1900 is not Bertolucci's best film. That honour would go to his one true masterpiece, "Il Conformista". It is, however, his last great film before a 1980s slide into movie mediocrity that only recently showed signs of coming to a halt with "The Dreamers". 1900 encapsulates all that was great about Bertolucci - confronting themes, stunning visuals, copious nudity and lashings of gratuitous violence. Unfortunately, 1900 also contains some of the rot that would later stain his output to an increasingly large extent.
Despite the colossal five and a half hour running time, 1900 is, at heart, a rather simple tale of friendship between Alfredo, born into nobility, and Olmo, a peasant. This friendship is set against the political landscape of early 20th century Italy, with the rise and fall of fascism and the growing influence of socialism. 1900 succeeds brilliantly when examining the central relationship between Alfredo and Olmo, and their vastly different experiences with fascism. It is far less successful at conveying the context of events, wallowing happily in stereotypes and historical inaccuracies. Bertolucci has a message and he is intent on relentlessly beating the viewer over the head with it.
The clumsy handling of historical events is not the only problem with 1900. Like many of his later films, Bertolucci strongly favours style over substance. Every effort has been made to turn the film into a visual feast, yet considerably less effort has gone into the film's plot, character development and dialogue. Characters haphazardly appear and disappear, there are various pointless subplots which detract from the film's momentum and the minor characters are such caricatures that 1900 sometimes feels more like an incredibly elaborate soap opera (with lots of animal violence and frontal nudity) than the masterpiece it is held out to be.
Despite these many flaws, 1900 somehow manages to hold your attention over the most of the running time and offers some of the most arresting and unforgettable images captured on film. 1900 benefits immeasurably from Bertolucci's inspired direction, which is effortlessly beautiful and fluid. The performances are similarly magnificent. Gerard Depardieu is especially fine as Olmo. He is engaging and utterly convincing. Robert De Niro reminds you how good an actor he used to be in the role of Alfredo. While the beautiful Dominique Sanda almost steals the show as Ada, the only three dimensional female character in the film. I particularly love the scene where she pretends to be blind at a dance. Donald Sutherland, never the most subtle of actors, is so over the top as the evil Attila that it almost defies belief. This degree of overacting would shock Christopher Walken. Nevertheless, there is something mesmerising about his creepy performance and his character is responsible for some of the film's most shocking images.
1900 is still a controversial film by today's standards. The penis fondling depicted in the infamous threesome scene may pale in comparison to the rampant sexual activity contained in films like "Nine Songs" and "Intimacy", but the shock value of the child murder and animal cruelty is undiminished. I really hope that was a "stunt kitten". I also can't say I've seen too many recent films which show an old man explicitly rubbing a horse's anus to stimulate defecation. Bertolucci's talent is such that these confronting images are captured with the same sense of poetry as those which are intrinsically beautiful.
1900 is a film that demands your attention. It may not be able to keep it over the full five and a half hours, but it comes very close. Though occasionally frustrating and uneven, 1900 is a film that is hard to ignore and even harder to forget.
Despite the colossal five and a half hour running time, 1900 is, at heart, a rather simple tale of friendship between Alfredo, born into nobility, and Olmo, a peasant. This friendship is set against the political landscape of early 20th century Italy, with the rise and fall of fascism and the growing influence of socialism. 1900 succeeds brilliantly when examining the central relationship between Alfredo and Olmo, and their vastly different experiences with fascism. It is far less successful at conveying the context of events, wallowing happily in stereotypes and historical inaccuracies. Bertolucci has a message and he is intent on relentlessly beating the viewer over the head with it.
The clumsy handling of historical events is not the only problem with 1900. Like many of his later films, Bertolucci strongly favours style over substance. Every effort has been made to turn the film into a visual feast, yet considerably less effort has gone into the film's plot, character development and dialogue. Characters haphazardly appear and disappear, there are various pointless subplots which detract from the film's momentum and the minor characters are such caricatures that 1900 sometimes feels more like an incredibly elaborate soap opera (with lots of animal violence and frontal nudity) than the masterpiece it is held out to be.
Despite these many flaws, 1900 somehow manages to hold your attention over the most of the running time and offers some of the most arresting and unforgettable images captured on film. 1900 benefits immeasurably from Bertolucci's inspired direction, which is effortlessly beautiful and fluid. The performances are similarly magnificent. Gerard Depardieu is especially fine as Olmo. He is engaging and utterly convincing. Robert De Niro reminds you how good an actor he used to be in the role of Alfredo. While the beautiful Dominique Sanda almost steals the show as Ada, the only three dimensional female character in the film. I particularly love the scene where she pretends to be blind at a dance. Donald Sutherland, never the most subtle of actors, is so over the top as the evil Attila that it almost defies belief. This degree of overacting would shock Christopher Walken. Nevertheless, there is something mesmerising about his creepy performance and his character is responsible for some of the film's most shocking images.
1900 is still a controversial film by today's standards. The penis fondling depicted in the infamous threesome scene may pale in comparison to the rampant sexual activity contained in films like "Nine Songs" and "Intimacy", but the shock value of the child murder and animal cruelty is undiminished. I really hope that was a "stunt kitten". I also can't say I've seen too many recent films which show an old man explicitly rubbing a horse's anus to stimulate defecation. Bertolucci's talent is such that these confronting images are captured with the same sense of poetry as those which are intrinsically beautiful.
1900 is a film that demands your attention. It may not be able to keep it over the full five and a half hours, but it comes very close. Though occasionally frustrating and uneven, 1900 is a film that is hard to ignore and even harder to forget.