I had a random flashback a couple of weeks ago, way back to when I was.. 2,3 years old, maybe?
it was a flashback of a movie, and I remembered the scene so clearly that I was able to find out what movie it was by describing it to Google.
the title was "Cinema Paradiso," an Italian movie.
I wasn't able to find it anywhere, so I ended up ordering a blu-ray of it.
it came this week, and I was able to watch it yesterday.
the movie was alright, it does seem that a lot had to be edited out in the end, for time constraints.
the movie centers around the relationship between an old man, who is a movie theater film camera operator, and a kid, who grows up to be a film director.
but the most memorable part of the movie was when the old man tells the kid a story, and it went like this:
Once upon a time......a king gave a feast. The most beautiful princesses were there. A soldier who was standing guard saw the king's daughter go by. She was the loveliest one, and he fell instantly in love. But what is a simple soldier next to the daughter of a king? One day he managed to see her and told her he could no longer live without her. The princess was so taken by the depth of his feeling that she said to the soldier:"If you can wait for 100 days and 100 nights under my balcony, I shall be yours." With that, the soldier went and waited one day, two days......then ten, twenty. Each evening the princess looked out and he never moved! Always there, come rain, come thunder. Birds shat on his head, bees stung him, but didn't budge. After 90 nights, he had become all dry and pale. Tears streamed from his eyes. He couldn't hold them back. He didn't even have the strength to sleep. And all that time, the princess watched him. When 99th night came......the soldier stood up, took his chair, and left.
the old man stopped the story there, despite the kid asking why.
apparently the kid, after a couple of years, tells his idea of why the soldier left.
it didn't show in the version I have, but apparently it does in the longer versions:
Remember the story about the soldier and the princess? Now I understand why the solider left right at the end. In one more night, the princess would have been his. But she also could not possibly have kept her promise. And that would have been too cruel. It would have been killed him. This way,
at least, for 99 nights, he was living under the illusion that she was there, waiting for him.
the fact that the soldier knew that it will not happen, but waited for 99 days,
the fact that he considered the possible heartbreak more unbearable than the 99 days of going through rain, thunder, bird shit, bee stings..
apparently the kid, after a couple of years, tells his idea of why the soldier left.
it didn't show in the version I have, but apparently it does in the longer versions:
Remember the story about the soldier and the princess? Now I understand why the solider left right at the end. In one more night, the princess would have been his. But she also could not possibly have kept her promise. And that would have been too cruel. It would have been killed him. This way,
at least, for 99 nights, he was living under the illusion that she was there, waiting for him.
the fact that the soldier knew that it will not happen, but waited for 99 days,
the fact that he considered the possible heartbreak more unbearable than the 99 days of going through rain, thunder, bird shit, bee stings..
