Technical Staff: Director: Giuseppe Tornatore. Script: G: Tornatore. Director of Photography: Lajos Koltai. Editing: Massimo Quaglia. Scenarios: Francesco Frigeri. Costumes: Maurizio Millenotti. Music: Ennio Morricone. Production: Laura Fattori for Medusa. Distributors: Medusa. Country: Italy. Running time: 2h and 40 min.

The Actors: Tim Roth (Nineteenhundred), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Max); Bill Nunn (Danny Boodman), Malanie Thierry (the girl), Clarence Williams III (Jelly Roll Morton).

The story: A poor baby is abandoned, at birth, by his parents on board a transatlantic liner, the Virginian. The crew find and take care of him giving him the name of the just begun century. Nineteenhundred will never leave the steamship, here he will meet characters of any kind and belonging to various social classes. For him each journey will be a world to be underlined by the melodies of his music: because, among all the jobs he could take, he chose to play the piano. His talent will become legend, so that the "king of jazz", Jelly Roll Morton, will challenge him in a piano duel.

The director: Giuseppe Tornatore was born in Bagheria, in Sicily (Italy), in 1956. He is interested in photography and since 1979 he collaborates with Rai (the Italian national tv). He debuts in 1986 with "Il Camorrista". Two years later "Cinema Paradiso" earns him an Oscar (foreign film), the special Grand Prix of the jury at Cannes and the European Felix. Other films follow "Stanno tutti bene" (1990), the episode "Il cane blu" in "La domenica specialmente" (1991), "Una pura formalità" (A Pure Formality, 1994), L'uomo delle stelle (The Starman, 1995, special Grand Prix of the jury at Venice).

Notes: The film, which took two years to be completed, is taken from the monologue "Novecento" (Nineteenhundred) written by Alessandro Baricco and involved 45 actors, 20000 extras, 30 locations, for a cost of 40 billion Italian Lire (the most expensive movie in Italian film history). Amedeo Tommasi, a jazz expert, collaborated with Ennio Morricone for the music.

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