In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more than 4 million Italians migrated to the United States of America (U.S.), which they regarded as a utopia at the time. The film The Legend of 1900, which was inspired by Alessandro Baricco’s monologue Nocecento and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, tells the story about the genius pianist 1900, an orphan, who is fostered by Danny, a black coalman in the boiler room of an ocean liner, and whose parents are presumably Italian immigrants.
Due to immigration law, 1900, a man with neither identity, visa, nor legal papers, cannot legally set foot on American soil. As a genius pianist, his existence is nothing more than that of musician – an entertainer to passengers on the gigantic trans-Atlantic liner, Virginian, the only place he is permitted to live. According to Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, a ship is “a piece of floating space, a placeless place” as a vessel transporting people to the land of their dreams. However, 1900, who has no legal status, will never arrive in utopia aboard Virginian. He can only construct a heterotopia - a mirror of utopia – so that it to him a utopia.
In the eyes of the law, 1900 is a legally inexistent person on Virginian a placeless place. However, it is this law enforced heterotopia and isolation, that creates a genius. In this paper, I illustrate how Virginian metaphorically gives birth to a pianist, 1900, and why he at the end chooses not to leave the ship, while also discussing the meaning behind the film and the relationship between law and space.
2023.
the 23rd International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law – IRSL 2023, Spatial Dynamics and Cultural Changes in Contemporary Legal Experience workshop