DVD The Legend of 1900 [IMPORT]
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Review(s): DVD The Legend of 1900 [IMPORT] | |
| Like Indie Films? Tim Roth? Bittersweet? This is the ONE! |  |
I adore Tim Roth. What a diversified actor with a talent for facial expression! He manages to capture whatever emotion the character is feeling with such conviction (and it never seems to matter what role he finds himself in) that you will find yourself feeling what he is feeling! Pain. Pleasure. Joy. Peace. Awe. You name it - he accomplishes it! Not many actors can pull that off - not in every role...Tim Roth can and does! I find him to be one of the most versatile, mesmerizing, and underrated actors today! Okay. With that said, now the movie.I caught this movie late one evening on the IFN channel of my local cable station. With so many cookie cutter, special effect hounds, and blockbuster type movies out there, IFN (independant film network) fills the void with clever, charming, and intriguing films...not movies...films! (Yes there is a difference!!!) "The Legend of 1900" is a refeshing change from the summer of '02 actionfests! This is a simple movie with a simple concept with a profound message for us all delivered in a unique, clever, sentimental, charming, and deeply affecting way. Throughout the film the viewer is torn between two worlds as Roth's character grows. You want him to go, you want him to stay, you cheer for him all the way! You laugh with him, you cry for him. You see the impact this man has on the people around him and then you ache for the narrator at the end of the story! It's bittersweet to watch as this character becomes a man, faces his lonely life head on surrounded by people who love him, but don't really know him. All the while you are comforted by the impact he has on those around him.
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This is a sort of fantasy, or fable. Roth plays the title character, who is abandoned as a baby on an ocean liner, right at the turn of the century, and is fancifully given "1900" as a surname by the stoker who finds him. He spends his whole life on the ship, never setting foot on land, and becomes a fantastically accomplished pianist. Vince plays his friend, a trumpeter who is a fellow musician in the ship's band.
He narrates some of the story, to a music store owner (Peter Vaughan) to whom he sells his trumpet, and in whose store he finds the only copy of the only recording ever made by his friend; and to the man in charge of blowing up the now-decrepit liner after WW2.I had barely heard of this movie, and rented the DVD without great hopes because I didn't see anything else on the shelves that much appealed to me. As it turned out, I loved it. It is visually beautiful, Roth and Vince are excellent, and the score by Ennio Morricone is great. It is one of those relatively few movies that I know I will want to watch again, probably more than once. There are scenes that are just wonderful, in which some action occurs or story is told as "1900" plays the piano. I won't presume to try to nail down exactly what the movie is "about", but it touches on the social role of the musician, and the relationship of art and life. It is, admittedly, somewhat sentimental, and not all scenes are equally successful. But all in all, I think this is a really terrific movie. Btw, dialogue is in English; there are no subtitles, for those who care.
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| The Legend of 1900 | |
This is undoubtedly the VERY BEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL movie I have ever seen. It is a movie that, after you have seen it, you can not forget. The story and characters, and music, haunt you, and Tim Roth is unbelievably fabulous. I can not understand why this movie, Tim Roth, and the soundtrack, did not win some major awards because the movie certainly deserved best picture of the year, Tim Roth deserved best actor, and the haunting and very original soundtrack should have also received the top academy award. This movie is even better than Cinema Paridiso, which is also one of my other favorite films. I buy this movie for everyone I really like. Lucky for me that I heard about this movie only on the Netflix website and ordered it. Why did this movie never get the publicity it deserved (that is something that I would like to know from anyone out there who may know)??
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