THE LEGEND OF 1900 (Fine Line) Starring: Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Clarence Williams III, Melanie Thierry, Bill Nunn. Screenplay: Giuseppe Tornatore, based on the monologue "Novecento" by Alessandro Baricco. Producers: Francesco Tornatore. Director: Giuseppe Tornatore. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 119 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
If I could be sure what THE LEGEND OF 19900 is supposeed to be about -- or have any sympathy for what I suspect it's about -- I might actually have enjoyed it. There are certainly some appealing technical elements in Giuseppe Tornatore's "fable" about a strange character named Nineteen Hundred (Tim Roth). Born on an ocean liner called the Virginian in the year that becomes his name and abandoned in a lemon crate, Nineteen Hundred is raised by one of the ship's coal stokers (Bill Nunn). He also never leaves the ship, becoming a pianist for the Virginian's jazz band when his prodigious musical talents emerge. A trumpet player named Max (Pruitt Taylor Vince) befriends Nineteen Hundred, and becomes convinced that the piano virtuoso could become a musical legend out in the world. Yet Nineteen Hundred continues to struggle with the idea of leaving the ship, even when he becomes infatuated with a beautiful passenger (Melanie Thierry).
For a while, the gilded romanticism of THE LEGEND OF 1900 makes it easy on the eyes and ears. Cinematographer Lajos Koltai burnishes every frame with a mysterious light, filling the film with a sense of epic nostalgia. The music is frequently captivating as well, with Ennio Morricone's haunting themes building interest in the eccentric Nineteen Hundred. Music also anchors the film's best sequence, in which jazz legend Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III) comes to the Virginian to challenge Nineteen Hundred to a piano "duel." It's all quite fanciful, given an undercurrent of consequence by Pruitt Taylor Vince's performance of thousand-yard stares, flashing back to the friendship that changed Max's life.
In retrospect, Vince deserves immense praise for his work, since he manages to convey the idea that this story has something profound to say. It's actually quite a preposterous piece of work, as it turns out, and not because of its protagonist's unique life. Tornatore just doesn't give us any sense of who Nineteen Hundred is or what he's all about. At times he's a dreamer who spins elaborate descriptions of places he's never been; at times he's a hard-nosed competitor who delights in showing up the famous Jelly Roll and shouting an epithet after him as he leaves the ship. He isn't so much a character as he is a deliberate enigma -- not becuase he's complex, but because Tornatore wants to make him an all-purpose archetype. Tim Roth gamely tries to give Nineteen Hundred a human face, but in this "fable" he's not really playing a human. He's just a metaphor for something or other.
If forced to guess what he's a metaphor for, I'd have to say it ties in with early themes in the film about immigrants coming to America. Nineteen Hundred's fears of leaving the Virginian may represent those who stayed behind while others dared to leave for the New World -- the idea of finding his fortune "out there" isn't as compelling as staying where things are known and comfortable. THE LEGEND OF 1900 might have worked as a sympathetic, affectionate acknowledgement of those whose fears held them back. Unfortunately, Tornatore elevates a phobia to sage philosophy, having Max nod knowingly as Nineteen Hundred gives a lengthy speech about the dangers of an "infinite" world. There's something vaguely pathetic about his paean to boundaries; it's even more pathetic if we're expected to find him somehow noble in his obsessive fear. The theme also appears far too late in the story, leaving you to wonder about all the preceding filler that simply confuses the question of what this character is all about. Eventually, the film implodes under the weight of the importance placed on Nineteen Hundred's life. It turns out we've been suckered into caring about the fate of a vague symbol, and maybe a vague symbol for something foolish and sad.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 turns of the century: 4.
Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe".
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews