Two Absolutely Must See Movies

This is the first Thursday in weeks that hasn't been an update on the baby afghan but shame on me, I've made no progress since last Thursday. So this post is about two movies that I watched in the last 24 hours that blew me away. These are both now on my 'wish to own' list as they are in the rare category of 'worth repeatedly rewatching'.

The Legend of 1900 I streamed this from Netflix but alas it stopped streaming today and is now available only as DVD on Netflix.

Premise: An infant abandoned on an ocean steamer in January 1900 found and adopted by a coal shoveler and raised in the belly of the ship. Became a child prodigy pianist and as adult worked as pianist on board gaining reputation as improviser.




The Magic Waltz

The narrator meets the legend and a friendship begins





1900 improvises a love song as he is being recorded for the first time

The piano duel between 1900 and a legendary New Orleans jazz pianist, Jelly Roll Morton, played by Clarance Williams III (remember Mod Squad?) is a must see but I won't embed the two long videos depicting it. Just offer the links:
The Piano Duel Part 1
The Piano Duel Part 2




Magnolia

I still haven't figured out the significance of the title or of magnolias to the story.



The story seems to be an exploration of the role of chance or strange coincidence in real lives and this is played out in the depicting of a day in the life of nine people living in the San Fernando Valley whose lives intersect in many large and small ways mostly unknown to them:

Old man on deathbed--Earl is producer of 30+ year running game show What Do Kids Know
His very young wife--Linda
His estranged son from previous marriage--Franky
His male nurse--Phil

Game show host--Jimmy Gator
His estranged adult daughter--Claudia

The current child genius contestant--Stanley
The child genius contestant from 3 decades ago--Donnie

Cop--Jim

view a chart depicting the web of relationship among these characters

Anyone familiar with my own storyworld would easily understand my fascination with this story--a large cast of major protagonists whose stories intersect.



Aimee Mann sings Wise Up during one of the defining moments in each of the main characters story, apparently happening simultaneously as they individually sing along as they listen to the song.