1900 (Novecento) Set in the Po Valley of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, where he was raised, Bertolucci's sprawling drama spans the first half of the 20th century and is filtered through the lives of two men born on the same day - the day of Giuseppe Verdi's death - in 1900.
Alfredo Berlinghieri (Robert De Niro) is the son of wealthy landowners, while Olmo Dalco (Gerard Depardieu) is the illegitimate child of one of the peasants that have for generations toiled on the Berlinghieri's estate. Undaunted by the film's epic scale and scope - the shoot lasted a staggering 45 weeks - Bertolucci elicits a remarkable naturalism and emotional directness from his impressive international cast.
Bertolucci cast De Niro after seeing the young American actor in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and reunited his female leads from The Conformist, Stefania Sandrelli and Dominique Sanda. Donald Sutherland is devastatingly effective as the sadistic Attila, while Burt Lancaster and Gerard Depardieu bring characteristic gravitas and earthiness respectively to their roles. Ennio Morricone's score is a tour de force.
The film's final scenes, set in the heady, convulsive days following Italy's Liberation in April 1945, featured a few too many hammer and sickle-bedecked flags for the comfort of the film's American distributor, who eventually released the film in a truncated version that omitted some of the film's more explicitly Marxist references. Cinecittà Luce's newly struck print restores Bertolucci's film to its original running time.
New 35mm print.
"One of Bertolucci's most committed and audacious works. Still one of the most ambitious works every made by a major filmmaker." - Senses of Cinema
