Cinema Paradiso (1988)
I expected to hate Cinema Paradiso a few minutes in. I’m not sure what it was. Perhaps the “ain’t-I-a-stinker” grin of Salvatore Cascio, playing young ‘Toto,’ the film’s protagonist? Or maybe it was the syrupy silliness of early scenes involving an exasperated priest censoring films of any “pornographic” kissing scenes. Little by little, the film…