The Legend of 1900
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| The Legend of 1900 | |
|---|---|
 Italian poster |
|
| Directed by | Giuseppe Tornatore |
| Written by | Giuseppe Tornatore |
| Starring | Tim Roth Pruitt Taylor Vince |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Lajos Koltai |
| Editing by | Massimo Quaglia |
| Distributed by |  Medusa Film Fine Line Features |
| Release date(s) | October 28, 1998 October 29, 1999 December 17, 1999 |
| Running time | 160 min. 120 min. |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $259,127 |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Legend of 1900 (Italian: La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano) is a 1998 film featuring Tim Roth and directed by the Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore. The film is inspired by a theatre monologue, Novecento, by Alessandro Baricco.
[edit] Plot
Max Tooney enters an antique shop just after World War II for the purpose of pawning his trumpet. He asks if he can play it one last time, and proceeds to play a piece that the shopkeeper recognizes from a broken record master he found inside a recently-acquired second-hand piano. He asks who had written and played the music. At that, the story of 1900 is related to the shopkeeper (and the viewer) in the form of a flashback, and the story takes off from there. 1900 was found abandoned on the ship, a mere baby in a hand basket, and likely the son of poor immigrants from steerage. Danny, a coal-man from the boiler room, is determined to raise the boy as his own. He names the boy Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900 (a combination his own name, the year, and an advertisement found in the basket) and hides him from the ship's officers. Sadly, a few years later, Danny is killed during a storm, and 1900 is forced to survive aboard the SS. Virginian as an orphan. For many years, he travels back and forth across the Atlantic, keeping a low profile and apparently learning the several languages spoken by the immigrants in Third Class.
The lad shows a particular gift for music, however, and eventually grows up and joins the ship's orchestra. He befriends Max when he embarks in 1926, but never leaves the vessel, even when presented the opportunity to fashion a new life with a pretty immigrant girl. Apparently, the outside world is too "big" for his imagination at this point. But he stays current with outside musical trends (either through records or sheet music, we are never told for sure) and gains a considerable reputation.
At one point in the film Jelly Roll Morton, of New Orleans jazz fame, comes aboard to challenge 1900 to a piano duel. 1900 merely toys with the hot-tempered Morton, even going so far as to play a note-for-note version of an original tune Morton just played! In the end, the ship-bound 1900 defeats Morton handily.
A record producer, having heard of 1900's prowess, brings a primitive recording apparatus aboard and cuts a demo record of a 1900 original composition, but the pianist ends up smashing it. He is offended at the prospect of anyone hearing the music without him performing it.
The story flashes back to the mid-1940s periodically, as we see Max (who leaves the ship's orchestra in 1933) trying to lure 1900 out of the now-deserted hulk of the ship. Having served as a hospital ship and transport in World War II, she is scheduled to be scuttled and sunk far offshore. Max manages to get aboard the ship with the recording 1900 made long ago, and attempts to convince him to leave the ship, but he is too daunted by the size of the world. Feeling his fate is tied to the ship, he simply cannot bring himself to leave the only home he has known. In the end, it is assumed he has died with the Virginian as she blows up and sinks.
[edit] Cast
- Tim Roth as Nineteen Hundred
- Pruitt Taylor Vince as Max
- Mélanie Thierry as the girl
- Bill Nunn as Danny
- Clarence Williams III as Jelly Roll Morton
- Peter Vaughan as the Shopkeeper
- Niall O'Brien as Harbor Master
- Alberto Vazquez as Mexican stoker
- Gabriele Lavia as Farmer
