Giuseppe Tornatore filmed his masterpiece, Cinema Paradiso, 34 years ago, in 1988. The director knew how to win over audiences and critics alike with this classic of Italian cinema, a beautiful seventh art love story full of nostalgia that at the same time was a sentimental portrait of post-war Italy. The film narrated the friendship between the projectionist of a Sicilian town, Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), and a curious and mischievous boy who discovers his passion for movies from the cabin of the local cinema where the character Noiret embodied works.
Salvatore was a six-year-old boy with no father who was affectionately called ‘Totò’ and, throughout the story, we relived his childhood and his memories of becoming a famous filmmaker. Adorned with the excellent soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, Cinema Paradiso won the Oscar for best foreign language film, the Golden Globe in the same category, as well as five Bafta awards, and achieved great international success.
The cast included Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio. The latter was in charge of giving life to the protagonist in his childhood stage. His sparkling gaze and mischievous smile immediately made us fall in love, just as other very young actors had previously done, such as Jackie Coogan in The Boy (1921), by Charles Chaplin; Ricky Schroder in Champion (1979) or later Giorgio Cantarini as Giosuè in Life is Beautiful (1997), by Roberto Benigni.
Cascio was only eight years old when he was cast in the role. The opportunity came to him through a casting that took place at his school. “What does cinema mean to you?” Tornatore asked him during the selection process. The kid, who had never been to a movie theater in his life, answered: “I don’t know… A very big TV?” The director was silent for a few moments and then, captivated by the spontaneity of his countryman, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing. The film was shot in Palazzo Adriano, the same town where the Cascio family lived, and the shooting was quite an adventure.
There were scenes that were recorded at dawn and Cascio fell asleep everywhere. However, the actor has always fondly remembered filming: “Tornatore taught me many things: he helped me act and, between one scene and another, he let me play football,” he said in an interview.
Salvatore had made his debut on the small screen shortly before, playing the role of the comic Maurizio Constanzo’s stealer in the Maurizio Constanzo show on channel 5 of Italian television. From there he jumped directly to Cinema Paradiso with the character that brought him fame.
Salvatore moved into the skin of Totò with a contagious naturalness, and as a reward he won the Bafta for best supporting actor, beating heavyweights like Al Pacino in Dick Tracy; John Hurt for El Prado or Alan Alda in Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Everyone fell in love with the charm of this happy and spontaneous Sicilian boy and there were not a few who predicted a brilliant future for him in acting. After the brilliant success of Cinema Paradiso, he decided to change his stage name to Totò Cascio and participated alongside Franco Nero and Fernando Rey in Beppe Cino’s drama Diceria dell’untore (1990). That same year he rubbed shoulders with Peter Ustinov in the comedy Forty Comrades and repeated alongside Tornatore in the dramatic comedy They’re All Right. In 1991 he appeared in the television series Il ricatto and in Peter Richardson’s The Pope Must Die.
However, he could never match the memory of his endearing Totò and decided to say goodbye to the scene in 1992 after taking part in Jackpot, where he had Adriano Celentano and Christopher Lee as co-stars.
At the age of 13, he resumed his studies and, far from falling into disgrace like many young actors, his life took its course, oblivious to the instability of the profession. Despite everything, in 1999 he tried to return to the industry with the telefilm Il morso del serpente, by Luigi Parisi, and in 2005 he accompanied Bud Spencer in Padre Speranza, another television movie where he played a minor accused of murder.
At 42 years old, he runs two supermarkets and a catering business in his hometown of Palazzo Adriano. He takes care of his own restaurant and a Bed and Breakfast that has a rather cinematographic name: L’Oscar dei Sapori, in clear allusion to the golden statuette received by Cinema Paradiso.
Cascio, proud that he is still remembered for his legendary role, commented in 2013 to The Guardian newspaper that “when you start as a child actor, the transition to adult actor is very difficult. As a child, you act naturally and spontaneously; but as you get older, acting seems to become something you have to study; it becomes work. And I never really wanted to be an actor.”
However, last year he revealed in an interview that he had been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive degeneration of the retina that causes visual loss. Cascio has never wanted to talk about this ailment, which was discovered precisely when he was filming Cinema Paradiso. But, after several years, he has found the strength to even write a book, entitled ‘The Glory and the Proof. Mi nuevo cine paradiso 2.0 ‘, in which he confesses that he abandoned his job as an actor because he didn’t want people to appear to him.
At the beginning of this month of August it was announced that Cinema Paradiso will become a series of six episodes that will be titled Paradiso (‘Paradise’ in Spanish) and “it will be the same story as the film but in an extended way and with several threads different narratives”, producer Marco Belardi explained to Variety magazine. Tornatore himself will be in charge of writing and directing it and its premiere is scheduled for 2023. It is not yet known who will play Totò, but the image of Cascio enthralled in front of the big screen will always remain in the memory of moviegoers.
