Tonight, halfway through my third viewing of Giuseppe Tornatore´s "Cinema Paradiso", I asked myself a question. A question that I had asked myself a hundred times before, but never really known the answer to.

"Why do I love cinema?"

There are three things that I hold more dearly than anything in this world. My family, my friends and cinema.

In short, my family gives me warm comfort and unconditional love.

My friends give me idiotic laughter and unbreakable trust.

So what about cinema?

Is it the wonderful and imaginative escapism, one of the few means to transport yourself away from the mundane life you find yourself leading, and into a dream?

Is it my ongoing search for an emotional connection?…