La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998)

Giuseppe Tornatore has a predicament for the rest of his life. Everytime he makes a movie he has to deal with the tag "from the writer/director of Cinema Paradiso". But although he never again had the commercial or critical success of this masterpiece he has a series of movies worth watching. And "The Legend of 1900" (english title) is one of them. Probably green-lit after the hype of turn-of-the-century-big-transatlantic-ships driven from the previous year's "Titanic", this is a movie about a boy abandoned at birth aboard a ship in 1900. He is then raised by the crew (and given the name 1900), never leaving the ship. As he grows he becomes the ship's fabulous piano player (although it is never shown how he learned how), and that he remains. Around him everything changes, people come and go, time passes, but only he, and his music, remain constant. It is hard to define the movie. It shifts through various emotions. It is dramatic, then easy-going, then comic-strip-like funny (most characters are over the top, the situations are exaggerated, but all done with total conscience of it), and then ends in nostalgia (Tornatore, king of nostalgia). 1900's last speech is really heart-felt. All in all it is a fairy-tale, and it never really gets too dramatic. The story, the lines, even some backdrop special effects give it the brush of a disney fantasy. An through all this time, 1900 never goes ashore, although sometimes he eagers to. When the ship demises, we know that also will he... The greatest thing though (although Tim Roth is superb) is the music of Ennio Morricone. It is umbelievably fantastic, beautiful and any other adjective you can find. It won the golden globe, although it was totally neglected at the oscars (not even a nomination!). And lastly, the girl, Mélanie Thierry, were has she been all my film-watching life?! Uau! The scene where 1900 composes a song for her is one of the best I have seen in years. Downright beautiful!
La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano is a fairy tale with the Tornatore treatment. Worth checking out.