The Legend of 1900 (1998)
"La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano" (original title)

Shortly after the Second World War, Max, a transplanted American, visits an English pawn shop to sell his trumpet. The shopkeeper recognizes the tune Max plays as one on a wax master of an ... See full summary »

Director:

Giuseppe Tornatore

Writers:

Alessandro Baricco (monologue Novecento), Giuseppe Tornatore

Stars:

Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Bill Nunn

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 17 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tim Roth	...	Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred '1900'
Pruitt Taylor Vince	...	Max Tooney
Bill Nunn	...	Danny Boodmann
Clarence Williams III	...	Jelly Roll Morton
Mélanie Thierry	...	The Girl
Gabriele Lavia	...	Farmer
Peter Vaughan	...	'Pops', the Shopkeeper
Niall O'Brien	...	Harbor Master
Alberto Vazquez	...	Mexican Stoker
Luigi De Luca	...	Neapolitan Stoker
Femi Elufowoju Jr.	...	Black Stoker (as Femi Elufowoja Jr.)
Nigel Fan	...	Chinese Stoker
Roger Monk	...	Irish Stoker
Leonid Zaslavski	...	Polish Stoker
Bernard Padden	...	Boatswain

Storyline

Shortly after the Second World War, Max, a transplanted American, visits an English pawn shop to sell his trumpet. The shopkeeper recognizes the tune Max plays as one on a wax master of an unreleased recording, discovered and restored from shards found in a piano salvaged from a cruise ship turned hospital ship, now slated for demolition. This chance discovery prompts a story from Max, which he relates both to the shopkeeper and later to the official responsible for the doomed vessel, for Max is a born storyteller. Though now down on his luck and disillusioned by his wartime experiences, the New Orleans-born Max was once an enthusiastic and gifted young jazz musician, whose longest gig was several years with the house band aboard the Virginian, a posh cruise ship. While gaining his sea legs, he was befriended by another young man, the pianist in the same band, whose long unlikely name was Danny Boodman T.D. Lemons 1900, though everyone just called him 1900, the year of his birth. ...

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Plot Keywords:

ship | 1900s | piano | jazz | pianist | 

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Taglines:

A beatiful story of a man who could do anything... except be ordinary.

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

English French

Release Date:

28 October 1998 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Legend of 1900

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$39,200 (USA) (29 October 1999)

Gross:

$259,127 (USA) (10 December 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sciarlò, Medusa Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

170 min 125 min (international)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Exterior shots of the ship are the inspired blueprints of the SS Lusitania and her sister ship the SS Mauritania. The ballroom in which 1900 plays his piano in had a dome similar to the dome the SS Mauritania had in her ballroom during the transatlantic period.

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Goofs

When the passengers first see the Statue of Liberty, it is shown reflected in the sea. However, the reflection appears to be an image of the statue laid flat on the surface of the water, whereas a real reflection should appear to extend straight down below the surface.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Max: I still ask myself if I did the right thing when I abandoned his floating city. And I don't mean only for the work. The fact is, a friend like that, a real friend - you won't meet one again. If you just decide to hang up your sea legs, if you just want to feel something more solid beneath your feet - and it's then you no longer hear the music of the gods around you. But, like he used to say, you're never really done for, as long as you got a good story, and someone to tell it to. ...

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Connections

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Silent Night, Holy Night"
(1818) (uncredited)
Music by Franz Gruber
Lyrics by Joseph Mohr
English lyrics anonymous
Played on piano by Tim Roth

User Reviews

This is a film I wish everyone would see -

• the more people see it, the more people there are to help me work out what

to make of it. It's hard not to like, and the central conceit, the fantasy story of someone whose entire life is spent crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic, is just delicious - yet there's always something that prevents it from working as it should. There's too much narration. Narration aside, there are too many words. Just before 1900 and the narrator part ways the former explains himself, to some degree, in a longish speech. The speech was necessary: we needed to hear his reasons from his own lips. But once it had been given the scene should have ended. Instead the two characters keep adding postscripts as they walk away from one another - and they're standard, maudlin things which are at odds with what 1900 had been saying a moment ago. Again and again, there are words where there shouldn't be.

But then, it may be that the title character was given too FEW words - at least at first. Because it's so long before we first hear 1900 express his thoughts verbally (and because in the absence of other information about his character we are unwilling to pass judgment on him until he does) it takes too long for us to warm to him. In fact we never warm to him as much as we should.

And yet there are scenes - the piano duel, the girl in the rain - that are just fantastic, that make me reluctant to criticise anything at all. Any film containing moments like those can afford to lose its way at times.

P.S. Of course, a film about a pianist born on the first day of the Twentieth Century ought to be called "The Legend of 1901", which if you asks me sounds better anyway.