(The author Sun Sun, special commentator of Litchi News; this article is an exclusive manuscript of Litchi News mobile client and Litchi Network, please indicate the source when reprinting.) ）
The English name of "The Pianist of the Sea" is "The Legend of 1900", which literally translates to "1900 Legend". 1900 is both a character and a year, an era, the beginning of a new era and the end of an old world. Therefore, this film can be said to be both a legend of a person and a legend of an era.
The Pianist at Sea tells a good story. As max the narrator trumpeter tells us at the beginning of the film , " As long as you have a good story to tell, as long as you tell a story that someone is willing to listen to, you're not finished." Stories are memories, stories are history, stories are evidence of a person's existence. This trust in the story, tolerance for the truth, creates a strong romantic color at the beginning of the film. And the protagonist 1900 is undoubtedly a symbol of romance.
He was a baby born in the first month of the first year of the 20th century, an abandoned baby on a ferry, found by boilermaker Danny, raised him, and gave him such a chic name as 1900.
Found on the piano in 1900, when he was eight years old, he followed the piano all the way to the outside of the first class cabin, lying outside the glass window of the ballroom, and when he first saw the grand piano, it was as if he had glimpsed his own destiny. No one knows how he learned to play the piano, he was a genius of the piano in the fatalistic sense, and from the moment he saw the piano, he was never separated from music again in his life. He dreams with music, describes with music, and expresses love at first sight with music for girls. In 1900, he never set foot on land in his life, and he experienced infinite life on the limited "sea island" Virginia ferry, with a limited number of piano keys.
So, while the Virginia sailed along with all the continents of the planet from the 20th century to the 21st century, through the baptism of two world wars, from the second industrial revolution to the third or even the fourth industrial revolution, 1900 was left in place because it had never set foot on land. He is the epitome of that old era, and he preserves the old way of life that has long been extinct—everyone sticks to the ground under their feet, and everyone will feel happy because of what they already have.
In 1900, he didn't allow his music to appear where he didn't exist, and when he saw the sprawling City of New York, he was terrified that there was no end in sight. So he would choose to stay on the Virginia and end his life with the obsolete ferry. How should an artist who is destined to fall behind the times create and live? In his own way, because there was nothing else he could do.
Released in 1998, "The Pianist of the Sea" is not only the director Tornatore's look back at the beginning of the century from the end of the century, but also the hymn he wrote to the Jazz Age before the advent of another millennium, praising that era of miracles, art, that era of splurge and genius, that era of creating unlimited spiritual wealth under limited material conditions.
Of course, this work can also be seen as a long lyric poem written by the director to the film at the time of the centenary of the birth of the film. You know, although film is an audiovisual comprehensive art, the development of auditory art in film lags far behind the development of visual art. Images have always played a more important role in the storytelling and expression of the film. But in The Pianist at Sea, the art of hearing finally has a chance to play as important as the visual arts. It's a movie that can be listened to, a movie that must be listened to with heart.
More than 20 years have passed, and "The Pianist of the Sea" finally has the opportunity to be released in theaters in Chinese mainland. I hope that everyone can go to the cinema and enjoy this movie with unlimited meaning on the limited movie screen. Romantic, sometimes can also have nothing to do with love.