The Legend of 1900 (Italian: La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano, "The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean") is a 1998 Italian English-language drama film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, and starring Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Mélanie Thierry.

A baby boy is found abandoned in the first class dining room of the four stacker ocean liner SS Virginian.

When police officers come on the ship to take him to the orphanage, 1900 hides for several days and reappears playing a piano very well without having ever been taught.

His reputation as a pianist is so renowned that Jelly Roll Morton, of New Orleans jazz fame, comes aboard to challenge him to a piano duel.

As Morton becomes more determined to display his talent, he plays an impressive tune ("The Crave") that brings tears to 1900's eyes.

His playing fails to impress the crowd until his original piece ("Enduring Movement"), of such virtuosity and superhuman speed that the metal piano strings become hot enough to light a cigarette, which he hands to Morton as a gesture of victory.

The story flashes back to the mid-1940s periodically, as Max (who has left the ship's orchestra in 1933) is seen trying to find 1900 in the now-deserted hull of the vessel which is scheduled to be scuttled and sunk far offshore.