1900, written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci - 9 out of 10

1900, written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
9 out of 10


1900 is a spectacular, long, for some it would be too long at over five hours, 317 minutes in all, complex, daring, provocative, epic motion picture, included on The New York Times' Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list.

Given that Bernardo Bertolucci is one of the screenplay writers and the director of the film, we might suppose it includes controversial, sexual scenes and it does...Maria Schneider the star of another famous movie, Last Tango in Paris, has spoken about the abuse she has had to suffer while filming explicit, violent scenes.
1900 has quite a few situations where the public is probably supposed to learn about the decadence of the wealthy land owners, but they would not be filmed today, when they would raise more than just eyebrows.

One of the cinematic gods, Burt Lancaster, has the role of the decrepit Alfredo Berlinghieri the Elder, who asks the girl who was milking a cow in his stables to put her hand on his penis...she might be just ten years old.
Donald Sutherland is ferocious as the villain of the film, one of the most vile characters imaginable, Attila Mellanchini, leader of the fascist black shirts, a pervert who engages in pedophilia and then smashes the head of the poor boy who falls victim...before that, he had smashed a cat and then later he kills more than a dozen villagers.


Perhaps the only decent man in the film is Olmo Dalco aka Gerard Depardieu, although being a communist excludes the possibility of one being good by my standards.
Indeed, communism presupposes vileness, but in Olmo's case, we could think of attenuating circumstances...he is a peasant and he keeps repeating that.

Furthermore, the rich people are so cruel, murderous, heartless that Marxism may present some attractive aspects for the oppressed and ignorant.
Robert De Niro plays Alfredo Berlinghieri, the last in the line of rich land owners, perhaps, who has a convulsed relationship with Olmo and with his wife, Ada aka ravishingly attractive Dominique Sanda.

1900 is an impressive feature, although the undersigned has been living in a communist dictatorship and thus finds the embedded message that the rich are loathsome and abominable, while the commies are the creme de la creme, good, honest, unselfish, valiant humans as just so much bullshit.
This contrast between fascists and communists has severely diminished the pleasure of watching 1900, for it is false...

Fascism is just as ghastly, horrible as communism...one is no bette than the other, even if Stalin, Mao and other magnificent reds have killed many more than Hitler and his buddies.