1900 (movie)

Synopsis

1900 tells the parallel lives of two boys born on the same day in a large landed property of the Emilia-Romagna in Italy at the beginning of the xx ^th century. The story begins in late January 1901 , with the announcement of the death of Giuseppe Verdi ( January 27 ), with the birth of Alfredo, the son of the owner, and Olmo, the bastard son of a large family of sharecroppers attached to the farm. The two boys grow up together and gradually become aware of their opposite social status.

Alfredo is a son of a big bourgeois landowner, stifled by his authoritarian father close to fascist circles . He seeks to escape this paternal grip and lead a carefree life, leaving the fascist foreman Attila (member of the Black Shirts ) to take control of the property and brutalize the peasants. Olmo, a peasant’s son, is awakened early to his poor social status. Faced with injustice, he asserts, pushed by his teacher fiancee, his socialist convictions and organizes the resistance against the fascists.

The opposition of these two destinies accompanies the history of Italy, from technological progress to the First World War , from the rise of social demands to fascism ( squadristi) . The film ends with the end of the Second World War and the peasants’ victory over the fascists. In the epilogue , Attila is killed by the peasants, Alfredo is tried for complicity but spared. Olmo then speaks directly to the viewer to state, symbolically, that the boss is dead.

Development and distribution

Bertolucci was thinking of creating an epic film about Italy for several years. It is thanks to the success of the Last Tango in Paris that he manages to find the budget of 6 million dollars (huge for the time) with three different producers to produce this film with the prestigious distribution (De Niro, Depardieu, Lancaster, Hayden), with many extras, and recreates the environment of the Italy of the early xx ^th century ¹ . This budget was subsequently exceeded to reach 9 million ² .

The director, who had originally planned his project as a multi-episode TV movie, made a first draft in one piece of more than five hours. The producer Alberto Grimaldi , who was contractually obligated by Paramount to produce a film three and a half hours maximum, had locked the director in the editing room so that it reduces the duration of the work ³ . For the American market, certain scenes of explicit sexuality were censored ^{[By whom?]} (Notably the scene in which the actress Stefania Casini masturbates Depardieu and De Niro). ^{[ref. necessary]}

Technical sheet

• Title: 1900
• Original title: 1900 or Novecento
• Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
• Scenario: Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci , Franco Arcalli  (en)
• Music: Ennio Morricone
• Photography: Vittorio Storaro
• Costumes: Gitt Magrini
• Producer: Alberto Grimaldi
• Production Companies: Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA), Productions Artistes Associés, Artemis Film
• Genre: drama
• Time: 320 minutes (5 hours 20 ⁴ )
• Release date: 1976
• Banned in France under 16 years in room (prohibited under 18 years for the second part)

Distribution

Notes and references