Basic
Info
Title:
The Legend of 1900
Genre:
Drama
Country:
Italy
Language:
English, French
Running
time: 165 minutes (Original cut), 125 minutes
Release
date: 28 October 1998
Staff
Director:
Giuseppe Tornatore
Producer:
Francesco Tornatore
Written
by: Giuseppe Tornatore
Music:
Ennio Morricone
Cinematography:
Lajos Kolta
Edited
by: Massimo Quaglia
Cast
Tim Roth as 1900 (Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon 1900)
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Max Tooney
Mélanie Thierry as The Girl
Bill Nunn as Danny
Clarence Williams III as Jelly Roll Morton
Summary
“The Legend of 1900” is a 1998 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and starred by Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Mélanie Thierry. It was also Tornatore's first English-language film, which was inspired by Alessandro Baricco's book "Novecento". The film was nominated for many awards worldwide and won several awards for its soundtrack.
Plot
Musician Max Tooney, who is badly in need of money due to bankruptcy, enters a secondhand music shop just before closing time. He sells his only Conn trumpet at a price less than he hoped. Max, who parts from his precious trumpet, asks the shopkeeper to play it one last time. The shopkeeper agrees, and he plays the trumpet. At this point, the shopkeeper immediately notices that his song was from a broken record he found inside a secondhand piano he recently acquired. He asks who the song belongs to, and Max tells him the story of 1900.
1900 was a baby found abandoned in a box on the four stacker ocean liner SS Virginian. Danny, a coal-man from the boiler room, decides to raise the child as his own. He names the child "Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900" by combining his own name, an advertisement found on the box where the child was, and the year the child was born, and hides him from the ship’s captain. A few years later, Danny died in an accident at work, and 1900 lives as an orphan in the ship.
However, the child shows his special talent in music and eventually grows up and joins the ship's orchestra. He made friends with Max in 1927, but never leaves the ship. However, when passengers explain to him a new music trend or style outside, he immediately picks it up and starts playing it for the passengers.
His fame as a pianist became so renowned that Jelly Roll Morton, a famous New Orleans jazz musician, heard his skills, and eventually Morton boards the ship and challenges a piano duel with him. (Continue)
Movie Review
“Legendary”
“Astounding Visuals,
Unique Story”
“The Legend of 1998”
“Impressive”
“This is a film I wish
everyone would see”
“The BEST piano film ever”
“Epic tale of jazz music,
friendship, romance and magic”
“Beautiful tragic film”
Interesting stories about the film
1. Tim Roth couldn't actually play
the piano. He trained for six months to simulate playing the piano in the film.
2. There was actually a registered
ship in the name of the SS Virginian, built in 1904 and abandoned around 1954.
The ship also played an important role in the Titanic disaster in April 1912,
during which time the ship was in wireless radio communication near the
vicinity of the sinking point of the Titanic.
3. Composer Ennio Morricone was
also in charge of music for similarly titled "Novecento (1976)”, directed
by Bernardo Bertolucci.
4. Both Giuseppe Tornatore's
previous film "Cinema Paradiso" and this film end with the demolition
of a condemned structure. In the “Cinema Paradiso”, it was a movie house, and
in this film, it was an ocean liner.
Thank you.
