Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Mйlanie Thierry, Bill Nunn, Clarence Williams III, Peter Vaughan, Niall O'Brien, Gabriele Lavia, Vernon Nurse, Alberto...
Shortly after the Second World War, Max, a transplanted American, visits an English pawn shop to sell his trumpet. The shopkeeper recognizes the tune Max plays as one on a wax master of an unreleased recording, discovered and restored from shards found in a piano salvaged from a cruise ship turned hospital ship, now slated for demolition. This chance discovery prompts a story from Max, which he relates both to the shopkeeper and later to the official responsible for the doomed vessel, for Max is a born storyteller. Though now down on his luck and disillusioned by his wartime experiences, the New Orleans-born Max was once an enthusiastic and gifted young jazz musician, whose longest gig was several years with the house band aboard the Virginian, a posh cruise ship. While gaining his sea legs, he was befriended by another young man, the pianist in the same band, whose long unlikely name was Danny Boodman T.D. Lemons 1900, though everyone just called him 1900, the year of his birth. Abandoned in first class by his immigrant parents, 1900 was found and adopted by Danny, a stoker, and raised in the engine rooms, learning to read by reading horseracing reports to his adoptive dad. After Danny's death in an accident, 1900 remained on the ship. Increasingly lured by the sound of the piano in the first-class ballroom, he eventually became a gifted pianist, a great jazz improvisationist, a composer of rich modern music inspired by his intense observation of the life around him, the stories passengers on all levels of the ship trusted him enough to tell. He also grew up to be a charming, iconoclastic young man, at once shrewd and oddly innocent. His talent earned him such accolades that he was challenged by, and bested Jelly Roll Morton in an intense piano duel that had poor Max chewing paper on the sofa in agonies of suspense. And yet for all the richness and variety of his musical expression, he never left the ship, except almost, once, in the aftermath of his infatuation with a beautiful young woman immigrant who inspired the music committed to the master Max discovers in the pawnshop. Max realizes that 1900 must still be on the ship, and determines to find him, and to find out once and for all why he has so consistently refused to leave.
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- Camerimage
1999
Nominated
Golden Frog
Lajos Koltai
- David di Donatello Awards
1999
Won
David
Best Cinematography (Migliore Direttore della Fotografia)
Lajos Koltai
Best Costume Design (Migliore Costumista)
Maurizio Millenotti
Best Director (Migliore Regista)
Giuseppe Tornatore
Best Music (Migliore Musica)
Ennio Morricone
Best Production Design (Migliore Scenografo)
Francesco Frigeri
Scholars Jury David
Giuseppe Tornatore
- European Film Awards
1999
Won
European Film Award
Best Cinematographer
Lajos Koltai
Also for Sunshine (1999).
- Golden Globes, USA
2000
Won
Golden Globe
Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Ennio Morricone
- Guild of German Art House Cinemas
2000
Won
Guild Film Award - Silver
Foreign Film (Auslдndischer Film)
Giuseppe Tornatore
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists
1999
Won
Silver Ribbon
Best Costume Design (Migliori Costumi)
Maurizio Millenotti
Best Director (Regista del Miglior Film)
Giuseppe Tornatore
Best Producer (Migliore Produttore)
Best Production Design (Migliore Scenografia)
Francesco Frigeri
Best Screenplay (Migliore Sceneggiatura)
Giuseppe Tornatore
Special Silver Ribbon
Ennio Morricone
For the musical research for composing the movie's original score.
- Satellite Awards
2000
Nominated
Golden Satellite Award
Best Art Direction, Production Design
Francesco Frigeri
Bruno Cesari
Best Original Score
Ennio Morricone