A Lenda do Pianista do Mar

Had never heard of this until I came across it by accident. A real gem , dragged a little near the end but overall well worth watching. Music fabulous, great acting and an interesting story. Not commercial drivel like the Titanic.

It is at a time like this I wish I could expand my vocabulary to better articulate the virtues and qualities of such a fine film. I also find I'm bursting to talk about this film that I regrettably saw alone. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but desperately want to share it with everyone.

The talented star of "The Legend of 1900", Tim Roth, presented this film along with Clarence Williams III. His encouragement to the audience was that if anyone was the sort who liked to pick apart at films and critique their lack of realism, they should just leave now. He touted this wonderful vision from the director of Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore, and likened the film to a "dream". He also said that if anyone had seen his own film, "The War Zone", that "1900" was the antidote for it. I was slated to see "The War Zone" the next day, but that was fine by me. I managed by a sheer stroke of luck to get into this Canadian premiere and found it to be absolutely extraordinary and the best film I'd seen so far of the Toronto International Film Festival.

It seems as though mere moments after the initial credits, that the wonderful storytelling and incredible music combined with stunning visuals almost had me moved to tears. While I'll admit that I'd be seeing films all day, no film in my recollection had such an impact so quickly.

The story is one of an abandoned baby who is found on a ocean liner by one of the ship's crew. He is unofficially adopted and named "1900" for the year in which he was born. At a very early age the boy demonstrates an extraordinary gift for piano playing which is only strengthened in his passing years. The boy grows up with no official identity, into a man having never taken a step off of the ship onto dry land in his whole life. The young man, played by Tim Roth is encouraged by his dear friend to leave the boat and pursue a life of fame and fortune as the great pianist he has become. 1900 declines, explaining simply that everything he needs is on the boat.

Well, that should be enough to intrigue you; there's much more of course, but I've no desire to spoil it for anyone. I must encourage everyone to see this film, I can hardly imagine anyone being disappointed. It's for music lovers, dreamers, romantics and film buffs everywhere and my greatest hope is that it will be seen by many, many people, especially those I know and love. And after seeing the film, and hearing Tim Roth's words echoing in my mind, he was absolutely right. It is like a dream, a wonderful dream that I wished would never end. And for a future prediction, I see this film as a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination for 1999.

Not a classic, but whoa, some of that piano playing just sweeps you right off your feet. Tim Roth is good as the handsome pianist Nineteenhundred and so is all the the rest of the cast. This cast also includes Clarence Williams III, presumably the grandson of Clarence Williams (the man who wrote the song "Basin Street Blues" one hell of a classic), as Jelly Roll Morton. This leads me on to one of the most impressive parts of the film where Nineteenhundred and Morton have a match to see who is the best pianist. There is some piano playing in this scene which will leave pianists with there mouths hanging open. Probably the best thing about this film is it's music. There are many rousing themes played throughout the film, especially the love theme played while Nineteenhundred kisses a girl he has fallen in love with, a simple yet very effective theme. Another thing that makes this film very good is the fantastic camera-shots, especially one of Nineteenhundred as he stands halfway across the plank which leads him from the boat to New York, undecided whether or not he should leave the boat and head for world-wide celebrity on land, or stay on the boat and remain unknown to anyone but the passengers. I have got to get myself the soundtrack to this film and you have got to see it somehow. Enjoy!

"The Legend of 1900" wistfully tells its creative, capriciously unpredictable, and musical tall tale with excellence in all aspects of film from sets to sound, costume to casting, and script to screenplay. Roth and Vince work well together in this plaintive, simple story which will captivate those who can make the leap of faith required to "buy in". A good film for all but critics, "Legend" will likely resonate most with those who equate living with musical expression. La vita è musica.

• the more people see it, the more people there are to help me work out what to make of it. It's hard not to like, and the central conceit, the fantasy story of someone whose entire life is spent crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic, is just delicious - yet there's always something that prevents it from working as it should. There's too much narration. Narration aside, there are too many words. Just before 1900 and the narrator part ways the former explains himself, to some degree, in a longish speech. The speech was necessary: we needed to hear his reasons from his own lips. But once it had been given the scene should have ended. Instead the two characters keep adding postscripts as they walk away from one another - and they're standard, maudlin things which are at odds with what 1900 had been saying a moment ago. Again and again, there are words where there shouldn't be.

But then, it may be that the title character was given too FEW words - at least at first. Because it's so long before we first hear 1900 express his thoughts verbally (and because in the absence of other information about his character we are unwilling to pass judgment on him until he does) it takes too long for us to warm to him. In fact we never warm to him as much as we should.

And yet there are scenes - the piano duel, the girl in the rain - that are just fantastic, that make me reluctant to criticise anything at all. Any film containing moments like those can afford to lose its way at times.

P.S. Of course, a film about a pianist born on the first day of the Twentieth Century ought to be called "The Legend of 1901", which if you asks me sounds better anyway.