1900 (2 discs)

Academy Award®-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci's massive epic about friendship and war in Italy comes to DVD for the first time. 1900 features an award-winning cast that includes Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Burt Lancaster and Donald Sutherland. Presented in it's original five-hour version, this magnificent 2-disc special collector's edition also features insight from the legendary director as he reflects on the casting, the difficult filming and production as well as the release of this controversial classic.

Bernardo Bertolucci's 255-minute 1900 was a gargantuan undertaking, requiring the resources of three European countries and a trio of American movie studios. Set in the Italian town of Parma, the film's continuity backtracks from Liberation Day in 1945 to the occasion of composer/patriot Giuseppe Verdi's death in 1901. We follow the lives of two men born on that day in 1901, who grow up to be Robert DeNiro and Gerard Depardieu. Wealthy DeNiro sinks into dissipation, while poverty-stricken Depardieu becomes a firebrand labor leader and communist. After WWI, DeNiro is allowed to peacefully retain his land holdings by playing nice with the burgeoning fascists; Depardieu, on the other hand, engages in a long-standing battle against the minions of Mussolini. The two protagonists are reunited when DeNiro returns to Parma to preside over Depardieu's trial for "political crimes." Costar Burt Lancaster is cast as DeNiro's wealthy grandfather, who hates to see the old values buried beneath the social travails of the twentieth century. Many American prints of 1900 were shortened to 243 minutes, rendering the story hard to follow at times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide