Movie Rental Suggestion - "The Legend of 1900"

My wife and I had three other couple over last night for dinner and a movie at our house.  We had lasagna, which is likely one of the finest foods ever conceived, along with some great salad (homemade dressing), garlic bread, and tiramisu ice cream.  TIRAMISU ICE CREAM!  Tiramisu and ice cream are my two favorite desserts, and someone finally had the good sense to combine them into one exquisite taste treat.

Sorry to digress, as this post is supposed to be about the movie that we watched.  We chose "The Legend of 1900", which we have seen a couple of times, but never in full HD glory. 

Released in 1998, this movie stars Tim Roth and Pruitt Taylor Vince.  You might remember Tim Roth as the guy who tried to rob Samuel L. Jackson in the cafe in "Pulp Fiction".  Or, you might know him from his role as the bellhop in the hilarious "Four Rooms", which was also directed by Tarantino.  As for Mr. Vince, he is one of those character actors that you know you have seen before, but you're not sure just where.

Roth stars as a child born on a ship and found by one of the coal-men from the boiler room, who raises him as his own son.  The boy turns out to be a phenomenal piano prodigy, and he grows into adulthood never leaving the boat at all.

I don't want to give away any of the big plot points here, but suffice it to say that there are some incredible piano sequences, along with very solid performances from the primary actors.  Rated R exclusively for language, this is an excellent and well-directed movie that you should consider checking out sometime.

The Italian director (Giuseppe Tornatore) and Hungarian cinematographer (Lajos Koltai) bring a different set of sensiblities to the film, and I found it to be more layered and precise than many American-made films of the same era.  That being said, there are a couple of times that seem to drag a bit, but there are several VERY memorable scenes that make it completely worthwhile.  Additionally, the piano and jazz soundtrack is awesome.

I guess the best endorsement that I can give is to say that this was the movie that we selected to show to six friends who had never seen it before.

I thought about including a clip here from YouTube, but all of the videos I found gave away too much of the plot in my opinion.

If you decide to rent it via Netflix or your local video store, enjoy!