--- title: "1900" year: 1976 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/1900" fi1m_id: "1900" imdb_id: "tt0074084" tmdb_id: 3870 wikidata_id: "Q124697" fi1m_score: 70 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-26T00:11:07.142415+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T00:11:07.987790+00:00" region: "MX" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # 1900 (1976) Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci · 5h 17m · Drama, History ## Identity 1900 - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/1900 - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** 1900 - **IMDb ID:** tt0074084 - **TMDB ID:** 3870 - **Wikidata ID:** Q124697 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074084/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/3870, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124697 **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 69 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* Five hours in which the peasants are always right and always beautifully lit > Bertolucci’s five-hour account of one Italian estate through the century is two films joined at an interval. The first, a golden summer of two boys and a farm, is close to wonderful; the second turns its people into speeches and keeps them there. ## Synopsis Emilia, northern Italy. On 25 April 1945, the day of the liberation, peasants with shotguns hunt the estate foreman through the fields. The film then goes back to 1901, when two boys are born on the Berlinghieri land on the same day, the day the news comes that Verdi has died: Alfredo (Robert De Niro), grandson of the landowner Alfredo Berlinghieri the Elder (Burt Lancaster), and Olmo (Gérard Depardieu), bastard grandson of the peasant patriarch Leo Dalcò (Sterling Hayden). They grow up together, one in the villa and one in the farmhouse, catching frogs, daring each other under passing trains and learning where the line between them runs. Olmo comes home from the Great War a socialist. Alfredo inherits the estate and hires a foreman, Attila (Donald Sutherland), who has ideas of his own about keeping order. ## Review [*The Conformist*](https://film.one/film/the-conformist) and *Last Tango in Paris* bought Bernardo Bertolucci five hours and an international cast. *1900* tells the story of the twentieth century in Italy through one estate in Emilia and two boys born on it the same day, one to own it and one to work it. It runs 317 minutes, built to be shown in two parts. The first is among the best things Bertolucci made. The second is the same people delivering a lesson we had already learned. Vittorio Storaro shoots the first half as one long summer. The wheat is the colour of the actors’ skin, the farmyard is lit through dust, and the peasants eat at a table so long the camera has to travel it. Gianni Quaranta and Maria Paola Maino give the Berlinghieri villa dim shuttered rooms, and the Dalcò farmhouse one big kitchen where everyone sleeps, argues and is born. Gitt Magrini puts the peasants in white linen washed to grey and the landowners in black wool they cannot be comfortable in. Ennio Morricone’s main theme, strings with an accordion underneath, returns at every gathering and never wore out. The childhood scenes moved us more than we expected. Olmo lies down between the rails and lets a train pass over him because Alfredo will not; Alfredo follows him into every place he is forbidden. Sterling Hayden’s Leo Dalcò is weathered and nearly silent, and every scene he is in bends towards him. Burt Lancaster’s old padrone shouts, no one jumps, and Lancaster lets us watch him notice. Stefania Sandrelli’s Anita, the schoolteacher Olmo marries, lies down in a road with the other women in front of mounted soldiers, and the horses stop. Then it is winter, and Donald Sutherland arrives. Storaro turns the picture grey and brown, fog in the poplars and frost in the yard, and the change is right. What happens in front of it is not. Attila Mellanchini, the foreman who becomes the local fascist, is a grinning brute with no inner life, and Laura Betti’s Regina, Alfredo’s cousin, eggs him on with the same lack of shading. The script, by Bertolucci, his brother Giuseppe Bertolucci and the editor Franco Arcalli, has decided that fascists are monsters and peasants are saints, and has nothing further to find out. There is a sequence involving Attila and a cat that we watched appalled, and its point had been made an hour before. Robert De Niro has the hardest job. Alfredo is a man things happen to; he inherits, he marries, he lets Attila run the estate because stopping him would mean a decision. De Niro plays that faithfully, and for three hours he is the least interesting person in the frame. Depardieu is all appetite, laughing, eating and shouldering into rooms. Dominique Sanda’s Ada, who marries into the villa and drinks, is the one figure in the second half who seems to have a private life. She suffers most from the dubbing. The cast spoke several languages, and the version most of us will see puts other voices over their mouths, so the second half’s many scenes of talk land a beat late on every face. Arcalli cuts the first half as if he had all the time in the world, and he did. He cuts the second the same way, and here it reads as reluctance to lose anything. The 1945 frame returns, and the peasants put their case against the padrone at length, and then again. By the fourth hour we were bored, and then cross about it, because the images were still fine and the people in them had stopped being people. *The Conformist* (1970) got inside fascism through one frightened man and hardly a speech, and is the better film. *1900* treats history as a pageant with sides, and once you know which side you are on there is little to do but watch the light. Storaro makes that worth doing more often than not. See the first half on the biggest screen you can find, as a film about two boys and a farm. Take a proper break. The second half is for those who want to know how it comes out and can bear being told twice. *Fi1m score 70, published 26 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is 1900 worth watching?** *1900* is worth watching for anyone who can give five hours to Bertolucci's story of two boys born on the same Italian estate, and we scored it 70. The first half, a golden summer shot by Vittorio Storaro, is close to wonderful; the second turns its people into speeches. See the first half on the biggest screen you can, and take a proper break. **How long is 1900, and what is it rated?** *1900* runs 5h 17m. It is a drama and history film. **Where can I watch 1900 in Mexico?** *1900* is not on any streaming or rental service in Mexico at the moment. It is available in 5 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is 1900, and is it suitable for children?** *1900* carries a UK 18 certificate and is not suitable for children. It opens with peasants hunting a man through the fields with shotguns, and its second half includes fascist brutality, among it a sequence involving the foreman and a cat that we watched appalled. Teenagers and the squeamish should steer clear; adults should expect cruelty shown at length. **How does 1900 compare to Heaven's Gate?** *1900* and [*Heaven's Gate*](https://film.one/film/heavens-gate) tell the same class fight at the same ruinous length, Bertolucci's in an Italian estate and Cimino's in a Wyoming range war. Both are at their best in communal scenes and both drift in their storytelling, but *Heaven's Gate* stays moving to the end, while *1900* stops treating its people as people after the interval. Viewers who want the finer photography should take *1900*; those who want to feel something throughout should take Cimino. **What should I watch after 1900?** After *1900*, try [*The Tree of Wooden Clogs*](https://film.one/film/the-tree-of-wooden-clogs) (1978, Fi1m 89): Olmi’s Lombard peasants, played by real farmers, without a speech in three hours. Then [*Heaven's Gate*](https://film.one/film/heavens-gate) (1980, Fi1m 79): Cimino’s Wyoming range war: the same class fight, the same ruinous length, more dust; and [*Once Upon a Time in America*](https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america) (1984, Fi1m 81): De Niro and Morricone again across four decades, this time with Leone and gangsters. ### Reviews we read (8) - **Slant Magazine**, Jaime N. Christley (3.5/4): The critic sees the film as an audacious epic whose ambition may exceed its ability to stand as the greatest of all films. They praise Bertolucci’s ability to weave intimate spaces into a sweeping tapestry of class conflict and history. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-1900-obliterates-the-barriers-between-story-and-history/) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (75/100, inferred): The critic calls it a flawed masterpiece, though the second half lacks dramatic drive. He praises the film’s scope, scale and ambition, while faulting Robert De Niro’s performance. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/1900-review/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The review presents the epic as an ambitious, elaborately constructed saga, though it notes that De Niro is overshadowed by his passive role. It singles out Sterling Hayden’s performance as the crowning effort of his long career. [Read](https://variety.com/1975/film/reviews/novecento-2-1200423674/) - **Los Angeles Times**, KEVIN THOMAS (65/100, inferred): Thomas regards the film as a monumental but flawed epic, with its English-language version’s artificiality contributing to stretches of tedium. He singles out Vittorio Storaro’s gorgeous visuals as an unalloyed triumph. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-01-ca-189-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com** (65/100, inferred): The page was blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. No specific praise or complaint is available from the page provided. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/1900-1977) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Doug Pratt (65/100, inferred): Pratt finds the extended cut an ambitious, uneven near-masterpiece, with its first half especially magnificent. He praises Vittorio Storaro’s painterly cinematography but faults the later performances and a disturbing sequence that disrupts the film. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/conformist-1900-158064/) - **Time Out**, TR (64/100, inferred): The available description does not establish the critic’s overall verdict. It singles out a contradiction between the film’s political line and its glossy style. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/1900-1) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (C+): Tobias finds the epic unwieldy and politically blunt, with the first half more compelling than the second. He praises the cinematography and music in the large-scale sequences, while faulting the simplistic characters and redundant ending. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/1900-1798173052) ## Details - **Director:** Bernardo Bertolucci - **Director:** Bernardo Bertolucci - **Writer:** Bernardo Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli, Giuseppe Bertolucci - **Cinematography:** Vittorio Storaro - **Editor:** Franco Arcalli - **Music:** Ennio Morricone - **Production design:** Gianni Quaranta, Maria Paola Maino - **Costume design:** Gitt Magrini - **Producer:** Alberto Grimaldi, H.F. Di Mauro - **Cast:** Robert De Niro as Alfredo Berlinghieri; Gérard Depardieu as Olmo Dalcò; Dominique Sanda as Ada Fiestri Paulhan; Stefania Sandrelli as Anita Foschi; Donald Sutherland as Attila Mellanchini; Burt Lancaster as Alfredo Berlinghieri the Elder; Francesca Bertini as Sister Desolata; Laura Betti as Regina - **Runtime:** 5h 17m - **First release (France):** 21 May 1976 - **Genres:** Drama, History - **Budget:** $9 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY2hneWCiiQ ## Where to watch in Mexico Not streaming, renting or buying in Mexico at the last check. Also available in: BR, CA, ES, IT, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Leopard* (1963): Visconti’s Sicilian aristocracy watching its own century end, at a ball that never seems to stop. - *The Tree of Wooden Clogs* (1978), Fi1m 89: Olmi’s Lombard peasants, played by real farmers, without a speech in three hours. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-tree-of-wooden-clogs.md) - *Heaven's Gate* (1980), Fi1m 79: Cimino’s Wyoming range war: the same class fight, the same ruinous length, more dust. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/heavens-gate.md) - *Sunshine* (1999): Szabó follows one Hungarian family through the century with Ralph Fiennes playing three generations. - *Once Upon a Time in America* (1984), Fi1m 81: De Niro and Morricone again across four decades, this time with Leone and gangsters. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/1900