The original release is better than the Director's cut

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Definitely like the shorter cut better. I just didn't really care about Elena that much and thought the last hour dragged on so much. Does anyone have any more detail about the differences? I hadn't seen the original in over 15 years and didn't quite remember most of teh scenes anyway.

I agree with you. I've seen the original release several times and today I watched the extended version. The whole romance between Salvatore and Elena has its merits but takes the focus away from Paradiso and the magic of movies and movie going. It just doesn't fit.
Not only that, but it gives a twist to Alfredo. Suddenly he's not such a great guy anymore. He becomes just a good guy with good intentions.

It dilutes the lyricism of the original with the inclusion of a love story that ultimately is banal.

I voted 9 on account of the original release. I'd give the extended version a 7.

I like the directors cut because I feel it increases the depth of all characters - Alfredo included. What I like about the increased length of the final act is that we're given a LOT to juxtapose from the first half. It becomes a mirror of nostalgia vs reality, and Alfredo's warning call of "don't give into nostalgia" gets magnified. Salvatore has to give into his nostalgia to counteract the disappoint of how Giancaldo has turned out. Then, when he watches Alfredo's reel of the banned kisses at the end, the nostalgia feels even more overwhelming and transportive.

They're almost completely different films - others are right in that the first one is much more streamlined about Toto's relationship to the movies, but the directors cut increases that to show how films are an agency for nostalgia that appears to give us the ability to remember a "better," "simpler, "more romantic" life than we end up having. It becomes a film about the projection of our memories, which I think works on a many different levels apart from the original - they're both fantastic, and it's a rare instance when a director's cut actually reshapes a film and gives you the story from a different angle.

One shot is what it's all about.
-Robert De Niro, The Deer Hunter

I think the idea is that if youve seen the original before the extended version, you always prefer the original. I understand that people prefer the mystery left by the original version. I didnt see the original version, but I think i would have wanted to know what happened to Elena and the reason why she never met Toto at bus station. Its just too bad to know that Alfredo was the reason they never got together. And the fact that she married that stupid classmate of the young boy Toto.

Just finished the international version. I can see your point of view, prohibited-name-154. If that's the case of Elena marrying someone else and not ending up with Toto, then I'm glad I saw the theatrical version over the director's cut. It is true, we lose contact with people, particularly after our teen years, but you still remember them.

I first saw the "short" version of Cinema Paradiso in the theaters, back when I was in college. At that time in my life, that version of the movie served me very well. The scenes of the post-Army Salvatore and Alfredo were poignant but inspiring at the same time ("I don't want to hear you talk. I want to hear others talk about you.").

Fast forward twenty years, and with great trepidation I popped in the director's original version. The same notes were there, but the depth was greater, and the sadness more profound. As a full fledged adult, thinking back to my youth is mostly an exercise in idealization. The original version of the movie shows the audience that a lived life is far harder than a movie. The original version also shows us that small things have a ripple effect that aren't so apparent when they occur.

I think as a young man, the "short" was perfect. I've watched it a good number of times since college, its wistful message hitting me strongly each time. But the original version is closer to the reality that I know now. Life is about joy _and_ heartache. Things don't always turn out the way you want them to. Chance decisions set you on a path, and all of a sudden there you are. The next time I sit with the movie, I'll take the director's version, so I can be reminded of these things.

Rick (http://www.rickumali.com/) Umali

I agree that the original was better. The original is what audiences first fell in love with, which go the Academy Award and became an international classic. How can you make it better than that?

I can't think of any director's cut that I though was better than the original. Often, more is less. If a director is forced to cut some scenes out of a movie, of course he is going to cut the weakest scenes. How can adding them back in be an improvement?