From my understanding, Alfredo didn't connect the two lovers because he wanted Toto experience the world out there and be successful (in this case, he became a film maker). But wouldn't true love have made 'toto' a lot happier than becoming a successful filmmaker ?
Just a thought....
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Yes, but that was the price he had to pay for his succes. I feel that only if he paid that price, he would become succesful as he did. Had he chosen love, as Alfrede might have feared, he would end like him in some ways...or end like anyone in the village.
shareAs he said, fire turns to ash. Young love and true love are rarely the same thing. Alfredo knew that Toto had something special: the vision and ability to resurrect Italian film but he'd never accomplish that if he settled down and got stuck in that little town. Feel free to quote Toto back at me: "I'll never agree with you." That's a great thing about this movie: it's not a simple story with easy answers. Maybe Alfredo was wrong. Maybe Toto would have been happier if he'd stayed. Life is full of "what-if's."
shareAs another poster noted, Toto's teenage love might not have been his "true love." Also, if Toto was truly determined to become a successful film maker, he might have come to resent the girl later in life if he had just stayed in his town. Happiness is a very complicated thing.
Somebody blows their nose and you want to keep it? -Ghostbusters
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I don't think Alfredo was at all concerned with Toto being successful or happy. Romantic that he was, Alfredo believed that Toto's destiny was to be an artist. Cinema was his medium but art was the point, not commercial gain. Or happiness. Some of the greatest artists have been notoriously unhappy.
I cannot say whether Alfredo was right or wrong, but he wanted to save Toto from the workaday life of a small town. As much as we can be inspired by young love, it can also derail us. So many people settle down young and never see the world outside their hometown. This is death to an artist, particularly a filmmaker.
1. Being moody.
2. Being bad at maths.
3. Being sad.
What a great question.
Alfredo said that life was tough. Toto was young and had the opportunity to accomplish things which he felt the two wars had taken away from him. Alfredo was also re-married so we can see how he did not want Toto to follow in the same path.
I suppose he only wanted what was best for Toto given his own bitter experiences.
We wouldn't know for sure how things would've turned out had he found Elena's note but it certainly was quite sad to see him living a relatively hollow existence even with a successful career.
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It's interesting to imagine what Alfredo would have done if he had known that Elena and Toto WERE the "great love" of each others lives.
Would he still have thought that Toto becoming a great (but rather unhappy) director was the best fate for him?
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I think its obvious that Toto would have been happier with love rather than success. This is backed up by his mothers comments "I hear a lot of women on the phone but I am yet to hear the voice of one that loves you."
shareLife is a series of choices. Many people as they grow older wonder what would have happened if they didn't take that job, married someone else, moved to a different city/country, etc. They are nostalgic for what in life they didn't get to do.
The old man thought he would have liked a career in a big city but that didn't happen so he wills it for Toto. Toto has been successful in his career but not in his love life. Older, he now wonders if he should have tried to find Elena. There is no guarantee that Elena would have been his one true love. He was a very young man when he met her but what he didn't get then intrigues him now. If he had found her, married her, and stayed in his birth town he would be sad about not taking the big chance of directing in Rome.
IMO the old man knew this and left Toto bits of romantic films to cherish from the path he didn't take. Will your movie be a comedy, a success story, a tragedy, a romance?
It is truly bizarre. Almost everyone on this board does this. Do you think every person who didn't marry his/her "high-school sweetheart" never found "true love"?
Bizarre.
All I can add is that Alfredo was smarter than 99.9% of imdbers.
There may or may not be a whole different layer to it. I (like to) think that it wasn't a clearcut case of Alfredo pushing him towards success and 'away from love.' I get the sense Alfredo knew their love was of a special kind - straight out of a movie, if you will. It rained on cue, the music enveloped them, etc, and that it wasn't ever meant to last. As others put it before me, I don't necessarily think he would have been happier if he had stayed with her. He thinks he would - but would he really? I suspect Alfredo knew best. I don't think that kind of love ever truly materialises - certainly not the way we'd expect it to. And if it meant staying behind, following in the same path as his friend (as is strongly implied he would), maybe it's for the best that he left.
I'll bet she's still got that silver dollar.