“Cinema Paradiso”: The Story of Child Star Salvatore Cascio – Panorama

In Italy it is Movie “Cinema Paradiso” (originally: “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”) a national shrine. Although it is 34 years old, it is shown again and again, everyone knows the plot, the actors, the Sicilian landscapes and the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. The movie from Giuseppe Tornatore tells the story of a successful director, nicknamed Totò, who returns to the village of his childhood and remembers his friend, the projectionist Alfredo, in a melancholy and poetic way. Rarely has a child’s role in a film been better cast than with Salvatore Cascio, now 42 years old, who plays Totò as a child in “Cinema Paradiso”. A few years after the world success, the always smiling boy withdrew from the public, no longer played and gave no interviews.