If would be hard to name an artist in any medium who illustrated Flaubert’s famous maxim of creativity better than Ennio Morricone. Morricone, who died in 2020 (at 91), was certainly one of the greatest composers of movie soundtracks who ever lived. But even if you consider him next to his fellow giants, Morricone scaled his own wild peak, inventing his own kind of beauty, his own transcendent cacophony. Yet you would never have guessed it to look at him.
“Ennio,” directed by Guiseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”), is a 156-minute portrait of Morricone built around an extensive interview with the composer. (It also includes comments from a murderers’ row of filmmakers and artists.) The movie opens on a beating metronome, which seems to set the orderly, clockwork rhythm of Morricone’s life. Strolling into his ornately furnished living room, he walks quickly, not like a man of 90, and his voice is light and direct.
“Ennio,” directed by Guiseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”), is a 156-minute portrait of Morricone built around an extensive interview with the composer. (It also includes comments from a murderers’ row of filmmakers and artists.) The movie opens on a beating metronome, which seems to set the orderly, clockwork rhythm of Morricone’s life. Strolling into his ornately furnished living room, he walks quickly, not like a man of 90, and his voice is light and direct.
- 2/9/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
“A director can’t understand the final result from a description. You cannot describe music; it needs to be listened to.” So says Ennio Morricone in one of many talking-head sections that comprise Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary. But Ennio, as it’s aptly titled, can feel part-documentary, part-video essay, and, yes, part-talking head compilation. It’s 156 minutes, but even the first four hint at its simplicity. A barrage of musicians, producers, and filmmakers spout what the film quickly compresses into glorified soundbites. Morricone was a towering artist. Audiences already knew this. But Tornatore doesn’t fully unpack the composer’s impact; he does more to describe it.
So what else is there to listen to? Per Morricone himself, he wanted to be a doctor, but his father insisted he learn the trumpet. He took classes at the Saint Cecilia Conservatory at age 12 and studied under Goffredo Petrassi, later marrying Maria Travia.
So what else is there to listen to? Per Morricone himself, he wanted to be a doctor, but his father insisted he learn the trumpet. He took classes at the Saint Cecilia Conservatory at age 12 and studied under Goffredo Petrassi, later marrying Maria Travia.
- 2/7/2024
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Film FestivalThe documentary on Ennio, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, the man who made ‘Cinema Paradiso’, was screened at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala.CrisStill from the documentary 'Ennio'If you knew precious little about Ennio Morricone, unarguably one of the greatest composers who lived in the last 100 years, Ennio, a 150-minute documentary about him, will open up big wide worlds of music and movies for you. A good chunk of the history of film music falls right off the screen, and you will be left wondering from where to start catching up – the vast amounts of stunning music he left behind (500 of them for films and more than a 100 classical works) or the movies themselves. The films and its visuals are so entwined with Ennio’s music, it seems hard to separate one from the other once you have watched them unroll. The documentary, made by Giuseppe...
- 8/30/2022
- by Cris
- The News Minute
Versatile film, avant-garde classical, jazz and pop composer Ennio Morricone died in a Rome hospital after falling and breaking his leg, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma announced, according to Variety. He was 91.
Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.
Morricone...
Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.
Morricone...
- 7/6/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Ennio Morricone accepts an Honorary Academy Award during the 79th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA, on Sunday, February 25, 2007.
The Weinstein Company has released a 7-minute video from the actual recording session of L’Ultima Diligenza per Red Rock (versione integrale) from The Hateful Eight.
Featuring the legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight is nominated for 3 Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score.
In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...
The Weinstein Company has released a 7-minute video from the actual recording session of L’Ultima Diligenza per Red Rock (versione integrale) from The Hateful Eight.
Featuring the legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight is nominated for 3 Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score.
In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...
- 2/17/2016
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Forget the proletarian messages, this Italian Neorealist classic is really an exploitation film about ogling brazen, buxom babes in short-shorts, up to their knees in a rice paddy. Hollywood actress Doris Dowling is the nominal star but new discovery Silvana Mangano became the knockout dream of every Italian male suffering from postwar shortages (cough). Giuseppe De Santis delivered the perfect combo -- an art film that pulled in every lonely guy nella cittá. Bitter Rice Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 792 1949 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 109 min. / Riso amaro / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 12, 2016 / 29.95 Starring Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling, Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone. Cinematography Otello Martelli Film Editor Gabriele Varriale Original Music Goffredo Petrassi Written by Corrado Alvaro, Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Franco Monicelli, Carlo Musso, Ivo Perilli, Gianni Puccini Produced by Dino De Laurentiis Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
- 1/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Italian composer of film scores and musicals
Armando Trovajoli, who has died aged 95, was a prolific composer for Italian films and stage musicals. He worked with many of Italy's leading directors, including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica, for whom he composed music for La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) and Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), both of which starred Sophia Loren, who became a friend. When Loren was going to Hollywood for the first time in the mid-1950s, Trovajoli composed and recorded with his orchestra a song in Neapolitan for her, Che M'è Mparato a Ffà (What Did You Teach Me to Do?), which did much to launch her in the Us.
Trovajoli was born into an upper-middle-class family in Rome. He learned to play the violin as a boy and, in the 1930s, studied piano at the Santa Cecilia conservatory. By 1939 he was playing with a leading jazz band.
Armando Trovajoli, who has died aged 95, was a prolific composer for Italian films and stage musicals. He worked with many of Italy's leading directors, including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica, for whom he composed music for La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) and Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), both of which starred Sophia Loren, who became a friend. When Loren was going to Hollywood for the first time in the mid-1950s, Trovajoli composed and recorded with his orchestra a song in Neapolitan for her, Che M'è Mparato a Ffà (What Did You Teach Me to Do?), which did much to launch her in the Us.
Trovajoli was born into an upper-middle-class family in Rome. He learned to play the violin as a boy and, in the 1930s, studied piano at the Santa Cecilia conservatory. By 1939 he was playing with a leading jazz band.
- 3/10/2013
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
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