"You're
never really done for,
as long as you've
got a
good story and someone to tell it
to."
The
trumpet player Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince) tries to sell his
trumpet in a shop. The shop owner (Peter Vaughan) actually wants to
close the shop at that moment, but grants Max to play the trumpet for
one last time. Max plays a melody which sounds familiar to the shop
owner, who heard it on a broken matrix he found in an old piano. Max
says that this matrix shouldn't actually exist and that's how he
starts telling the shop owner the story of 1900.
1900
isn't a number but a man. As a baby he was left by his mother on the
Virginian, a ship that was going back and forth between America and
Europe. Danny Boodman (Bill Nunn), a worker on the ship, finds the
boy in a box and raises him. Since Danny found the boy on the first
month of the new century, he calls him that. Danny never registers
the boy at any office, for fear they may take him away. When 1900 is
eight years old, Danny dies from an accident. After that the boy
hides so well that nobody can find him. When he's seen again, he's
playing the piano perfectly and moving everyone. So he ends up
playing in the band on the ship to earn himself some money. In the
first class he is more or less playing from notes, in third class
he's playing totally free and his own melodies. Although he's never
registered somewhere, more and more people on land hear about his
ingenious playing. That's how Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams
III) also hears of 1900 and challenges him to a duel. 1900 however
has no idea how such a duel works.
One
day Max leaves the ship again and loses contact with 1900. But when
Max hears they're going to destroy the Virginian in short time, he
goes looking for his old friend.
Will
1900 ever leave the ship? Who'll win the duel? Will Max find 1900
again? Those are questions only you can answer to yourself by
watching the movie.
It's
a bit curious that this movie from the year 1998 runs more than two
hours when the book on which the movie is based is only about 80
pages long written by Alessandro Baricco. The book is thought to be a
monologue, a one-man-theatre-play, which is why it also includes some
directions. The trumpet player is called Tim Tooney in the book and
he tells the story as a flashback, similar to the movie.
At
first I was sceptical about such a long movie. But I was very
positively surprised and the story totally captivated me, so the
movie wasn't tedious for me. If you like piano music and/or movies
about friendship, you might enjoy this movie.
