by Luanne Paul King

The Visitor

Widower Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a professor of economics at Connecticut College who has lost interest in teaching students and relating to his colleagues. When he’s asked to present an academic paper in New York, Walter half-heartedly agrees. He goes to the New York apartment he owns but rarely visits. He discovers two young lovers are living there: Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a djembe drummer from Syria, and Zainab (Danai Gurira) a beautiful Senegalese artisan. They are both illegal immigrants and paid rent to an imposter. Chagrined, they pack up and leave.

Walter tails them with a picture they forgot. When he sees them phoning about lodging, his dormant compassion is revived, and he invites the immigrants to  stay at his place for a few days. Tarek and Walter become friends. Tarek teaches Walter how to play his African drum and says, “play not thinking, just feeling.” As Walter drums with Tarek, he experiences rhythms that lift him out of his depression.

But it’s a post-9/11 world. Tarek is apprehended by police in a subway and sent to a detention center. Walter protests and retains a lawyer. When he visits Tarek, Walter sees his friend is worrying about his mother and Zainab. He needs music. I was very moved when Walter and Tarek tapped out rhythms in a visitor stall, separated by glass, just using their fingers.

When Tarek’s mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives from Michigan, distressed that she hasn’t heard from Tarek, Walter invites her to stay in the apartment. Their deepening affection shows Walter is now able to feel and respond to new relations. Sadly, they learn that Tarek has been deported. Devastated, Mouna feels responsible and leaves for Syria. Walter is alone, but he has a beautiful drum — and a renewed life. What will he do next?

104 minutes. Rated PG-13. Written and directed by Tom McCarthy. Available on DVD.

Cimema Paradiso (Director’s Cut)

Cinema Paradiso won the 1989 Academy Award for best foreign language film, as well as many other awards. Millions of people have enjoyed the original theatrical version of the film, but many aren’t aware of the 2002 director’s cut that added 51 minutes of superb footage. The New York Times hailed the new version as “more romantic, more emotional and ultimately more satisfying than the teary-eyed original.”

The story is set in the fictional town of Giancaldo, Sicily, where the cinema is the town’s main entertainment. With flashbacks, we see the changes in filmmaking during 30 years. We follow film-lover Salvatore “Toto” Di Vita through childhood and adolescence, and adulthood in Rome as a successful film producer. Salvatore Cascio plays Toto as a child, Marco Leonardi portrays him as an adolescent, and Jacques Perrin plays him as an adult. Working all his life as the cinema’s projectionist, Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) is Salvatore’s mentor and soul mate. The love of Salvatore’s life is Elena, played by Agnese Nano (as an adolescent) and Brigitte Fossey (as an adult). That is fabulous casting.

174 minutes. Rated R. Subtitles in English and Spanish. Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Available on DVD.