--- title: "Cinema Paradiso: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso" critics_score: 78 critics_reviews: 10 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cinema Paradiso (1988): what the critics said Critics' score 78 from 10 reviews: 9 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Cinema Paradiso, with praise centred on the friendship between young Toto and projectionist Alfredo and the cinema’s place in Sicilian village life. The performances, particularly the young lead’s, make the nostalgia engaging for most reviewers, while the music, cinematography and production design reinforce the affection for childhood and communal filmgoing. Several reviews also find a harder truth beneath the sweetness: the pain of returning to a home that cannot be recovered. The main division concerns how much sentiment the film can sustain, with responses ranging from wholehearted affection to outright rejection. Even favourable reviews acknowledge its sugary tone; Variety finds the running time excessive and the score too insistent in reinforcing the emotion. The AV Club is the clear dissenter, finding the idealised village life and prolonged nostalgia deadening rather than moving, a rejection of the qualities most critics embrace. ## Empire — Ian Nathan Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic praises the film's graceful, moving simplicity as one of cinema's great love songs to cinema, highlighting its tale of friendship and nostalgia in a Sicilian village. They single out the tender performances, locations, soundtrack, and exhilarating kiss-clip finale for particular praise. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cinema-paradiso-review/) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 1999. The review positions the film among the century's best and praises its generation-spanning story of friendship between a projectionist and a boy, with the cinema as the vibrant center of small-town life. It singles out the superbly engaging onscreen interaction between the leads for praise. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/cinema-paradiso-review/) ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 27 April 1990. The review portrays the film as a shining valentine to the movies, full of homages and romantic music, that captures why people love films for both breaking and lifting hearts. It highlights the nostalgic, almost unabashedly sentimental story of a youngster's obsession with movies in a small Sicilian village and its influence on his life. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-27-ca-143-story.html) ## Time Out — Guy Lodge Rating 4/5. 9 December 2013. The critic praises the film’s enduring wide-eyed charm and brazen sentimentality even decades later, noting it is never exactly fashionable. They single out the ‘you can’t go home again’ message that hits hardest amid the sweetness. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/cinema-paradiso) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 2 February 1990. The critic calls it an Italian memory film about the magic of movies, focusing on a boy's love affair with cinema and his friendship with the projectionist in a picturesque Sicilian theater. It notes the film's picturesque qualities and the censoring of kisses but implies a somewhat soggy, nostalgic tone overall. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/02/movies/review-film-cinema-paradiso-memories-of-movies-in-a-movie.html) ## The AV Club — Nathan Rabin Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 25 June 2002. The critic sees the film as glossy middlebrow fluff and a shamelessly sentimental love letter to cinema and idealized Sicilian life. The extended cut adds bittersweet elements but the overall nostalgia, sentimentality, and cinephilia become deadening after a while. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/cinema-paradiso-1798197633) ## Variety — Variety Staff 31 December 1987. The review describes the film as a colorful, sentimental trip through happier days in the Italian film industry, praising its technical work, solid cast, and the director's storytelling ability with cute kids and easy emotion, while noting good ideas beneath the schmaltz. It criticizes the overlong runtime and the sugary sentiment reinforced by the score. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1987/film/reviews/nuovo-cinema-paradiso-1200427509/) ## Collider — Jackson Jackson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 6 December 2011. The film is a timeless classic and cinema's greatest ode to motion pictures, beautifully poignant about love for family, romance, and especially the movies themselves. The critic singles out the moving performances, delightful Ennio Morricone score, and beautiful cinematography and production design as elements that work in perfect harmony. [Read the review](https://collider.com/cinema-paradiso-blu-ray-review/) ## Digital Spy — Stella Papamichael Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 8 December 2013. The critic celebrates the film's nostalgic power and its tribute to the communal magic of cinema, calling it pure film magic. She singles out the richly textured celluloid presentation and the moving central relationship between young Toto and the projectionist Alfredo for praise. [Read the review](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/re-viewed/a536654/re-viewed-oscar-winning-love-letter-to-movies-cinema-paradiso/) ## Eye for Film — Keith Dudhnath Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2003. The critic calls Cinema Paradiso a wonderful, completely faultless film with perfect direction, acting, script, cinematography, editing and score. He singles out the young Salvatore's infectious and uplifting performance as an absolute treasure. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/cinema-paradiso-film-review-by-keith-dudhnath) ## HeyUGuys — Lewis Bazley Rating 4/5. 13 December 2013. The film is a saccharine yet joyous celebration of childhood, love and cinema that retains its ability to stir the heart. The critic singles out the young Toto's hilarious and adorable performance along with the iconic ending that makes the soul soar. [Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/cinema-paradiso-review/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso.md