Touches You

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's very difficult for me to understand the love for this film. It may, in fact, be one of the worst films I have ever seen. No character is really developed, despite the over 5 hour run time, and one of them, the Padrone DeNiro's wife, may be the single most annoying character ever set in a movie.Speaking of DeNiro, roughly 80% of his dialogue sounds like he doesn't really even care what he's saying. Poor Donald Sutherland was given the diabolical "Attila" role. It's pretty much a one note performance of evil and stupidity from beginning to end. Scenes are in the film which serve no purpose other than to bore the audience to tears, or in my case, make me cry from laughing. After a young boy is killed, the guests at a wedding run around in the scene immediately following as if they were in a Keystone cops movie. One of the lead characters is named Olmo, which was the basis for another film years later called St. Olmo's Fire. Oh wait, I meant he was the basis for a stupid Muppet on Sesame Street. There's a scene where a character gets his face stuffed with horse manure. That experience is very similar to watching this film. 1900 is simply another 1970's catastrophe along the lines of Heaven's Gate.

Mix a pretentious story intended to be "epic"; a bunch of famous good actors horribly directed and submitted to a senseless script; bad and pointless sex seemingly for no other reason than showing some sordid scenes and pretending to make the film more "realistic"; a lot of gratuitous, exaggerated and mostly out of context violence; good communists (angelic most of them!); bad fascists (did I say bad?, actually monstrous, pure evil, sadistic to the utmost!); and a nice setting with wide and pretty landscapes (yeah, watching the first 10 minutes recommended for wide screen bucolic landscape lovers), and what you get is... NOVECENTO!I have quitted watching few films in my life, and this one would have very much deserved it, especially considering its painful length!, but I stood till the end, regretfully!. Probably I have seen no film in my life where stereotypes and identification of good and evil with particular ideologies/social classes were so clumsily and naively shown, a tale for 6 years old children contains more character introspection and development than this film.I don't want to enter historical flaws (and actually blatant manipulation of history), other commentators have put it clearly and possess more background than me on the topic. Cinematographycally the film is a succession of mostly senseless scenes, added in no logical order, which leads nowhere, and fail completely to construct anything remotely similar to what we can call a "story". The final scene of the judgment of De Niro's personage, Alfredo, is one of the worst pieces of… "whatever" I've have ever watched on screen be it cinema or TV.Interested in Bertolucci? try The Last Emperor, it seems he can do a better work when telling stories from far away his own country.

This masterpiece of cinematic brilliance is the reason films get made. Don't let the fact that it is 5 hours long daunt you - you won't feel the time. You will instead be completely absorbed in an epic story that, despite its rather simple premise of following the lives of two men, is really like watching a novel. I can't really describe the film any other way than that - it is a novel.There are some scenes that are hard to watch, especially in this day and age of political correctness and "you can't do that on television" attitude, but set your 21st century mind aside. This film shows life in its rawest form. Brutal at times, hilarious at others, but altogether real.This film defines the talents of so many household names. It has become like an old friend - like that book you read every year or two. By the end, you will find yourself utterly spent and it will stay with you forever.Novecento is one of those films you absolutely, positively must see before you die.

1900 (Novecento) 1977 NR 315 minutes. Since I am bored with most USA English movies lately I have been catching up on some of the movies by the "great directors" which I missed in the movie theater. 1977 I was not watching many movies (University) I watched recently (not reviewed) The Conformist. I have yet to see Last Tango. (I own a VHS copy) I loved the Last Emperor. It was a Multi Award Winner (now in new release 219 min version-not available on net/ flix) I did not particularly care for the Dreamers –the political plot did not interest me-the sex and nudity was HOT. When I saw Emperor on the Big screen I thought it one of the greatest epics I had ever seen (besides Lawrence of Arabia). So now I decided to view his epic (much disliked) masterpiece 1900. Novecento. I was reading about the shortened release versions which got bad reviews. Even Ebert really hated the long version 2 stars on its release at Cannes. This is one movie where I greatly disagree with his review. I challenge Ebert to run the full length film at his Theater, view it there and not call it an epic masterpiece. Bernardo Bertolucci's massive epic, a history of Italy from 1900 to 1945 as reflected through the friendship of two men across class lines, is one of the most fascinating, if little seen, of his films. After beginning with Robert DeNiro as wealthy landowner Alfredo, and Gerard Depardieu as labor leader Olmo, the film returns to 1900 with the death of composer Giuseppi Verdi and the birth of the two friends. The opposing class interests of their grandfathers, padrone Burt Lancaster, and laborer Sterling Hayden, is quickly established in the enmity between the characters. As they grow, the boys become friends, mystified by the tensions that separate their families. But as time passes and Alfredo assumes the role of padrone, while Olmo works the land, their relationship becomes strained. With the rise of fascism, the director spells out its complicity with business interests, as the diffident Alfredo falls under the spell of a vicious and degraded fascist farm manager played by Donald Sutherland. Most will not like or understand this view of political Italy pre WW1 through Fascism & Nazi. It somewhat rewrites history. Fascinating 5 star epic movie. The last neo-realist epic ever filmed. It contains some of the most stunning cinematography I have ever seen.