Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 337: Sun Dec 2

1900 (Bertolucci, 1976): Rio Cinema, 12 noon

Bernardo Bertolucci's magnificently ambitious, fascinating, but little seen, epic is nothing less than a history of Italy from 1900 to 1945 as seen through the friendship of two men from opposite sides of the social divide, both born on January 1, 1900. It's brought to you here by the Rio Cinema in a special presentation, screening the full-length Italian version.

Chicago Reader review:
'Great moments stud Bernardo Bertolucci's 1976 Marxist epic, but the end result is ambiguous. Robert De Niro is a landowner, Gerard Depardieu is a peasant; they share a birthday and most of the history of the 20th century—the fall of feudalism, the rise of fascism, and two world wars. In the film's four-hour version, at least, the characterizations are hazy and the narrative seems jerky. Some scenes are banal and offensively simpleminded. But patience, ultimately, is rewarded with a welter of detail and some mighty fine camerawork. With Donald Sutherland, Burt Lancaster, Dominique Sanda, Stefania Sandrelli, and Sterling Hayden.'
Dave Kehr

Here is the opening.