1900 (1976)

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Writers: Franco Arcalli (screenplay by), Giuseppe Bertolucci (screenplay by) | 1 more credit »
Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda

It may be hard for those born in the Baby Boomer or Generation X eras to realize, but there was a time when Communism was cool. Even (and perhaps especially) American Communism had a sway over the intelligentsia and artistic class that was profound and keenly felt, at least in the decades before World War II. Even in the grips of the worst recession most of us alive have ever known, it's next to impossible to understand the calamitous economic conditions that beset America and the rest of the world during the thirties, a time that saw a real rise in the popularity of two competing ideologies which sought to combat the perceived failures of Capitalism: namely, Communism and Fascism. While the ostensible errors of Capitalism were seen as contributing mightily to the worldwide Depression then enveloping the globe, there were two somewhat linked, yet rather drastically different, approaches in dealing with the so-called problem. Both of these approaches advocated a centralized power, an absolute dictatorship, but while Communism at least ostensibly aggrandized the force of the collective (though of course in reality there was a much different state of affairs), Fascism was pure, unadulterated top down totalitarian leadership that exerted its authority without much regard for the "little people", even while, like in the case of Communism, it claimed to be all about the "folk". In a situation of the lesser of three evils, it's little wonder, then, that Communism providing such an apparently appealing alternative for so many people, including a wide swath of the American cultural elite. Italy has had its own contentious history with both Communism and Fascism, and the interplay between the two ideologies plays an important role in one of Bernardo Bertolucci's most celebrated films, Novecento (literally "nine hundred" but meaning here the 20th century, translated as 1900 for domestic American release). This is a film with a troubled release history and an equally turbulent critical reception, but part of the negative critical reaction to the film upon its initial release was based on the fact that it had been heavily edited. While some notables like Roger Ebert shuddered to even consider what the film would look like even longer than it was in its first release, there's no denying the slow accretion of power and impact the original director's cut of 1900 amasses over its more than five hour length (yes, you read that right—more than five hours).

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