The piazza of Giancaldo is actually Piazza Umberto I in Palazzo Adriano near Palermo, with its octagonal 17th-century Baroque fountain. The Cinema Paradiso was built there as a set, and the war-ruined town was filmed in Poggioreale, which has stood empty since the earthquake.
Cinematographer Blasco Giurato looks at the audience as much as at the screen: wooden chairs, a bedsheet for a screen, faces in the reflected light of the projector. The model for the projectionist Alfredo was the Sicilian photographer Mimmo Pintacuda, who once brought Tornatore into cinema.
