Epic ‘Nostromo’gets First-Run Position In The U.S.

PBS’s “Mobil Masterpiece Theatre” turns Joseph Conrad’s little-read 1904 novel “Nostromo” into a three-night miniseries, tonight through Tuesday.

The international co-production makes its debut here even before it airs in England, where most “Masterpiece” stories originate.

Rebecca Eaton, executive producer for “Masterpiece Theatre,” said the story is premiering on PBS stations not as a test, the way plays try out off-Broadway, but as a matter of convenience.

“It’s just who’s got room in the schedule,” she said. “This happens to be a big one. We’ve tried to give it a fair shake by not putting it in a sweeps month, when there might be distractions on other channels.

“It’s an epic, and an epic with a lot of characters is more work. It’s very intense. You have to pay attention. Nobody ever said Conrad was an easy read. It’s serious programming. We’ve done one other Joseph Conrad, ‘The Secret Agent,’ with David Suchet.

“Jan. 5, 6 and 7 is a good time to stay indoors and ‘do your Joseph Conrad.”’

Italian actor Claudio Amendola plays the title role, with Colin Firth, Albert Finney, Serena Scott Thomas, Claudia Cardinale and Brian Dennehy.

Set in South America during the 1890s, “Nostromo” was filmed in Cartegena de Indias, Colombia, by Fernando Ghia, who produced “The Mission,” a dark 1986 film about politics and religion in Brazil.

“Nostromo,” too, is a tale of societal conflict and greed, told through the story of a poor Latin American country thrown into turbulence when outsiders - in this case, British and American - step in.

There’s a lot going on in “Nostromo,” and some viewers may find it difficult to follow as the action moves between settings and characters. A large cast plays the many colorful roles.

Their acting styles vary from subdued, in the case of Firth, to melodramatic, in the case of actors playing revolutionaries. Dubbing is used for some minor parts.

Firth plays Charles Gould, who with his wife, Emilia (Scott Thomas), arrives in the fictional country of Costaguana planning to open his late father’s silver mine, with the backing of an American tycoon, Joshua Holroyd (Dennehy).

Several people stand to become very wealthy, but at least one observer - the local physician - sees that the silver will corrupt. He is right: The country is torn apart by rival warlords who hope to seize the riches as well as the government.

In such a setting, few can be trusted. But one man is thought incorruptible: Giovanni Battista Fidanza, an Italian who is chief of dock workers in the port town of Sulaco. The patronizing British call him Nostromo (“nostro uomo” - “our man”).

In an author’s note, Conrad called him “a man with the weight of countless generations behind him and no parentage to boast of … like the People.”

But the lust in this story is for riches, not romance, even though Nostromo has promised Dona Teresa (Cardinale) that he will marry one of her daughters and take care of the other, and even though lovely Emilia Gould is often alone, thanks to her work-obsessed husband.

Finney plays the embittered, alcoholic Irish doctor, Monygham, who has suffered torture. French-Canadian actor Lothaire Bluteau plays a newspaper editor who returns from Paris to court feisty Antonia Avellanos (Spanish actress Ruth Gabriel) and becomes involved in a plot.

“This is one of Joseph Conrad’s most ambitious works that has not been done before,” Eaton said. “If ever it is going to be done in another genre, another medium, it has to be done as miniseries television. I do completely believe that there are different media that fit different pieces of literature.”