Victor I think the reason Alfredo so anxiously wants Toto to leave the village could be because especially in many small villages right after WWII, life was tough. And as you aptly pointed out (that’s the story of the Italian Emigration) many saw opportunities elsewhere. Alfredo’s adult point of view probably has been exposed to this social movement and sought to reinforce it in Toto.

In my opinion, rumination of the past is a staple of many Italian films (e.g., Fellini’s Amarcord, even Mediterraneo). By going back in time the protagonist tries to unearth some inner meanings or clues that could help him/her cope with the present. And usually we have this tendency to paint a rosier picture of the past. When audiences see that, they immediately look for common threads in their lives. And in this film it’s easy. We all carry our first love story, people we grew up with and ponder many years later about their fate.

Another huge contributor to this heavy-duty portion of emotionality is the incredible soundtrack by Ennio Moricone, this year’s Oscar winner of lifetime achievement.

Put simply, the combination of easy to identify with themes, quaint locale that feeds on our fascination with a simple life to ease pressures of our fast-paced complex world (see also Mediterraneo, Il Postino and Malena), romanticized cinema history and Moricone’s timeless music - to me are the key ingredients for the power of the film.

Regardless what we could imagine, that last sequence, the films from which he must have already seen many many times, completely moves him. Is it just because Alfredo is blowing him kisses? Is this just an old man’s foolish plea for nostalgic consideration? It’s too important a sequence to just be a wave goodbye. And are all the defects in the film stock simply a response to the need for verisimilitude? Doubtful - most audiences would hardly notice if the film stock were scratched or not. The film defects tell us and Salvatore that perfection isn’t necessary to get a story across - that some things endure despite age, distance, compromise, professional necessity. What would Salvatore care about these various liplocks and exposed thighs if they weren’t the resurrection of his original love? If he were not already completely enamored with storytelling? In this one sequence Salvatore can finally begin to tie together his own history, his relationship with Alfredo, and his work as a storyteller into something else, perhaps his own Cinema Paradiso, one that doesn’t hide the projection room but brings it out in the open as the dream of an adult tied into the people around him.

Of course, in the original that new determination is to seek the woman of his dreams, and in this I completely agree with Pasquale: It is better for the film not to locate the object of his desire in the woman who got away because it is his passion as a storyteller which has been absent.

Yes, I know you’ll say that Salvatore as the director communicated this as the film, but I’m not buying it. But maybe we can both agree that the education of Salvatore needs to continue.

And I need to see more of these films!