Cinema Paradiso

The Cinema Paradiso is the center of the town when Salvatore is a child. Nothing in town is more important than the theater. People go there to visit and enjoy each other's company. By the end of the film, the status of the theater has greatly changed, and it is condemned to destruction after being closed for years.

The theater represents the heart of the town and the old way of life. As a child, Toto loved both the movies and the people that he could see at the theater. In the evenings, the entire town would gather to watch films. The heart and soul of the town was in that theater. However, when Salvatore returns, he finds that the theater is now in the middle of a busy, crowded square. No longer a central, important part of the town, the theater has lost all its beauty...