The Legend of 1900

For his first English-language feature, writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore adapted Alessandro Baricco’s stage monologue Novecento, creating a $20 million drama that traces the life of a musician who never goes ashore after his birth at sea during the turn of the century. Lower-deck parents abandon the lemon-crated baby in the passenger ship’s ballroom, where he’s found by machinist Danny Boodmann (Bill Nunn). The machinist devises a name for the child that combines the new century, his own name, and the lemon crate — Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteenhundred — and raises the child (Easton Gage and Cory Buck). When his adoptive father dies, Danny evades efforts by the captain to send him to an orphanage. As an adult pianist (Tim Roth), Danny plays jazz and dance music to entertain passengers, attracting the attention of Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III). Danny declines offers for concert tours and recording contracts, choosing to stay at sea — even after he takes a strong interest in an Italian girl (Melanie Thierry) who’s sailing to New York. Some of the original Novecento monologue surfaces in the film’s voiceover narration by trumpet player Max (Pruitt Taylor Vince). The score features Ennio Morricone piano compositions, plus jazz and ragtime classics. In 1999, a revised edition of Le Leggenda del Pianista Sull’Oceano was prepared for international release, entitled The Legend of 1900. Running 116 minutes (as opposed to the 170 minutes of the original cut), the shorter version of the film was prepared at the request of its United States distributor, who demanded a film that ran under two hours. The shorter version trims many of the film’s long takes, spends less time examining the protagonist’s childhood, and shortens many of the musical numbers., Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”) directed this epic fable about a piano prodigy (Tim Roth) who was born on an ocean liner in 1900 and spends his whole life there. Max: Pruitt Taylor Vince. Jelly Roll Morton: Clarence Williams III. Danny: Bill Nunn.