#lemon cakes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kellyvela · 2 years

Text

More Cinema Paradiso feelings… (Lemon Edition)

About my tags under this post

Part 1: Cinema Paradiso feelings…

*Fair Warning: Spoilers*

In Cinema Paradiso, the second image of the film is a plate full of lemons (the first one is the plant-pot in the balcony looking at the sea).

Then the film's title overlaps over the plant-pot and the plate of lemons:

In the next scene we saw Salvatore's mother calling him from Sicilia to tell him about Alfredo's death. The telephone is next to the plate of lemons.

During the film, lemons always appears next to Salvatore's mother.

Salvatore's mother is called Maria, like Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. The catholic symbolism is also pretty important in the film.

Cinema Paradiso is semi-autobiographical, based on the film's director Giuseppe Tornatore's life. So, for Tornatore lemons means home, they are a symbol of his natal Sicilia, so of course lemons are also associated with his mother.

Lemons = motherland = mother = home.

What is your favorite smell? The most nostalgic?

My favorite and most nostalgic smell is the one of the lemon orange blossom when spring approaches in Sicily. It usually starts happening in March, when suddenly, in the afternoon, right before sunset, the wind brings from the countryside the smell of the lemon orange blossom, then you knew that spring was coming. That’s probably one of the most emotional smells of my life, until these days, every time I think about it I get emotional. I’ve always been upset by the fact that no one has ever succeeded in making a perfume based on this scent. The lemon-based perfumes are not good, while the real smell of the lemon orange blossom is magnificent and hard to express in words.

—Giuseppe Tornatore

Next time we see a plate full of lemons, the scene happens in the past. The lemons are between a little Salvatore who is playing with some discarded films, and his mother who is sewing, probably mending some clothes.

In this scene the plate full lemons, that are a symbol of Sicilia, home, his mother, are next to some discarded films that Salvatore took from Cinema Paradiso, which represent the fantastic and exiting new worlds of the movies, far far away from the old little town of Giancaldo, Sicilia.

As you can see, lemons evokes Tornatore's (And Salvatore's) early life in their natal Sicilia, with their mothers. The land and home and mother they had to leave to pursue their dreams of becoming a film director. Tornatore also associates them with the coming of the Spring.

But as a film director, Tornatore makes films about the land, the home, and the people from his early life. A full circle.

* * *

And all these details about lemons makes me think of Sansa and her lemon cakes, of course.

This is what GRRM has said about Lemon Cakes:

Which brings us back to the lemon cakes. He chose that particular sweet as Sansa’s favorite for historical and cultural reasons. “She lives in the North — what would be something she would get occasionally but not regularly? Lemon cakes! Because lemons don’t grow in the North. They would get fruit in the summers, but it would not be an everyday thing. It would be special and exciting.”

[Source]

Unlike the southern Sicilia, the North in Westeros doesn't produce lemons. But despite that, Sansa's favorite dessert are lemon cakes.

Lemons are from the South of Westeros, especially Dorne, and young Sansa always dreamed to know the South with its warmer weather, its courtly life and more frequent supply of lemons to make her beloved lemon cakes.

GRRM also associates lemons with Summer that it's the opposite of the North and its almost permanent Winter. Then lemons are an object of desire for Sansa, not a symbol of home (That's snow).

And being a desired fruit, lemon cakes (obviously made of lemons) are used to lure Sansa (à la Hansel and Gretel).

Indeed, Sansa's predilection for lemon cakes was informed by Varys to the Tyrells. Olenna Tyrell planned the meeting with Sansa as a way to gain information about Joffrey's true nature and seduce Sansa with the prospect of a marriage with Willas, the older and cripple heir of Highgarden:

"Sansa," Lady Alerie broke in, "you must be very hungry. Shall we have a bite of boar together, and some lemon cakes?" "Lemon cakes are my favorite," Sansa admitted. "So we have been told," declared Lady Olenna, who obviously had no intention of being hushed. "That Varys creature seemed to think we should be grateful for the information. —A Storm of Swords - Sansa I

And Littlefinger is doing the same thing:

And best of all, Lord Nestor's cooks prepared a splendid subtlety, a lemon cake in the shape of the Giant's Lance, twelve feet tall and adorned with an Eyrie made of sugar. For me, Alayne thought, as they wheeled it out. Sweetrobin loved lemon cakes too, but only after she told him that they were her favorites. The cake had required every lemon in the Vale, but Petyr had promised that he would send to Dorne for more.

—The Winds of Winter - Alayne I

But despite this negative aspect of lemon cakes for Sansa, what always caught my attention about Sansa and her beloved lemon cakes is the fact that lemon cakes are a dichotomy, an antithesis (literary figure), because despite lemons' acid/sour/bitter taste, they are made into a dessert, that are sweet by definition (sweet course). So we can say that lemon cakes are bittersweet.

But Sansa not only likes her desserts bittersweet, she also likes her songs bittersweet, that's why she describes her favorite songs as "beautiful, but terribly sad"

After the meal had been cleared away, many of the guests asked leave to go to the sept. Cersei graciously granted their request. Lady Tanda and her daughters were among those who fled. For those who remained, a singer was brought forth to fill the hall with the sweet music of the high harp. He sang of Jonquil and Florian, of Prince Aemon the Dragonknight and his love for his brother's queen, of Nymeria's ten thousand ships. They were beautiful songs, but terribly sad. Several of the women began to weep, and Sansa felt her own eyes growing moist. —A Clash of Kings - Sansa VI

And that's why I said that when I think of GRRM saying that A Song of Ice and Fire will have a bittersweet ending, I think of Cinema Paradiso and not of The Lord of the Rings, which is the example that GRRM always gives for a bittersweet ending.

So I invite you to watch Cinema Paradiso original version, the director's cut, it's almost 3 hours but oh so worthy, because I think that Giuseppe Tornatore fully understands what a bittersweet ending is.

Life is beautiful and tragic. Something you seem to tap into in your films. What takes your breath away and what breaks your heart?

It breaks my heart to realize that the beauty of life always has its tragedy and the tragedy of life has its own beauty. This breaks my heart, especially the idea that unlike what Alfredo says in the film, that life is harder than in the movies, it is true, but unlike the movie, once life ends it is over. However, when a movie ends you can always watch it again. For this reason, cinema is more more eternal than life. Life is a movie that can be seen only once, a unique show. While a film can be seen a thousand times. Decades pass by, and the movie can be restored, the sound can be changed, as well as the support. You can always watch the movie again and again.

—Giuseppe Tornatore

Tornatore's words sounds exactly like something GRRM would say. And the use of Alfredo's words to Salvatore (Life's not like you saw it in the movies. Life...is harder.) confirms it, because, saving distances, this is exactly what Littlefinger says to Sansa about the songs: "Life is not a song, sweetling. You may learn that one day to your sorrow."

I don't want to make this post any longer, but it's worth to say that lemons are also a symbol of fertility and motherhood, in a similar way that in Cinema Paradiso, lemons are a symbol of motherland, mother and home.

The lemon tree (like the pear tree) is very fruitful, very fertile. (Like the Tullys).

And some Renaissance painters like the Flemish Joos van Cleve used to paint the classic Madonna and child depicting some lemons, as a foreshadowing of the bitterness of an adult Jesus's passion and death (the lost of a child).

See more here:

Virgin and Child

"The themes of the Incarnation, the Passion of Christ, and the Virgin’s supporting role are further emphasized by the naturally arranged still life on the balustrade. The beaker of wine and the bunch of grapes in the silver and gold-embellished compote clearly represent the Eucharist. Specifically, they recall the words that Christ spoke to his disciples at the Last Supper concerning his imminent sacrifice for Humankind: “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). The pear, because of its sweetness, symbolizes the tender relationship between the Virgin and Child. The pomegranates recall Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the fate of Proserpina, who ate the seeds before leaving Hades and thus had to return there every year on a cyclical basis, prompting the changing seasons and, therefore, the notion of resurrection and immortality. The ruby-red color of the pomegranate seeds could also refer to the blood of Christ and his sacrifice for Humankind. The halved walnut prompts thoughts of the Passion, due to its bitter flavor and its shell that symbolizes the wood of Christ’s cross. Its three parts of the outer marrow, inner kernel, and shell also denote the Holy Trinity. Finally, the citrus fruit, cut in half, again alludes to the bitterness of Christ’s suffering."

The Holy Family

Furthermore, the citrus fruit, variously identified as a citron or lemon, has been thought to recall the weaning of the Christ Child, or, perhaps, a portent of the sting of Christ’s Passion.

The Holy Family

Although the illegible text of Joseph’s book provides no further clues, certain elements in the foreground imply a religious context—a glass holding lilies represents the Virgin’s purity, the half citrus fruit with a knife references the bitterness of the Passion, and a bunch of three cherries presents the traditional fruit of paradise.

The sweetness of motherhood and the bitterness of losing a child. Bittersweet paintings, who would have thought?

* * *

BONUS: LEMON JUICE

And lastly, let me show you this funny little mention of lemon juice. It happens when Salvatore loses his virginity with a prostitute.

I'm not calling Ygritte a prostitute, but this scene reminds me of Jon's lost of virginity, the dialogue in this scene is similar to the dialogue in A Storm of Swords - Jon III, when a clumsy and awkward virgin Jon had sex with an experienced Ygritte for the first time:

"Isn't that good?" she whispered as she guided him inside her. She was sopping wet down there, and no maiden, that was plain, but Jon did not care. His vows, her maidenhood, none of it mattered, only the heat of her, the mouth on his, the finger that pinched at his nipple. "Isn't that sweet?" she said again. "Not so fast, oh, slow, yes, like that. There now, there now, yes, sweet, sweet. You know nothing, Jon Snow, but I can show you. Harder now. Yessss."

—A Storm of Swords - Jon III

And Teresa's response to Salvatore's naivety: "Who tells you this crap..." it's basically Ygritte's classic: "You know nothing, Jon Snow."

And to finish this post, the last image of Cinema Paradiso:

#cinema paradiso #asoiaf #giuseppe tornatore #grrm #sansa stark #lemon cakes #bittersweet endings

34 notes · View notes