आलोचक समीक्षाएं

Remain open to fantasies but not be consumed by them. These are good lessons for a would-be director. They are good lessons for everybody. And no recent movie has taught them with more patient sweetness. [Feb. 5, 1990]

Cinema Paradiso converts you to the credo that art can indeed be holy.

You leave Cinema Paradiso with that feeling that's kind of like getting kicked in the stomach, but nice. It's one of those breathless, swept-away-by-a-movie experiences that you might have once a year, if you're lucky. [16 February 1990, Daily Notebook, p.E-1]

Anyone who loves movies is likely to love Cinema Paradiso.

Just about everything you ever loved (or hated) about Italian films can be found.

Lovely “memory'' film. [2 March 1990, Life, p.4D]

A sweet, funny exercise in nostalgia, though it's also self-congratulatory and awfully calculating.

Originally a two-part film running about three hours, this treacle has been reduced by almost a third, though it still seems to run on forever -- a bit like life but much less interesting.

They don't make movies like they used to, and this Oscar-winning Italian-French co-production spends the better part of three hours proving it.

A few moments of sly inspiration are not enough to carry an entire feature; along with the tears, it leaves behind an aftertaste of phoniness. [16 March 1990, Friday, p.H]