"1900"

AVAILABLE
ON DVD
DVD Item#
ITA002-4DVD
Price: $29.95

"1900"
1977
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci's opus, a sweeping, epic achievement which chronicles the rise of Fascism and Socialism in Italy through the interlocking stories of family generations. The stellar cast includes Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu as two friends torn apart by the political upheavals in their country, Dominique Sanda, Stefania Sandrelli, Donald Sutherland and Alberto Grimaldi. A work of massive scope, brilliance and power, Pauline Kael said Bertolucci "is trying to make a people's film by drawing on the mythology of the movies, as if it were a collective memory. 1900 is a romantic moviegoer's version of the class struggle - a love poem for the movies as well as for the life of those who live communally on the land." English dialog. 315 minutes.

Guest Comments

From: "Mike Sakara"

"I hate this movie---and so does a certain billionare. 1970s Paramount executive Barry Dillar said, before it's release (in TIME or NEWSWEEK): "I don't like the 3, 4, or 5 hour" version of "1900." As with HEAVEN'S GATE, executives thought the movie could be saved with editing. Weirder than anything in Italian horror movies is the idea of future billionaire Barry Dillar okeying production of an ugly deneyal of Italian communist terrorism. The ugliness: half-dead frogs are tied to a kid's hat. A cat is graphically killed. Crap is shown coming out of a horse! This last scene is a homage to fellow traveler Sergei Eisenstein (OCTOBER showed a horse crapping.). This ugliness is in direct contrast to the magic in STAR WARS. 1900 and STAR WARS not only came out the same year, but cost almost as much to produce. Of course, STAR WARS is immortal, while 1900 is mostly forgotten. Equally forgotten is l970s Italian communist terrorism. Dino DeLaurentis didn't just move to America for the money---he feared for his life. The only point of 1900 is to shrug off Italian communist terrorism. The key scene is near the end; rich Robert DeNiro is put on trial by communists but he isn't killed---they just make believe he's dead!!! What an insult to real victims of Italian communist terrorism. 1900 was a box-office flop. But, propagandist Barney Bertoluci had no trouble following it with THE LAST EMPEROR, a pro-Chinese communist movie. So much for the Hollywood propaganda that "You're only as good as your last picture."