Cinema Paradiso Page #6

MARIA looks up at him with a sweet smile.

MARIA:

He'll be back, he'll be back...

You'll see. One of these

days...

But there is not much conviction written on her face. She looks

back down at her sewing. SALVATORE goes on looking at the

photos.

SALVATORE:

I don't remember him any more—Ma,

where's Russia?

MARIA:

It takes years to get there. And

years to come back...Now go to bed,

Toto, it's late.

SALVATORE puts the photos back into the box and tucks the box

under LIA's cot near the charcoal burner.

9 GRADE SCHOOL. COURTYARD. EXT. DAY

A noisy crowd of little children in black smocks, white collars and blue

bows moves about the large courtyard where there are two tall palm

trees. The boys head for one door, the girls towards the opposite one.

The Janitors line them up two by two, ready to enter. Here and there,

parents and relatives accompany the younger ones. Beneath one of the

palms, SALVATORE pulls off the altar-boy tunic, stuffs it into the

khaki-colored cardboard schoolbag, takes out the smock and puts it

on, as one of his schoolmates passes by. It is MASINO, and he's crying

desperately because he doesn't want to go to school. His FATHER drags

him along, yelling:

MASINO'S FATHER

You can fool your mother but not me!

Get yourself a damn diploma and

become a policeman. You good-for-

nothing!

MASINO:

I don't want to go to school'

(The sound of the bell.

The black lines move up

the steps towards the

school.)

1O FOURTH GRADE. INT. DAY

SALVATORE is sitting at the front-row desk next to PEPPINO,

a little freckle-faced boy. His attention, like that of the whole class, is

concentrated on what is taking place at the blackboard. The TEACHER is standing

there, watching a plump little boy, shy and not quite all there, do a two-figure

multiplication it is NICOLA SCORSONE, known as 'COLA'. He is red in the face,

has one purple ear and one white one. He stares in terror at that '255 x 15'

written on the blackboard. The TEACHER yells, waving a birch rod in her hand.

TEACHER:

Well then?! Five times five

equals...?

COLA stops to think a moment, then...

COLA:

Thirty!

The TEACHER grabs him by the purple ear and bashes his head against the numbers

on the blackboard. A large thud echoes through the room, followed by a roar of

laughter. The TEACHER slams her rod on the desk.

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