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| Courtesy of New Line International |
Ten years and four feature films later, acclaim for Tornatore’s
work in the west was so prominent among elite critical film circles, it was
only natural the Italian writer-director would try out directing a film outside
of his spoken language. In other words,
with the over two-and-a-half hour spanning musical melodrama epic film The Legend
of 1900 starring Tim Roth and Pruitt Taylor Vince, Tornatore turned over
his first English language film. Despite
being a top-to-bottom Italian production, the film based loosely on Alessandro
Baricco’s poem Novecento (not to be confused with the Bernardo
Bertolucci film of the same name) is filmed entirely in English but couldn’t
feel less American if it tried.
Sometime in the 1940s, trumpet player Max Tooney (Pruitt
Taylor Vince) wanders into a used music shop offering to sell off his old Conn
trumpet. Making less than he hoped for it,
he asks to play it one last time when the clerk notices the tune he’s playing
is the same one on a broken record he found inside a used piano. Thus begins in flashback the story of The
Legend of 1900 as told by Max Tooney in voiceover, that of an abandoned
child in a classy ocean liner found by a coal-man working the boiler room who
takes him under his wing. Born with a
natural talent as a child prodigy pianist, the boy is given the name Danny
Boodmann T.D. Lemon 1900 (no, really) and grows up permanently attached to the
ship’s music band which he never leaves.
The key to the premise of The Legend of 1900 is that
through his youth up to adulthood, now played by Tim Roth as a dashing debonair
piano wild cat, is that for all of his life he never once for a moment sets
foot off of the ship, only dreaming about what lies beyond the docking port. As the film progresses, cutting back and
forth between Tooney in the record store and flashbacks of 1900 in all
of his glory, played with whimsical and energetic gusto by Tim Roth, we witness
several episodes including a piano duel against a New Orleans jazz mogul played
by Purple Rain’s very own Clarence Williams III as well as a fleeting
aside with Melanie Thierry as a nameless woman who inspires the mythical
recording which starts the conversation between the shopkeeper and Tooney.
Something of a distinctly Italian (despite the English
dialogue) musical answer to James Cameron’s Titanic with the idea of a
mythical legendary larger than life quasi-romantic figure existing only through
the tall tales of those who lived with them, The Legend of 1900 is like Cinema
Paradiso before it sprawling as well as intimate. It is chock full of glittering, lush set
pieces and wild piano duels filmed brilliantly in panoramic widescreen by Lajos
Koltai with almost hyperkinetic editing by Massimo Quagila. The score by Morricone is as painterly and
overwhelming as his music comes and suits the film’s cozy atmosphere very well.
Tim Roth as the film’s titular legendary hero attacks the
role with all of his might despite not having any actual piano skills to speak
of himself, another testament to the film’s power of editing. Much of the film rests solely on the
shoulders of character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince, a regular face in Oliver
Stone movies. Having seen Vince appear
in bit parts here and there, it took some getting used to the idea of him
carrying a near three-hour film but he does a mostly serviceable job and has
the leading man swagger of Tim Roth to fall back on when needed.
The real scene stealer (and reason to watch the film)
involves a heated and increasingly intense piano duel between 1900 and New Orleans
jazz king Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III in a firey supporting role). Watching the two carefully place their cigarettes
on the corner of the table before smashing the piano keys with their
hyperactive claws will very likely remind newcomers of the heated drumming
battles glimpsed in Whiplash. It’s
that intense of a sequence and again is worth the price of admission all by
itself.
Despite the accolades, reception to the Italian director’s
foray into English cinema was tepid at best.
Against a $9 million budget, the film took in around $4 million at the
Italian box office amid a limited US theatrical release and the film was more
or less forgotten to time. Circa 2019
however, the film underwent a full 4K restoration in Italy followed by a wide
theatrical release in China which managed to gross almost $20 million within
the first two weeks, making it a minor blockbuster. While that renewed interest in the film has
yet to reach Italy or the United States, the small but strong cult of The
Legend of 1900 is slowly making its way back into the consciousness of
world cinephiles.
While the film is a tad on the long side with some measure
of ambiguity regarding what the film and its voiceover narrator think of its
title character, The Legend of 1900 is nevertheless an engaging work of musical
fantasy made with the same love for the power of the music as Cinema
Paradiso demonstrated for the movies.
Though swept away by the waves generated by Titanic which it
clearly owes much of itself to, The Legend of 1900 is less of an Italian
James Cameron vehicle as it is another sweeping paean to the fondness of memories
from a bygone era. If nothing else, see
it for one of the greatest piano duels in world cinema history!
--Andrew Kotwicki
