This stunning but demanding Marxist epic ran to almost five and a half hours in director Bernardo Bertolucci’s original cut and spans 45 years of Italian political history.
Tracing the rise and fall of Fascism, it uses characters to symbolise entire social groups.
Olmo (Gérard Depardieu) and Alfredo Jr (Robert De Niro) are born on the same day in the year 1901, in the same rural region, one to poor sharecroppers, the other to landowners.
As they grow from childhood friends to antagonistic adults, Olmo becomes an inspirational Communist leader, Alfredo a diffident patron.
The two leads are outstanding, while Donald Sutherland really gets his teeth into the role of Attila – Depardieu’s nemesis, the local blackshirt and De Niro’s foreman, whose cruelty extends to crushing a kitten with his head.
Operatically staged and swollen with symbolism – be it a boy wiping his tears on a red flag or Fascists pelted with apparently real excrement – 1900 is Bertolucci’s flawed masterpiece, best viewed in two sittings and enjoyed as polemic as much as history.
A viewer ignorant of Italian social history may hold on and hope to see if, by chance, things get better by the end. They don’t.
Alfredo Sr
Burt Lancaster Alfredo Jr
Robert De Niro Olmo
Gérard Depardieu Attila
Donald Sutherland Ada
Dominique Sanda Leo Dalco
Sterling Hayden Anita
Stefania Sandrelli Signora Pioppi
Alida Valli Regina
Laura Betti
Director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Related Posts
Van, The (1977) Bobby (Stuart Getz) is a Los Angeles teenager who blows all his college savings on buying a custom Dodge van…
Come Play With Me (1977) This classic example of 70s British film erotica marks a mucky milestone in the history of the UK's domestic cinema.…
Jabberwocky (1977) Inspired by the seven-verse nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, Terry Gilliam's directorial debut feature is an uneven mix of medieval…
Oh, God! (1977) God (81-year-old George Burns) chooses Jerry Landers (country singer John Denver in his movie debut), a Southern California supermarket assistant…
Smokey & The Bandit (1977) By the mid-1970s it seemed like Burt Reynolds could do no wrong at the box office. With films like White Lightning and The…
Wizards (1977) This ambitious animated sci-fi tale from the director of Fritz the Cat (1972) was released the same year as Star Wars, and…
Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen sub-titled Annie Hall "A Nervous Romance", and it is certainly that. It's a very touching, sweet and funny exploration of…
