1900 tracks the lives of two men born on the same day on the same Italian plantation, one the son of the landowner (Robert De Niro), the other an illegitimate peasant (Gerard Depardieu). Together they go they their own separate routes defined by their class differences and labor stances, amidst the rise of fascism and Mussolini's ascendancy. Bernardo Bertolucci's intensely personal film is incredibly long and unnecessarily crude which is partially redeemed by Depardieu's impassioned performance and Vittorio Storaro's extraordinary cinematography. Oddly and to great frustration, the film's entire five and a half hour duration feels like prologue, as you wait and wait for the moment it will take off, which never arrives.
