ice-cream sacks and pop them next to his ears. Bang! The BLACKSMITH wakes up

with a start, in a sea of laughter. He yells:

BLACKSMITH:

Ah! I'll wring all your necks!! Or my

good name means nothing! !! Lousy

brats!

SALVATORE doesn't laugh. He is sad. He turns and looks up at the projection

booth. He sees ALFREDO through the lion's mouth. ALFREDO also catches sight of

him. SALVATORE gives him a timid wave of the hand, as if asking if he can come

up a moment. The look on ALFREDO'S face is unmistakable, irrevocable: N0!

SALVATORE'S not surprised; after what happened it won't be easy to win him over.

Yet there must be some way. But what is it? As usual, SALVATORE is smart as the

devil when he's out to get something. Through the emergency exit he sees a woman

pass by with a packet in her hand. It is ALFREDO's WIFE, and the packet is his

supper. SALVATORE leaps to his feet and runs out to her.

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