Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Philippe Noiret: Alfredo
Photos
Quotes
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Alfredo : Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born. But now, no. It's not possible. Right now you're blinder than I am.
Salvatore : Who said that? Gary Cooper? James Stewart? Henry Fonda? Eh?
Alfredo : No, Toto. Nobody said it. This time it's all me. Life isn't like in the movies. Life... is much harder.
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Alfredo : Get out of here! Go back to Rome. You're young and the world is yours. I'm old. I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I want to hear others talking about you. Don't come back. Don't think about us. Don't look back. Don't write. Don't give in to nostalgia. Forget us all. If you do and you come back, don't come see me. I won't let you in my house. Understand?
Salvatore : Thank you. For everything you've done for me.
Alfredo : Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt.
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Alfredo : Once upon a time, a king gave a feast. And there came the most beautiful princesses of the realm. Now, a soldier, who was standing guard, saw the king's daughter go by. She was the most beautiful one, and he immediately fell in love with her. But what could a poor soldier do when it came to the daughter of the king? Well, finally, one day, he managed to meet her, and he told her that he could no longer live without her. The princess was so impressed by his strong feelings that she said to the soldier: "If you can wait 100 days and 100 nights under my balcony, then at the end of it, I shall be yours." Damn! The soldier immediately went there and waited one day. And two days. And ten. And then twenty. And every evening, the princess looked out of her window, but he never moved. During rain, during wind, during snow, he was always there. The bird shat on his head, and the bees stung him, but he didn't budge. After ninety nights, he had become all dried up, all white, and the tears streamed from his eyes. He couldn't hold them back. He no longer had the strength to sleep. All that time, the princess watched him. And on the 99th night, the soldier stood up, took his chair, and went away.
Salvatore : [later in the film, Toto gives Alfredo his interpretation] ... In one more night, the princess would have been his. But she also could not possibly have kept her promise. And it would have been terrible. He would have died. This way, however, at least for 99 days, he was living under the illusion that she was there, waiting for him.
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Alfredo : [after informed about the arrival of the new non-combustible film] Progress always comes late.
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[to Elena]
Alfredo : Out of the fire of love come ashes. Even the greatest love eventually fizzles out.
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Alfredo : I choose my friends for their looks, my enemies for their intelligence. You're too sly to be my friend. I always tell my children, "Be careful how you choose your friends."
Salvatore 'Totò' Di Vita - Child : You haven't got any children.
Alfredo : When I do, I'll tell them.
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Alfredo : Any room for me in this new paradise?
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Alfredo : And the next time be careful how you talk. Not to take credit away from the Lord, but if I had created the world, in all modesty, certain things would have come out better. But unfortunately such was not the case.
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Alfredo : "A mob doesn't think. They don't know what they're doing." Spencer Tracy said that in "Fury."
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Alfredo : Well, what do you say? Shall we let the poor devils see their film?
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Alfredo : What's she like?
Salvatore : She's very nice. My age, slim, long brown hair. Big blue eyes, honest and direct. A little beauty mark on her lip. Very small. You only see it up close. When she smiles, you feel like - I don't know.
Alfredo : Love. Love. I know how it is. The blue-eyed ones are the worst. No matter what you do, they'll never be your friends. There's nothing you can do.
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Alfredo : With all due respect to the Lord, who made the world in two or three days - I'd have taken a bit longer; but, in all modesty, I would've done it better.
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Salvatore 'Totò' Di Vita - Child : Don't you like anything about it?
Alfredo : Oh, you get used to it. Sometimes you can hear that the house if full of people laughing and having fun. Then you're happy too. It makes you feel good to hear them.Like you're the one who made them laugh - who made them forget their troubles. That part I like.
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Alfredo : Life is not what you see in films. Life is much harder.
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Alfredo : Now listen. I got into this business at age ten. Back then, we didn't have fancy machines. Movies were silent. You turned the projector by hand with a crank. All the livelong day! And that damn crank was so hard. If you got tired and slowed down a bit, like a shot - voom - everything went up in flames.
Salvatore 'Totò' Di Vita - Child : So why not teach me? Now that there's no crank and it's easier.
Alfredo : Because I don't want to. This is no job for you. You're like a slave - and always by yourself. You see a film 100 times. You've nothing else to do. You talk to Greta Garbo and Tyrone Power like an idiot. You work like a dog. Even holidays - Easter, Christmas. You only get Good Friday off. And if they hadn't stuck Christ on a cross we'd even work then.
Salvatore 'Totò' Di Vita - Child : So why don't you change jobs?
Alfredo : Because I'm a nitwit. Who else around here could run a projector? Nobody. It takes an imbecile like me. I never had any luck.
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Alfredo : That's probably how it was meant to be. Each of us has his own destiny.
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Alfredo : How'd the rascal do it? He learned by watching.
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Alfredo : Now that I've lost my sight, I see better... things I never saw before.
