Hear Tim saying the title of the movie...
If we have really been dreaming for THE movie for Tim, well, we can stop waiting this very moment.
It's here. We have it.
I'll try to be brief. I have two options
a. staying in silence and keeping the huge, enormous emotion in;
b. writing the longest text in web history and, still, I wouldn't feel empty afterwards.
Let's start from this very point, then. Novecento is a book I have on my shelf, but I try not to open it, because it literally destroys me. It's not that it just moves me... it talks me about things I recognize and must have felt once, even though I consciously removed them someday. And everytime I open it I find back something, a desire, a question, a voice, a memory which has always been there, even though it has been buried under the heavy layers of everyday life. Now you have an idea of what that small book of less than 100 pages is.
Can you imagine what it can be, when it gets magnified, amplified and becomes an IMMENSE (as Raffaella rightly says) magic vision? You can't close it and put in back on the shelf... you have to run away from the theatre, that's the only choice... but if you stay there, be prepared to face yourself. Tornatore said that and he's damn right: Nineteenhundred is OUR MIRROR.
It is a philosophical movie, even though it has a good dose of irony, but it gets to your soul (sometimes even painfully). It possesses a magnificent cinematic strength. The images are unbelievable and, with THAT music, it looks like a dream. That guy knows his stuff... he's put to shame a mediocre and whiny generation of Italian directors in 2 hours and 40 minutes. There was so much of Fellini and Sergio Leone in there... It's simply a masterpiece.
To all this, add the fact that a certain Tim Roth has given out the simplest, most minimalist interpretation of his career (don't look for Archie Cunningham *whom I adore anyway*... we're on another planet), and YET he has created the most epic character of his life. Not moving a muscle of _that_ face more than he should, still tearing your brain and heart and stomach to pieces.
Do you think we remembered of his past career while we were sitting there? Do you think we thought of his gangsters and psychopaths? He erased all of them from our memory in a second.
AN ANGEL he had to be... an ANGEL he WAS from head to toe. And he didn't have to do much to convince us. It only took to look in his eyes and you saw innocence.
One last thing, I know it was just a case, an accident, but hearing him speaking Neapolitan has been like a personal sign, like the closing of a circle to me...
"The
Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean" (from a theatrical monologue by
Alessandro Baricco) is the story of Nineteenhundred found, at birth, in
a box hidden on the ship which he'll never leave. He plays the piano in
the ship ballroom and his music is extraordinary. Nineteenhundred is played
by Tim Roth, while Pruitt Taylor Vince is Max, the friend telling his story.
The newcomer Melanie Thierry has the role of the girl Nineteenhundred falls
in love with. . 
The movie cost 20 million dollars. A sum well beyond Italian standards. Shot between Rome and Odessa in Ukraine, the movie, started on September 12, 1997, has faced problems and forced interruptions. It was concluded on March 14, 1998: 110 days of production. 19 sets in Rome and 11 in Odessa. 170.000 meters of film used. 45 cast members. 75 crew members. 10.000 extras. 2.500 first, second, third class and ship crew costumes. A Russian, 165 metres long, ship was used. In Rome the sets were to be found in Cinecittà and at the old Mattatoio. The first class ballroom, the corridors, the captain cabin and the first class restaurant were reconstructed in the Teatro 5 of Cinecittà. In Teatro 21 there was the ship's hold. Still in Cinecittà, one could find the music shop from which the story begins. At the Mattatoio the ports of New York, Southampton, and Naples were reconstructed, as well as the deck of the rusty ship and various ship sides.
Below is the picture of the Pianist after having triumphed over the greatest jazz pianist of the time, Jelly Roll Morton
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Shootings in Rome started on Tuesday, November 11, 1997 and were relatively disturbed by the very bad weather of those days.
Tim left the set on December 5th, in order to start the shootings of his directorial debut, The War Zone, in Devon, England.
For more updates follow this link
Why did Giuseppe Tornatore choose Tim Roth for this role?
In this picture you see Tim in the scene of the Pianist leaving the ship. This was one of the shots which was taken as soon as some sun came through the clouds. The black and white pictures were taken from Il Corriere della Sera. The colour one is from Sorrisi e Canzoni.