Cinema Paradiso

Saw Cinema Paradiso. It was very sweet and heavily sentimental. The kind of movie that inspires great affection. There was a shot of a lion's head breathing fire near the beginning of the film that blew me away so completely that the rest of the movie felt kind of flat in comparison. Too bad. Also, it sneakily argues against nostalgia and sentimentality while simultaneously hitting those two notes really hard. This would make me love it all the more if I hadn't seen through this ruse. Nice try, Cinema.