Novecento

What went wrong with 1900? Last Thursday I was supposed to screen ...


Novecento
Italië, 1976.
Length: 316 minuts (2 parts)
Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci
Written by: Franco Arcalli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Bertolucci
Produced by: Alberto Grimaldi
Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro
Music: Ennio Morricone
Cast: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Burt Lancaster, Dominique Sanda, Stefania Sandrelli, Donald Sutherland, Sterling Hayden

What is it all about:
Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock (Depardieu), the other born to a land owner (de Niro). The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants' eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.

The disaster
I had just begun to screen part 1 of the movie (162 min.) and went to the nearly sold out theater to check the sound. It was then (10 minutes in the movie) when a guy in the first row shouted out loud that this was not part 1 but part 2. Since we saw sceens from 1945 a lot of poeple in the theater thought the same. I don't know the movie very well. So I went to the screening room to check the boxes. They were all right: the movie should be part 1, but what if the last cinema where the movie came from had mixed things up...? While I was thinking, the guy from the first row come to me and said: "What are you doing about this? Will you stop the movie and tell the people what's wrong? I know the movie all too well to know that this is part two and I don't want to see it any further. If you don't tell everybody I will." Given n ot much of a choice I stopped the movie and told everybody that a gentleman had told me that something might be wrong. While this was supposed to be part 1 it could be part 2. People who wanted could get a free ticket. Some people wanted to see the rest of the movie, regadless which part this was. So I started it again after 80% of the people had left.
Then the worst nightmare became true: the movie I was screening was part ONE!!!