The Legend of 1900 ( La Leggenda del pianista sull'oceano ) ( The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean (The Legend of Nineteen Hundred) )

The Legend of 1900 (DVD) (*)

$28.99

Original Title: La Leggenda del pianista sull'oceano
Alternate Title: The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean (The Legend of Nineteen Hundred)
Screened, competed or awarded at:
David Donatello Awards
European Film Awards
Golden Globes
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Subtitles )
Italian ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Italian ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
158 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Documentary
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Storyboards

Movie filmed in 1998 and produced in:
Italy ( Italy, Greece )

Directed By:
Giuseppe Tornatore

Written By:
Alessandro Baricco
Giuseppe Tornatore

Actors:
Tim Roth ..... Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred '1900'
Pruitt Taylor Vince ..... Max Tooney
Mélanie Thierry ..... The Girl
Bill Nunn ..... Danny Boodmann
Clarence Williams III ..... Jelly Roll Morton
Peter Vaughan ..... 'Pops', the Shopkeeper
Niall O'Brien ..... Harbor Master
Gabriele Lavia ..... Farmer
Vernon Nurse ..... Fritz Hermann, the Bandleader
Alberto Vazquez ..... Mexican Stoker
John Armstead ..... The Young 1900 II
Cory Buck ..... Musician
Norman Chancer
Sidney Cole
Katy Monique Cuom

Synopsis:

On the 1st of January in 1900, Danny Boodmann (Bill Nunn), the mechanic of the transatlantic liner Virginian bound for America, finds an abandoned baby on board and decides to keep him. Nicknamed Novecento (1900), the boy grows up on the ship hidden from everyone. His presence is revealed when Danny dies in an accident. The young '1900' manages to hide again despite threats from the captain. Discovering a passion for music, he teaches himself to play the piano without being able to read the notes, and he soon becomes a virtuoso whose reputation spreads beyond the confines of the ship. Even the famous jazz piano player, Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III), gets on board for a challenge because he has heard rumors about the greatest piano player in the world living on a ship.

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. Abandoned in first class by his immigrant parents, 1900 was found and adopted by Danny, a stoker, and raised in the engine rooms, learning to read by reading horseracing reports to his adoptive dad. After Danny's death in an accident, 1900 remained on the ship. Increasingly lured by the sound of the piano in the first-class ballroom, he eventually became a gifted pianist, a great jazz improvisationist, a composer of rich modern music inspired by his intense observation of the life around him, the stories passengers on all levels of the ship trusted him enough to tell. He also grew up to be a charming, iconoclastic young man, at once shrewd and oddly innocent. His talent earned him such accolades that he was challenged by, and bested Jelly Roll Morton in an intense piano duel that had poor Max chewing paper on the sofa in agonies of suspense. And yet for all the richness and variety of his musical expression, he never left the ship, except almost, once, in the aftermath of his infatuation with a beautiful young woman immigrant who inspired the music committed to the master Max discovers in the pawnshop. Max realizes that 1900 must still be on the ship, and determines to find him, and to find out once and for all why he has so consistently refused to leave.

An epic story of a man who could do anything... except be ordinary.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 06 March, 2009.

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