Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) (1988)

89% of critics liked it
(57 reviews)
96% of users liked it
(60,117 ratings)

Cinema Paradiso offers a nostalgic look at films and the effect they have on a young boy who grows up in and around the title village movie theater in this Italian comedy drama that is based on the life and times of screenwriter/director Giuseppe Tornatore. The story begins in the present as a… More Cinema Paradiso offers a nostalgic look at films and the effect they have on a young boy who grows up in and around the title village movie theater in this Italian comedy drama that is based on the life and times of screenwriter/director Giuseppe Tornatore. The story begins in the present as a Sicilian mother pines for her estranged son, Salvatore, who left many years ago and has since become a prominent Roman film director who has taken the advice of his mentor too literally. He finally returns to his home village to attend the funeral of the town's former film projectionist, Alfredo, and, in so doing, embarks upon a journey into his boyhood just after WWII when he became the man's official son. In the dark confines of the Cinema Paradiso, the boy and the other townsfolk try to escape from the grim realities of post-war Italy. The town censor is also there to insure nothing untoward appears onscreen, invariably demanding that all kissing scenes be edited out. One day, Salvatore saves Alfredo's life after a fire, and then becomes the new projectionist. A few years later, Salvatore falls in love with a beautiful girl who breaks his heart after he is inducted into the military. Thirty years later, Salvatore has come to say goodbye to his life-long friend, who has left him a little gift in a film can. In 2002, over a decade after the film's original release, Tornatore brought the original 170-minute director's cut to American screens for the first time. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Giuseppe Tornatore
Written By: Giuseppe Tornatore, Peter Fernandez, Vanna Paoli
Genres: Drama, Romance, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: Oct 17, 1988 Wide
On DVD: Feb 18, 2003
Studio: Miramax Films

Critic Reviews

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle
In the director's cut, the film is not only a love song to the movies but it also is more fully an example of the kind of lush, all-enveloping movie experience it rhapsodizes.
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
The film's final hour, where nearly all the previous unseen material resides, is unconvincing soap opera that Tornatore was right to cut.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Still rapturous after all these years, Cinema Paradiso stands as one of the great films about movie love.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
This director's cut -- which adds 51 minutes -- takes a great film and turns it into a mundane soap opera.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Where the original release was an essay in childish delight and adolescent longing, topped off by a muted coda implying that you really can go home again, the reissue is a fully realized epic of the heart.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
I'm happy to have seen it -- not as an alternate version, but as the ultimate exercise in viewing deleted scenes.
Scott G. Mignola, Common Sense Media
Charming Italian film about friendship, movies.
Beth Accomando, KPBS.org
Cinema Paradiso is for anyone who loves the movies. And Tornatore's final montage of glorious movie images reaffirms the power and magic of cinema.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Sublime.
Lori Hoffman, Atlantic City Weekly
A movie lovers' delight
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Walking a fine line between genuinely emotional and overly sentimental, it evokes the magic of moviegoing in post-WWII Italy through the intimate bond between a young boy and his mentor-projectionist, splendidly played by Philippe Noiret.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
The special 2006 DVD features the shorter domestic version as well as the three-hour international director's cut, the CD soundtrack, lobby card reproductions, commentary, and a docu on the making of the Oscar-winning picture.
Ross Anthony, Hollywood Report Card
Some very interesting and important differences, but as a work on its own -- too long, tedius. See the original, nicely-edited version first.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
If too much charm can kill, this emotionally manipulative nostalgic love letter to cinema directed and written by the 32-year-old Giuseppe Tornatore is a killer.
Luis Martinez, Cinenganos
Tuvieron que pasar 5 años para que pudiéramos apreciar la historia original como la concibiera su creador; no obstante, prácticamente se trata de dos películas distintas.
James Sanford, James Sanford on Film
an enchanting, sweeping look at post-WWII life, real and reel. It's set mostly in a small Italian village, but the characters, situations and changes it depicts are universal.
Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
Schmaltzy and soft, but still hard to resist, especially if you can't imagine your life without the movies.
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
Cinema Paradiso is laden with wonderful moments and ideas. It's quite simply one of the most beautifully romantic films ever made.
Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal
Even better than the original.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Daniel M

The increasing abundance of films about films, such as The Artist, Hugo and Super 8, gives us a chance to reflect on similarly self-reflexive efforts which have come before. The best effort by far remains Peeping Tom, Michael Powell's misunderstood masterpiece which compares the… More
The increasing abundance of films about films, such as The Artist, Hugo and Super 8, gives us a chance to reflect on similarly self-reflexive efforts which have come before. The best effort by far remains Peeping Tom, Michael Powell's misunderstood masterpiece which compares the art of film directing to the macabre murders of a serial killer, and paints its audience as voyeurs. At the other end of the emotional scale, we have Cinema Paradiso, a beautiful and elegiac drama by Giuseppe Tornatore about the life of a young boy who becomes the projectionist of his local cinema. While it never quite reaches the dizzying heights of Peeping Tom, it is still a great film, a product of genuine passion and honesty which rivals 8 1/2 in its emotional peaks. Like 8 1/2 before it, Cinema Paradiso emphasises the magical and fantastical quality of cinema. While both films have a deliberately nostalgic tone, Tornatore is more understated than Fellini: he resists throwing the kitchen sink at us in the first twenty minutes, and allows both the story and the characters to gently build over two hours (or nearly three, in the director's cut). While Fellini emphasises the technical power and self-reflexive nature of cinema, the great strength of Tornatore's film is its marriage of great characters with the celebration of a powerful medium. When reviewing the Three Colours trilogy with his colleague Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert commented on the different approaches in European and American cinema with regard to character construction and development. American films, he argued, set up their characters very broadly with clearly defined traits and aims: we know what they are about from the outset, and since most of them conform to genre expectations, there are very few genuine surprises. European films, on the other hand, leave a lot more to the imagination of the audience: because we don't have everything laid before us, we have to think more and in doing so the process of bonding with the characters becomes more unconscious. While Ebert's comments are a big generalisation, they do ring true with Cinema Paradiso. Like many great filmmakers, Tornatore understands that the physical traits of a character are every bit as important as their name and occupation. He creates a whole series of characters that are so distinctive and endearing that there is almost no need to give them names. There's the couple who meet and fall in love because they are the only two people not to wince at a horror movie; as the film goes on, we see them grow closer, have children and become the kind of couple we can recognise, as opposed to an impossible 'Hollywood couple'. There are other examples of this craftsmanship, which shed light on the film's playful nature and mischievous sense of humour. We have the cinema snob who spits on the cheap seats from the balcony, only to wind up getting an ice cream sandwich thrown back in his face. There is the angry old man who threatens to make the boys into mincemeat every time they make him the butt of their practical jokes. And there is the madman who claims to own the piazza, and scampers around the town like a monkey as soon as the sun goes down. The film's nostalgic appreciation for cinema is rooted in three key observations. The first is the importance of the cinema to a community, both as a medium for entertainment and as a physical structure at which the townsfolk can mingle and congregate. When Toto returns to his home town to attend the funeral of Alfredo, he finds the old Cinema Paradiso boarded up and falling into disrepair. The hustle and bustle of townsfolk, pouring into the piazza after the latest showing, has been replaced by a feeling of poignant desolation that almost mirrors the ending of The Passenger. The second, following on from this, is the relationship between cinema and religion, and the way in which cinema reflects, in the words of Peter Bradshaw, both the profane and the profound. The first shot we see of Toto is of him as an altar boy, dozing through mass and forgetting when to ring the bell as the sacraments are blessed. Bored and alienated by the church, he finds in the cinema not just sanctity, but a feeling of purpose and meaning. The projection booth becomes his equivalent of confession, with Alfredo as his world-weary confessor, listening patiently to everything he says and picking him up on any wrongdoings. There have been numerous examples of filmmakers whose interest in cinema has spiritual origins. Even Terence Davies, an avowed atheist and critic of Catholicism, has accepted in interviews that his love for cinema was in some way reflective and resultant of his experiences with religion. Cinema Paradiso has a lot of Christian imagery running through it - for instance, the lion's mouth through which the films are projected could be a reference to the Daniel in the lions' den. But the film is never afraid to blow raspberries at religion when it feels it is out of line. The priest's absurd and duplicitous objection to kissing scenes provides us with both a gentle chuckle and a very moving finale. The third observation is rooted in the more profane act of scoring with the opposite sex. When interviewed on the BBC in 1964, Alfred Hitchcock was asked whether he made films predominantly for men or for women. Hitchcock responded women, believing that they held final say over what to see or not see: the men, he argued, went along with their choices in the hope that it might get them laid. Considering the depiction of women in many of Hitchcock's films, this observation might be considered ironic, but it does allude to the romantic pull of the big screen, both as a location and as a means of finding love. Cinema Paradiso is rife with scenes of cinema developing (or destroying) romantic love. The most obvious of these is the romantic subplot where Toto is trying to woo a girl while keeping his job as a projectionist. Both the girl he fancies and his projection work are depicted as forbidden fruit - the former because her father will not allow it, the latter because it is not deemed altogether respectable. But there are other more profane or putrid kind of love on offer. In one deadpan tracking shot, we see a number of schoolboys watching an attractive lady on screen, and all silently masturbating in the front row. Although the drama of Cinema Paradiso is at heart naturalistic, the film takes the time to incorporate and celebrate fantasy. One of the best scenes comes when Toto and the now-blind Alfredo are sat on a step, and the latter regales the former with a tale of a knight. The knight sought the heart of a beautiful lady, who promised to marry him if he waited under her balcony non-stop for 100 days and nights. The knight waited patiently for 99 days and nights, before finally giving up and leaving with his heart broken. Toto is taken in by the story and attempts something of that nature with his crush, but life imitates art and fantasy meets reality as he is left alone in the pouring rain, his heart bruised and a little wiser. The performances in Cinema Paradiso are first-class, particularly from the three actors who bring Salvatore (Toto) to life. Salvatore Cascio has an impishness and inquisitiveness which is utterly believable, Marco Leonardi handles the awkwardness of adolescence very well, and Jacques Perrin is very well-cast as the worldly-worn director with mixed feelings about his past and present state. There are all beautifully complimented by Philippe Noiret as Alfredo, who resists the urge to just play a holy fool (literally blind and yet seeing) and instead gives us a memorable performance with plenty of rough edges. Cinema Paradiso is not a perfect film. Even in its edited form, it is a little bit too long, and the final act in particular suffers from slack pacing. But this is a relatively small problem in the context of a film which has substance, brilliant characters and a heart-warming tone that will both challenge and content you. It remains Tornatore's finest and most rounded work, and one of the high points in the canon of cinema about cinema. It comes with the highest recommendation, as a film to lift your spirits and break your heart.
Daniel P

A sentimental gem. No one makes an emotional film better than the Italians do, and among the Italians, I'm wondering if Tornatore's the best. This story - a memory of a small-town childhood and its movie theatre experienced by a now successful man who lives in Rome - is a… More
A sentimental gem. No one makes an emotional film better than the Italians do, and among the Italians, I'm wondering if Tornatore's the best. This story - a memory of a small-town childhood and its movie theatre experienced by a now successful man who lives in Rome - is a beautiful one, and the only criticism I can throw at it is that it's all rather normal. Touching slice of life, though, a stirring classic.
c0up

'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso'. A time when movies meant so much more to everyone than they do now, and a simply beautiful tale of a relationship between a little boy and the town's film projectionist. If you really love movies, you can't help but fall in love with this!
Jan Marc M

Crafted with and for the love of movies, Cinema Paradiso is a vividly paced, wonderfully crafted work in most charming and pure cinema delight.
Jameson W

Simple, but a masterpiece!
First L

Writer/director Giuseppe Tornatore seemed heavily inspired by Fellini's 1973 film "Amarcord", but with a love story steeped in the cinematic tradition. The story follows young Salvatore 'Toto' Di Vita, a kid growing up in a small italian village whose soul… More
Writer/director Giuseppe Tornatore seemed heavily inspired by Fellini's 1973 film "Amarcord", but with a love story steeped in the cinematic tradition. The story follows young Salvatore 'Toto' Di Vita, a kid growing up in a small italian village whose soul lies in the cinema. His hero, Alfredo, is the projectionist at the "Cinema Paradiso", the movie theater that doubles as the church in the daytime. In fact, the local priest is in charge of 'censoring' all the racy content from the films shown in the theater, having Alfredo cut out any scene where two people kiss. The boy grows into a teen and falls in love with a beautiful girl who's father doesn't approve, and the two are destined to be separated. All the while, and under Alfredo's encouragement, Toto continues to develop his love of the cinema into other practical applications, including making his own films. Salvatore winds up leaving the village and does not return for 30 years, and then only for Alfredo's funeral. He finds much has changed in the village, but there are also several ghosts from his past still lingering about the empty buildings. A lot of passion went into making Cinema Paradiso, there's a lot of it up on the screen; some elements are painful and some are joyful, how well one can relate to it depends on the life one has lived. Chuck Berry once said: "Everyone, if not now, someday will have been in love, or remember love, so why not write a song about that?". A love story is perhaps the most obvious way to go when writing something from the heart. The trick to this film is, the true love story is between Toto and the cinema, in spite of what we are led to believe when we are led to believe otherwise. The slightest little hook at the end of the film, and the whole tone is changed.
Manu G

A celebration of youth, friendship, and the everlasting magic of the movies. This is why I love movies! Perfect Movie! There's just a couple of films that I can say 10/10 but this one was purely an amazing film. The feeling throughout this film is indescribable and the end is… More
A celebration of youth, friendship, and the everlasting magic of the movies. This is why I love movies! Perfect Movie! There's just a couple of films that I can say 10/10 but this one was purely an amazing film. The feeling throughout this film is indescribable and the end is just superb. I'm so glad I watched this film and now is one of my top ten films of all-time. Highly recommended and if you don't like it something's wrong with you! Beginning at the end, the movie opens with Salvatore's mother trying to inform him of the death of Alfredo. Salvatore, a filmmaker who has not been home since his youth, leaves Rome immediately to attend the funeral. Through flashbacks we watch Salvatore in his youth, in a post WWII town in Southern Italy. As a young boy he is called Toto and he has a strong affinity for the cinema. Toto often sneaks into the movie theater when he shouldn't and harasses the projectionist, Alfredo, in attempts to get splices of film that are cut out by the church because they contain scenes of kissing. Toto has a younger sister and war widowed mother who often struggle due to the loss of Toto's father. Toto is banned from the movie theater by his mother when his film bits accidentally catch fire and nearly kill his sister along with burning up the only picture Toto has of his father along with other family photographs. Eventually he sneaks his way back and forms a father-son bond with Alfredo, despite Alfredo's reluctancy, Toto even learns how to run the projector. Meanwhile one of the townspeople wins the lotto and becomes a rich man. One day in the cinema, after Toto leaves to watch the movie with his friends below, the film catches fire in the projector and knocks Alfredo out. Young Toto rescues Alfredo from death in the fire, unfortunately the cinema burns down and Alfredo loses his sight. Lucky the lotto-lucky-townsman pays to have a new cinema put up. Since Toto already knows how to run the projector he works with Alfredo in the projection room. Some years pass and Salvatore is now a young man. A rich girl, Elena, comes to town and Salvatore and his friends vie for her attention. Salvatore films her and begins to fall in love. Alfredo advises him to steer clear of love because it only causes pain. Despite his warning, Salvatore confesses his love to Elena, who's reply is that she does not, but she could. So he waits, every night outside her house for her reply. One day he gives up and trudges home depressed and upset only to soon discover that Elena does love him in return. They begin a passionate romance, like that of two newlyweds. Unfortunately, Elena's father doesn't approve and so he takes Elena away. All summer they try to meet, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. On one particular day he tries to reach her and she him but their paths don't cross. As we discover later, Alfredo catches Elena and convinces her to leave Salvatore alone out of love. Salvatore then wanders without purpose and eventually joins the military due to the requirement by Italian law that all male youths serve for a period of time in the army. When he returns to his home town, all has changed and he cannot adjust. Alfredo urges him to leave and tells him that if her were to ever return, he would not see him. Obviously Salvatore goes on to become a successful filmmaker. As he wanders the remains of his town after the funeral he sees a vision of Elena just as she was when they were young; he realizes it is Elena's daughter and follows her to Elena's home where he sees that she married one of Salvatore's childhood friends, a dunce when Salvatore knew him. He confronts Elena and they meet. They talk and she reveals to him that she didn't miss out on their fateful reunion but rather that Alfredo convinced her to leave. Salvatore realizes what a role Alfredo had in shaping his life and that Alfredo knew that if he stayed with Elena he would have no chance to pursue his love of film and so by going to Rome to become a filmmaker he sacrificed his love for Elena. Salvatore and Elena say farewell and go their separate ways. Salvatore returns to Rome with a can of film left to him by Alfredo. It contains all the splices of the kissing scenes from Salvatore's youth.
Conner R

Most fans of film should find a lot to love in Cinema Paradiso. Full of nostalgia and homages to classic movies, you're bound to find something to connect to. The story is extremely touching and honest, but it's the execution that makes it truly beautiful. The… More
Most fans of film should find a lot to love in Cinema Paradiso. Full of nostalgia and homages to classic movies, you're bound to find something to connect to. The story is extremely touching and honest, but it's the execution that makes it truly beautiful. The cinematography, editing and score from Ennio Morricone take you into this world of film and never let you break free. The characters are so well pieced together as well, especially the relationship between Alfredo and Toto spanning over twenty some odd years. Even with three actors playing the lead role, all of them managed to be effective in their own way. The child star Salvatore Cascio was probably one of the cutest little mischievous Italians and gives so much heart and soul; as far as i'm concerned he gave the best performance.
Carlos M

The original theatrical version is surely great, a beautiful homage to cinema, but check out the extended director's cut, a new and quite different experience that gives much more space to the love story, resulting in a much richer and complete narrative. This is certainly one of… More
The original theatrical version is surely great, a beautiful homage to cinema, but check out the extended director's cut, a new and quite different experience that gives much more space to the love story, resulting in a much richer and complete narrative. This is certainly one of my favourite films of all time.
Bob O

Cinema Paradiso is a 1980's crowd-pleaser about the comfort factor of movies in Italy's misbegotten, post-war years; told from the perspective of a little Italian cinefile. To say that Cinema Paradiso is emblematic of its time is fair -- it's far more Penny Marshall… More
Cinema Paradiso is a 1980's crowd-pleaser about the comfort factor of movies in Italy's misbegotten, post-war years; told from the perspective of a little Italian cinefile. To say that Cinema Paradiso is emblematic of its time is fair -- it's far more Penny Marshall than De Sica. But that doesn't mean it's void of heavenly moments, saccharine as they may be.
Anthony L

A beautiful film about love, friendship, sacrifice and cinema! It's pretty much perfect as films go and I could watch it again and again - the true test of a films worth!
Sanjaya &

One of the best European film of all time!!! Guiseppe Tornatore makes a great, really great movie about friendship and everlasting love... Two big thumbs up too for the cast, especially for Salvatore Cascio as Salvatore Di Vita-child and Philippe Noiret as Alfredo... They're… More
One of the best European film of all time!!! Guiseppe Tornatore makes a great, really great movie about friendship and everlasting love... Two big thumbs up too for the cast, especially for Salvatore Cascio as Salvatore Di Vita-child and Philippe Noiret as Alfredo... They're special friend relationship really makes me wanna cry, it's beautiful... And a thumbs up for Agnese Nano for playing the beautiful Elena in this movie, she's the perfect cast for this movie... Overall, I can considered it as one of the best European film of all time I've ever seen... But, too bad they had a pretty long duration, almost 3 hours, which is can make everyone who watching it could sleep in the middle of the movie.. But that thing didn't happened to me, because I really enjoyed this movie... And a great decision for the Academy Awards by giving this movie Best Foreign Language Film winner..
Lady D

Firstly I have to say the young boy who played Salvatore has to be one of the most talented and adorable young Actors ever, he completely grips your attention. He is comical and a rebel in the making and had the film ended as Salvatore ages I would have been just as impressed with… More
Firstly I have to say the young boy who played Salvatore has to be one of the most talented and adorable young Actors ever, he completely grips your attention. He is comical and a rebel in the making and had the film ended as Salvatore ages I would have been just as impressed with the film. It?s always satisfying when your expectations are met and exceeded with a film, as this film no doubt does and is worthy for all it's high praise. For me, there seemed at times a reminder of ? Life is Beautiful? in the natural humour sense, which of course is absolutely a compliment. Although the ending didn't seem to be quite as fast moving, this is a film to add to one of those 'movies you must see' lists.
Arash X

I guess I'm the only one in the whole planet who don't like this movie that much, It's a bit cheesy & corny for my taste
Lorenzo v

"A celebration of youth, friendship, and the everlasting magic of the movies." A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.… More
"A celebration of youth, friendship, and the everlasting magic of the movies." A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist. REVIEW There are a handful of films, which at their core, allow us to view things in the manner reminiscent of when we were all kids, and where emotion and spontaneity are the fundamental pillars. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso allows to temporarily abandon ourselves to innocence, and at least in my case, always causes a smile to lurk up. Some may think its portrayals of love, loss, and friendship are naive in their presentation, but it helps guide you through the persona's journey, which in certain instances resembles the emotions we go through at different points in our life. The film itself is fairly simple in its delivery, which in turn, helps the viewer identify with the characters thoughts, struggles, and emotions. I strongly recommend this film for anyone who appreciates simplicity, and wishes to experience a film that has the ability to make you laugh, cry, think, and reminisce on the moments in our life that you will always treasure.
Pierluigi P

To live inside a fable, where we can play with time, places and sentiments, a perfect sphere of existence that can only be reached in dreams is a pleasant thought we all cinephiles love to have. As mere mortals, or the infants we still are, we have two ways to conquer that fantasy… More
To live inside a fable, where we can play with time, places and sentiments, a perfect sphere of existence that can only be reached in dreams is a pleasant thought we all cinephiles love to have. As mere mortals, or the infants we still are, we have two ways to conquer that fantasy world, we can either sleep, or we can enter and sit in a dark room, operate a machine and enjoy the ride while we are awake. That is the theme of one of the most beautiful fairy tales ever portrayed on the silver screen. The adjectives to describe such amazing story are endless, the truth is that every image and musical note open a path to culminate in one of the most exhilarating, nostalgic, tender, uplifting, colossal and everlasting gems in film history.
Fernando Rafael Q

Truly beautiful film in many ways. The score is lovely, and the performances by Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi and Philippe Noiret are really good. Emotionally powerful, this film is constantly pulling on your heartstrings. My only problem was the dubbing, it made the movie feel… More
Truly beautiful film in many ways. The score is lovely, and the performances by Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi and Philippe Noiret are really good. Emotionally powerful, this film is constantly pulling on your heartstrings. My only problem was the dubbing, it made the movie feel sort of fake. The scene with the projection on the building and the one with the montage at the end are breath-taking.
Alice S

Preferred the original to Director's Cut because 1. The latter is too freakin' long and B. Meeting Elena again is so deus ex machina. Even though they don't get together, it gives Salvatore one small ounce of happiness and confirmation of her love, and well, I'm a… More
Preferred the original to Director's Cut because 1. The latter is too freakin' long and B. Meeting Elena again is so deus ex machina. Even though they don't get together, it gives Salvatore one small ounce of happiness and confirmation of her love, and well, I'm a sucker for static character arcs.
Emile T

I loved Cinema Paradiso. Cinema Paradiso is LOVE itself. A classic in my heart, one of the best foreign movies I've seen.
Sarah G

Possibly one of the most overated films I've seen. Lacks creativity and has "clichee" written all over it. I just couldn't relate to the characters or the story. I just didn't like it at all, thought I would.