August 28, 2015 – The Sicilian countryside, the sea, the women who do the laundry, the places and people that populate the films by Giuseppe Tornatore “come alive” in the exhibit “The Origins of Nuovo Cinema Paradiso,” staged in Tokyo September 5-30 at the Italian Cultural Institute. On display, there are the shots by the Sicilian director and the projectionist and photographer Mimmo Pintacuda. The bond between the two is very strong, as is the strong friendship between Toto and Alfredo, the stars of “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”: it seems that Tornatore created the character of Alfredo cutting it out from Mimmo, his first teacher in photography and film art. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with M & M Mediaservices, highlights the link between the characters, the situations, the atmosphere portrayed by the two artists between the 1950s and 1970s in their Sicily and the world of Tornatore’s films. In the rich collection of photos on display, the reality of their land, Sicily, and in particular of Bagheria, their city, comes to life… As it did in the works of the director: Malena, L’uomo delle stelle, Baarìa and Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.
