Year 69th - supplement no. 2 - may, 2016

Ennio MorriconeAn Oscar Life

THE MAESTRO AND LEONE«I saw you sleep on thedesk in the classroom»:Ennio and Sergio,childhood friends

DARIO ARGENTOThe Bird with theCrystal Plumage: a golden debut withmusic from the master

BIXIO AND OTHERSComments by thepublishers of theRoman composer’ssoundtracks

QUENTIN TARANTINO«He’s my favorite

composer. Better thanMozart, Schubert and Beethoven»

Special edition

n.2 may 2016

Illustrated magazine of Film and Fictionfounded by AlbertoCrucillà in 1948Register authorization no. 473 October 31st, 1948DirectorRenato MARENGOrenatomarengo43@gmail.comChief Editor Andrea SPLENDOREand.splendore@gmail.com Vice Director Luigi AVERSAaversaluigi@gmail.comArt Director Stefano SALVATORIgrafico.salvatori@gmail.com

ProductionDas DesignerNews AgencyP.zza Augusto Imperatore, 3200186 Romadasdesigner@gmail.com

Translations from Italian Studio Duemme Snc. di Marinari M & C.

PublisherCDA srlViale Liegi,700198 Romainfo@servizieditorialicda.it

AdvertisingA.P.S. Advertising s.r.l.Via Tor De Schiavi, 35500171 RomaTel. 06 89015166Fax 06 89015167 info@apsadvertising.itwww.apsadvertising.itPrintingArti Grafiche Celoriwww.grafichecelori.com

Supplement no. 2 may, 2016© Cinecorriere - allreproduction rights reserved. Iconographic materials is taken fromCinevox’s archive.

The opinions expressed by the authorsare not binding to the Editorial Staff. Allmaterials received and not requested(texts and photographs), even ifunpublished, will not be returned.

www.cinecorrierenews.it

We gladly acceptedFranco Bixio’s sug-gestion to do “some-

thing special” for the CannesFilm Festival, honoring sucha special musician like Mor-ricone. Bixio is President ofCinevox Record and of theBixio Publishing Group, thatpublished the music of manyof Ennio Morricone’s suc-cessful films.

Our full participation in hissuggestion lead us to doingthis in the best possible wayfor a monthly film magazine,and we devoted an entire spe-cial issue of Cinecorriere, inEnglish, to our greatest sound-track composer who onceagain received an Oscar forhis film scores. We asked di-rectors, critics, cultural repre-sentatives, authors, publishersand record labels of his mostfamous music and most soldLPs to give their contribution.Italo Moscati was one ofthese who dedicated books,reporting and short films to

the long-time friendship be-tween Morricone and SergioLeone. We also asked com-ments from Dario Argento,Quentin Tarantino, JohnCarpenter, and from FrancoBixio himself, who traced thecomposer’s artistic and hu-man profile. Franco Bixio nar-rated special anecdotes tied tothe extraordinary sale of someof Morricone’s musical com-positions, Oscar winner in2016. Contributions were alsoreceived from other publish-

ers such as De Gemini,Gramitto Ricci, Sugar.

In this special tribute wehighlighted some of the mostimportant aspects of the greatcomposer’s immense musicalproduction (over 400 originalfilm scores), and found un-published photos, cult recordsleeves, gathered opinions, re-membered awards and themany nominations and sound-tracks of famous films that de-served to be awarded.

All the staff at Cinecorriere,headed by my Vice DirectorLuigi Aversa, worked enthu-siastically to this special issue,underlining also the impor-tance of the interexchange be-tween sounds and images thatholds a special place in myheart. Ennio Morricone’s mu-sic increasingly contributed toa film’s success, to a direc-tor’s fame and to lasting mem-ories over time.

Enjoy the reading... and thegreat music.

Renato Marengo

Franco Bixio«Morricone: great Italian excellence»by Renato Marengo 4

Ennio & QuentinMusic to seeFilm to hearby Luigi Aversa 10

Cinevox RecordAll the LP covers with MaestroMorricone’s soundtracks 14

Italo Moscati«Leone and Morricone: an important friendship» 20

Dario Argento«A future Oscar winner for the music to my first film» 22

Verdone, Carpenter and othersItalian and foreign film directors that worked with Morricone 24

Other publishers«The Maestro knows how tocommunicate, through the heart»by L.A. 26

DEDICATED TO A SPECIAL MUSICIANeditorial

summary

Face to face with FrancoBixio, President of CinevoxRecord, the record label thatpublished many of MaestroMorricone’s soundtracks,including the famous tracksfrom Duck, You Sucker (Giù latesta) and One Night at Dinner(Metti, una sera a cena)

Cinevox Record, the Italianrecord label specialized inthe production of film

music, recorded many of EnnioMorricone’s most famous

film scores. We askedPresident FrancoBixio to talk about hisrelationship betweenCinevox and the2016 music Oscar

winner, Ennio

Morricone. «I was 19 years old in1969, the year we published themusic for Ennio Morricone’s firstfilm with our label. The film hewas supposed to compose themusic to was One Night at Dinner(Metti una sera a cena), directedby Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, quitea particular film since the themewas a tribute to incommunicabil-ity. Those were years of importantbattles and major social clashes.

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by Renato Marengo

1968 was a significant moment forItaly, filled with social unrest andtransformations perfectly de-scribed in the film, needing a veryevocative type of music that under-lined and highlighted those feel-ings, unrest and turmoil. EnnioMorricone composed for us one ofthe most appreciated film scoresever. Since then and following thegreat success reached with Maes-tro Morricone, a profitable collab-

«GreatItalianExcellence»

Ennio Mo

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Opening: EnnioMorricone with the

Oscar. Below:Franco Bixio,

President of CinevoxRecord

orriconeoration began particularly thanksto the relationship that was estab-lished between him and mybrother Carlo who started manag-ing the editorial business, after myfather had done it for years, beingdevoted to developing sound-tracks. Ennio Morricone was un-doubtedly one of the mostappreciated musicians of thattime, a legend of the film score. Itwas my brother Carlo to establish

the relationship that would haveled to extraordinary results in pro-ducing many soundtracks. Regard-ing the fact that I was only 19 atthe time, I’d like to add that it wasthe year I ventured out as a musi-cian, as a film score composer.Having Morricone in our studioswith his music and style stronglyinfluenced me and helped me growprofessionally. Ennio Morriconewas already a cult figure for us

younger musicians, a major pointof reference, legendary and unat-tainable. Most importantly, it wasa pleasure to listen to his compos-ing skills and his ability of charac-terizing his harmonic style. Themusical experience, the researchby the Gruppo di Im-provvisazione Nuova Conso-nanza, whose first record weprinted, is evidence. This was onlythe beginning».

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After that first soundtrack,there were many others thatfollowed.

One Night at Dinner (Metti, unasera a cena) was one of the firstmajor record successes, selling both45 and 33 rpm. The soundtrackswe used to print with the CinevoxRecord label were much appreciatedby the public that closely followedfilm scores and used to leave filmtheaters singing or whistling to themusic. This was taken into accountwhen composing film scores sincemusicians were often usually askedto compose a recurring leitmotivthat became the film’s theme.

Is it true that many films withMorricone’s soundtrack are re-membered thanks to the mu-sic?

Yes, it’s true. Even if great filmsoften contribute to the success ofthe film score, the contrary canalso happen: in certain cases, thefilm score has made a film famous,

contributing to its success. The filmwould have probably been success-ful anyway, but was even more sothanks to the score.

Which other successful filmscores did Morricone record withyou?�

Morricone’s musical productionthat directly involved the GruppoEditoriale Bixio was undoubtedlythe one for his romantic films, butalso for brilliant Italian comedies.These films include La cosa buffa,Stay as You Are (Così come sei),The Cat (Il gatto), A DangerousToy (Il giocattolo), as well as thrillerssuch as Four Flies on Grey Velvet(Quattro mosche di velluto grigio),The Bird with the Crystal Plumage(L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo)and Investigation of a Citizen AboveSuspicion (Indagine su un cittadinoal di sopra di ogni sospetto). Theonly soundtrack to a Western, evenif atypical, that Maestro Morriconecomposed and recorded with us

On top: Morricone withCesare A. Bixio. Above: thecover of the special editionfor the 35th anniversary ofDuck, You Sucker. Next page: the goldenrecords Cinevox won

was for the film Duck, You Sucker(Giù la testa) by Sergio Leone in1971, that was a huge success andthe LP released by Cinevox wonthe Golden Record just like OneNight at Dinner (Metti, una seraa cena).

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There is a story tied to the suc-cess of this soundtrack.

Paolo Frajese, who at the timewas Rai Tv’s Domenica Sportivahost, used the theme from Duck,You Sucker (Giù la testa) that wasjust released in film theaters, whenGustav Thoeni won his first WorldCup for parallel slalom with Inge-mar Stenmark. Thanks to Tv, theevent became famous across theworld. The sports show DomenicaSportiva added the music of Mor-ricone’s Duck, You Sucker toThoeni’s slalom in slow motion.Sergio Leone’s film contributedto the soundtrack’s success withno doubt. Tv using that music im-mediately made it a popular hit. Inthose days, it was quite commonfor Tv and radio to play film sound-tracks. This created a recordedmusic market that increased thefilm’s success. Soundtracks com-posed during those years, first ofall those by Maestro Morricone,

have been enjoyed over the years.The music, initially composed fora film and inseparably tied to it,took on a life of its own throughthe years. Today, radio stationsoften play the music that is alsoused in Tv shows or advertisements.An example of this is the musiccomposed by Morricone for thefilm Investigation of a CitizenAbove Suspicion (Indagine su uncittadino al di sopra di ogni sospet-to), directed by Elio Petri. Themain theme, Indagine (Investiga-tion) is still currently used in Tvprograms or journalistic reporting,in films or documentaries referringto crime and detective stories. Thesuccess of these uses is based onmusic publishing, essential forhaving musical production continueto live on. It is equally true thatthat type of music perfectly matchesthe “investigation” experience.

Morricone succeeded in creat-ing important popular themes

for art films, for dramatic genresand Westerns, while also suc-cessfully composing music forcomedies.

Yes, for our publishing group inthe 1980’s he composed the scoresfor the films Bianco, Rosso e Ver-done and Fun Is Beautiful (Unsacco bello), directed by CarloVerdone. I would also like to men-tion another film: The Cat (Il gatto),directed by Luigi Comencini star-ring Mariangela Melato and UgoTognazzi. It was a blend of comedyand mystery! In that case, Morriconesucceeded, through his orchestra,to convey the feeling of the film’ssymbol: the cat. When listening tothe music, one can actually hear acat walking with all his feline posesand movements. This was Morri-cone’s strength: succeeding withoutthe use of electronic instrumentsand often only using one voice tocreate certain sound effects thatoriginally imprinted the music, per-

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Above: EnnioMorricone, in theforeground, with

Cesare AndreaBixio and

Giuseppe PatroniGriffi

fectly transmitting the scene’s feel-ings and sensations. This is bestexemplified in the heart-wrenchingharmonica in Once Upon a Timein the West (C’era una volta ilWest), played by the late FrancoDe Gemini, that musically sym-bolized the movie. And also in OneNight at Dinner (Metti, una seraa cena), Edda Dell’Orso’s voicebecame the protagonist of many ofMorricone and other composers’soundtracks.

How long did it take Morriconeto compose his film scores?

A reasonable amount of time.That’s what he would answer. Com-posing film scores is not an easytask: it takes one’s own inspirationconnected to the inspiration of thefilm. It’s quite complex. The filmmust be seen with the director’ssensitivity and it is necessary to

read into the film’s images and seewhat they transmit. One needs tolisten to the director’s suggestions,while also being detached fromthem. It takes time to develop andcreate the composition, even quitefast.

At your Trafalgar Studios thereis a large hall with a maxi-screenand there’s room for the orches-tra. Did Morricone have the habitof looking at the film sceneswhile conducting his orchestra?

Morricone didn’t always conducthimself, sometimes he appointedBruno Nicolai for that, but thiswas so he could better devote him-self to composing the film score.The music was recorded with theorchestra playing, while specialprojectors played out the scenecontinuously, as if it were a “loop”until a perfect version was produced.

The recording occurred watchingthe film scenes “live”, based on anancient alchemy that originated in1930 with the first Italian soundfilm. We were involved in thosemovies too, since it was my fatherthat composed the first song of thesound film and his musical historyoften developed by using sound-tracks to launch many of his songs.

Which film was this?The film was The Song of Love

(La canzone dell’amore) and thesong was named after the title. Itwas the song that said... Solo perte Lucia va la canzone mia… Thatfilm is interesting not only since itwas the first sound film, but alsobecause the spectator discoveredhow soundtracks were recordedand how the first 78 rpm recordswere made. I wanted to mentionmy father, Cesare Andrea Bixio,

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Top: one of thepanels for theExhibit “C.A.Bixio: music andcinema in theItalian 1900’s”with a series ofimages from thecovers of someof thesoundtrackspublished overthe years byCinevox Record.To the side: EnnioMorricone withthe Oscar

since both my father and Morri-cone’s paths crossed also artistically,thanks to Patroni Griffi who, in1975, directed the film The DivineNymph (Divina creatura), withthe beautiful Laura Antonelli, awonderful Marcello Mastroianniand a perfect Terence Stamp. Thefilm’s music not only containedthe musical score by Morricone,but also many of my father’s songsthat the great Maestro Ennio Mor-ricone revisited and re-arranged.

There was a special collabora-tion between the publisher andthe musician.

It was really very beautiful. Thiswas back in 1975, nearly at theend of my father’s life, an addedrecognition to his brilliant artisticcareer.

Ennio Morricone won an Hon-orary Oscar in 2007 in recognition

of many films that received Oscarnominations that he deservedto win.

I think he deserved to win theAcademy Award many times. Iam sure, and am saying this becauseI love him, he should have deservedto win it for the film score of OnceUpon a Time in America (C’erauna volta in America), SergioLeone’s last film, who was also aclassmate of Morricone’s. To me,that is one of his masterpieces.

Can we then say that Holly-wood gave him that HonoraryOscar for his career to makeamends?

I think so. As it often happens,the Honorary Oscar for one’s careeris awarded when there is a realiza-tion that a mistake was made inthe past.

So the second Oscar he won

this year with Quentin Taranti-no’s film is a real triumph andrecognition from all the filmworld towards this great com-poser.

From the entire world! Not onlythe film world, but also the culturalworld, the media and people withartistic taste that loved and continueto love the music written by EnnioMorricone, representing Italian ex-cellence. !!!

Ennio Morricone wasn’t atthe Golden Globes thatnight in Los Angeles, to re-

ceive the award for best originalscore for The Hateful Eight.Quentin Tarantino went in hisplace. On that occasion, the direc-tor from Knoxville, Tennessee, ad-dressing the audience ofcolleagues and film people, mani-fested his deep admiration for theRoman composer that he pursuedfor so long to work with. «He’slike Mozart or Beethoven», statedthe exuberant US filmmaker. «It’sfantastic – he added – do you real-

ize Ennio Morricone is my fa-vorite composer? And EnnioMorricone has never won anaward for any one of the moviesthat he has done. He has in Italy,but not in America: at 87 years ofage he did an original score andwon the Golden Globe, for Ennio,I say thank you».

Morricone had already receivedawards in the past. The GoldenGlobe for The Hateful Eight is ac-tually his third. The first one camein 1987 for the music to Missionby Roland Joffé, the second in2000 for The Legend of 1900 (La

Following the successfulcollaboration for the Oscar-winning

The Hateful Eight, that received aGolden Globe and many other

awards, Tarantino and Morriconedecided to work together again.

«But I’d like to have more time thistime», said Morricone

Ennio&Quentin

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Music to seeFilm to hear by Luigi Aversa

leggenda del pianistasull’oceano) by

Giuseppe Tornatore.After five Academy

Award nomina-tions receivedover the yearsfor Days ofHeaven (Igiorni delcielo) in 1979;Mission in1987, TheUntouchables(Gli intocca-

bili) in 1988,Bugsy in 1992

and Malèna in 2001,it was only in 2007,that he received theAcademy Hon-orary Award bythe Academy ofMotion PictureArts and Sci-ences, “for hismagnificent andmultifaceted con-tributions to theart of filmmusic”. Accom-panied by astanding ova-tion, Morriconereceived the

award from Clint East-wood.

«I want to thank the

Academy for this honor, by givingme this prestigious award – saidMorricone to the audience thenight of his first award – but Iwould like to thank all those thatstrongly wanted this award for meand deeply felt I deserved it. I wantto thank my directors that calledme trusting in me to compose themusic for their films, I honestlywouldn’t’ be here hadn’t it beenfor them. My thoughts also go toall the artists that never receivedthis award and even though theyworked with enormous commit-ment and talent, I hope they will berecognized in the near future. ThisOscar is not a point of arrival, buta point of departure to improveboth at the service of film, and formy personal aesthetics on appliedmusic. I dedicate this Oscar to mywife Maria who loves me verymuch and I love her too the sameway, this prize is also for her».

Morricone dedicated his secondOscar won on February 28, 2016,also to his wife Maria. This Oscar,however, was the first won for afilm score, the one written forQuentin Tarantino’s movie.

The moment during the cere-mony when the 87-year-old musi-cian stood on the stage togetherwith his son Giovanni was partic-ularly moving. His voice brokenby emotion, Morricone thankedthe Academy, nominated col-

11

On the page, topfrom left to right:the film’s poster,Tarantino with theGolden Globe,Morricone with hiswife Maria, thedirector andcomposer with theorchestra, theMaestro with theOscar, Madsen inThe Hateful Eight

Opening: EnnioMorricone andQuentin Tarantino.Below: the two withKurt Russell andMichael Madsen atthe Italian premier ofThe Hateful Eight

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leagues as well as Tarantino andproducer Harvey Weinstein, clos-ing in thanks to his wife. His sontranslated his speech into Englishand while Morricone was holdingthe Oscar given to him by Phar-rell Williams and Quincy Jonessaid, «I dedicate this music andvictory to my wife. No great musicexists without a great inspirationalfilm. Thank you Quentin Tarantinofor having chosen me».

Author of unforgettable sound-tracks imprinted in the collectivememory, from Investigation of aCitizens Above Suspicion(Indagine su un cittadino al disopra di ogni sospetto) to OnceUpon a Time in America (C’erauna volta in America) up to Cin-ema Paradiso (Nuovo CinemaParadiso), with the music to TheHateful Eight, Maestro Morriconesurpassed himself. The original

score composed for Tarantino’s8th film is a veritable symphony,with an actual ouverture, revivingand reminiscent of the grandeurand atmosphere of the music writ-ten for Sergio Leone’s films. «Iused bassoons, the tuba, and trum-pets to give that dramatic qualitythat is then transformed intoirony», explained the Roman com-poser the day the film premieredwith the Italian press.

To the side: a scene.Below: Michael

Madsen. Bottom: TimRoth, Kurt Russell,

Jennifer Jason Leighand another scene

n.2 may 2016 13

ognizable since they have certainrecurring elements, but my inten-tion is to give each director themusic he deserves».

Throughout his lengthy film ca-reer including over four hundredtitles, Morricone spanned throughevery type of genre. Not only that.His music shaped and personal-ized each film, making themunique and unparalleled. Workingtogether with Sergio Leone, forexample, created a series of mas-terpieces with images and soundinseparably intertwined. Tarantinoaimed at achieving this result, hav-ing attempted in the past to workwith the composer for the filmscore of Inglorious Basterds(Bastardi senza gloria), whencommitments were conflicting.Following the current successfulOscar experience, the two couldwork again, «But I would need

Drama and irony are only two ofthe multi-faceted aspects formingTarantino’s film. «A Western ver-sion of Reservoir Dogs (Le iene)»,as Tarantino himself defined it.The Hateful Eight is a blend ofdifferent genres: from western tomystery, from thriller to historicaldrama, tinged with horror. «SinceI can’t make all the films I’d liketo, each time I make five films inone!», he added.

«To me, it’s absolutely not aWestern, it’s a dramatic film a setat a specific time in American his-tory taking place in a snow-cov-ered location», commentedMorricone. «It’s rare to see aWestern take place in that kind oflocation. For me it’s not a Westernand I never treated it as such. Iwanted to do something differentfrom what I had done fifty yearsago. I know that my scores are rec-

Above: Samuel L.Jackson. Below:Kurt Russell andJennifer Jason Leigh

more time – underlined Morricone– and above all, a broader ex-change of ideas with Quentin be-fore writing the score». !!!

The important friendship be-tween Ennio Morriconeand Sergio Leone dates

back to when they were in elemen-tary school together. Leone referredto this in an affectionate postcard --which we publish with pleasure inthis issue-- sent to Morricone writ-ten in rhyme on occasion of the re-lease of Duck, You Sucker (Giù latesta), directed by Leone with Mor-ricone’s musical score. The rhymeread, “T’ho visto dormì su li banchide la scola. T’ho sentito russà men-tre stavi in moviola, ma ste musichebelle, sti magnifici soni, ma quannoli componi? Con affetto da Leone aMoricone”. (I saw you sleep on theclassroom desks. I heard you snorein front of the slow-motion, whendo you compose this beautiful

music, these wonderful sounds?With affection from Leone to Mori-cone”).

“Leone had an important friend-ship with Morricone not only basedon the latter’s intuition, but also be-cause he succeeded in reinventingLeone’s ideas. Music was used incertain film scenes to set the paceto the situation, but mainly to cre-ate a musical environment whereeven the cameraman and the Di-rector of Photography were in-spired in creating images havingthe profound rhythm of Morri-cone’s music. His music was alsomade of noises and of bells ringing,all that creates the aesthetic qualityof film is at least 80 percent the re-sult between editing and dubbing.Manipulation does exist, the myth

From school days to world success in film and music:the special friendship between Ennio and Sergio gavethe Seventh Art moments of pure poetry

20

Italo Moscati“Morricone and Leone:

an important friendship”

n.2 may 2016

of what is taken directly from film-ing has its substantial importance,particularly regarding images andideas the director has in mind andthat he succeeds in communicatingto the actors and his collabora-tors.”

(with reference to I ta lo Moscati’sshort film, C’era una volta e ci sarà sem-pre, Sergio Leone)

The young Sergio Leone workedwith director Carmine Gallone,who after the success of films likeScipio Africanus: The Defeat ofHannibal (Scipione l’Africano)dedicated his career to makingmelodramas with famous femaleleads such as Anna Magnani,Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida.Gallone had also made Leone readand study the scores of the mostimportant works of Italian opera.

“...It’s possible that the success ofall the films made one after theother caused Sergio to develop amusical sensitivity that he found inEnnio Morricone who was an ex-pert on Italian masters such as

Verdi and Puccini, making him theright person for re-interpreting themusic and conveying that unforget-table association between sequenceof scenes and musical score, partic-ular to so many of his films.”

“...Before Leone, the Italian West-ern was frontier cinema, phonycontracts requiring lengthy timeframes. Sergio succeeded in chang-ing things; if Ejzenstejn succeededin convincing Prokof’ev, Sergio didthe same with Ennio Morricone,who in the early days signed off asDon Savio...”

“...with A Fistful of Dollars (Perun pugno di dollari) and mainlythe year later with For A Few Dol-lars More (Per qualche dollaro inpiù) made in 1965, Sergio Leoneshowed himself to be a film directormoved by an inspired hunch. Hewas an artist capable of blendingspectacular unbridled violencewith a refined style, aesthetics andaccurate slow motion with musicalediting. Morricone was in chargeof the music, sounds, noises and

naturally, also AlessandroAlessandroni’s “whistling”, pres-ent in his film scores...”

Moscati quotes Tarantino:“Without spaghetti westerns... alarge part of Italian film would notexist. Hollywood wouldn’t be thesame without Clint Eastwood, LeeVan Cleef, Charles Bronson,without Morricone...”

Leone’s relationship with themusical score: “...His love formusic, his friendship with Morri-cone, noises and sounds that be-come scores. Film has always hadits music, even when it was silent,with Charlie Chaplin that whis-tled and a Maestro that wouldcompose the notes; and withLeone who didn’t whistle, butgrumbled and turned commonsounds into words – a door creak-ing, a fly buzzing, water drops –that Morricone transformed into afilm score.” !!!

(I talo Moscati: from the book Ser-gio Leone - Quando il cinema eragrande - Lindau)

Opening: a scenefrom Once Upona Time inAmerica, below,Italo Moscati.Below: HenryFonda, EnnioMorricone andSergio Leone. In this page, from top to right:Leone andMorricone, thedirector with ClintEastwood on theset of For a FewDollars More,James Woodsand Robert DeNiro in OnceUpon a Time inAmerica, a scenefrom the film

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Italo Moscati“Morricone and Leone:

an important friendship”

ing in the field warned me aboutthe fact that an ignorant director isthe only thing worse than a nastydirector. Having to give orders, ifthose on the set realize you are in-secure and hesitant, it’s over: youdon’t stand a chance and they willtake control. I had overcome myshyness a long time ago and toldmyself I would be assertive, deter-mined, knowing what I wanted.

For my first film as a director,The Bird with the CrystalPlumage (L’Uccello dalle

Piume di Cristallo), I certainlydidn’t want to work with a crew ofexperts. I couldn’t get used to theidea of hearing suggestions fromthose who would have tried to im-pose their ideas, with the excusethey had more experience than me.

I asked around and many work-

I was a novice and didn’t knowmuch, but if I could have relied onvalid people, I would have suc-ceeded.

Not all might know that Morricone wrote the music to The Bird withthe Crystal Plumage (L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo), the first filmdirected by the Italian master of horror film. The two worked togetheragain for Four Flies on Grey Velvet (4 mosche di velluto grigio)

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“A future Oscar winner for the music to my first film”

Dario Argento

I wanted a set based on the great-est creative freedom and madesure, - looking back, somewhatfoolishly - that I would work withyoung inexperienced people, butwho very eager to work. Needlessto say, having been Sergio Leone’sscreenwriter allowed me the luxuryto have an outstanding composerlike Ennio Morricone for the mu-sical score, also a great friend of

my father’s .I have a special memory of the

first time I met with Morricone,after he had accepted composingthe music to my first film. We metat his home and I naively broughthim a bunch of vinyl records, sug-gesting he listen to them. Theycontained tracks that I thoughtwere interesting. At first he was of-fended, but then he understood my

n.2 may 2016 23

gesture was in good faith. I reallymade a fool of myself.

Unlike others, Morricone was al-ready a well-known name, whilemy director of photography Vitto-rio Storaro, was just starting out.My first film actually included twofuture Oscar winners: these thingsdon’t happen to everyone. !!!

(Dario Argento, from the book Paura - Einaudi)

In the opening page, above and below: images from theThe Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Above, to the left and inthe next page below: two scenes from Four Flies on GreyVelvet. Opening page, lower left: Dario Argento on thecover of his book Paura (Einaudi)

“D ear Ennio, it’s a great dayfor an immense artist likeyou. My most sincere

compliments for this important tributethe film world has awarded you, youfully deserve it. Not many know thatyou come from highly complex studiesin contemporary music and that youstudied with the highest intellectualcomposer: Goffredo Petrassi. You arean example of integrity that has ledyou to compose only what you like,never settling. I am most struck thatboth of us, even if in my case thanksto another director, reached the Os-cars and this is truly fantastic. Butyours, compared to mine in my sup-porting role in The Great Beauty (LaGrande Bellezza), is much more be-cause your is only yours.

When Sergio Leone introduced meto Ennio Morricone, it all felt like adream.

A feeling I can’t transmit not even

today: I was a nobody next to two gi-ants that were helping me out.

Those were other times, wonderfulones.

Have a lovely evening.Carlo Verdone”Carlo Verdone, director of Fun Is

Beautiful (Un sacco bello), postedthese words on Facebook to celebrateEnnio Morricone’s winning theOscar. Thanks to his mentor SergioLeone as referred to in this letter, Ver-done was fortunate to make his filmdebut in 1980 with an exceptionalfilm score composed by MaestroMorricone. This collaboration con-tinued the year after also for Ver-done’s film Bianco, Rosso eVerdone.

Even before Verdone, many otherItalian film directors had the oppor-tunity to work with such an outstand-ing composer for their film debut.Lina Wertmuller with The

From Carlo Verdone to John Carpenter, an overview of Italianand foreign film directors that worked with Maestro Morricone

24

by L.A.

SOUNDscreens

n.2 may 2016

Basilisks (I basilischi - 1963) andMarco Bellocchio with Fists in thePocket (I pugni in tasca - 1965) aretwo of these. Bernardo Bertoluccimet Morricone for his second featurefilm, Before the Revolution (Primadella rivoluzione -1964). He thenworked with him on many other oc-casions (Partner, 1900 - Novecento,La luna, Tragedy of a RidiculousMan - La tragedia di un uomo ridi-colo).

Most great Italian film directorsworked professionally with MaestroMorricone: from Carlo Lizzani toGillo Pontecorvo, from GiulianoMontaldo to Liliana Cavani fromFrancesco Maselli to Elio Petri,Luigi Comencini, the Tavianibrothers and Mario Monicelli.

Pier Paolo Pasolini also had aprivileged relationship with Morri-cone having composed the music toeight of his films: The Hawks and

the Sparrows (Uccellacci e uc-cellini), The Earth As Seen FromThe Moon (La Terra vista dallaluna), Appunti per un film sull’In-dia, Teorema, The Decameron (IlDecameron), The Canterbury Tales(I racconti di Canterbury), ArabianNights (Il fiore delle mille e unanotte), Salò, or the 120 days ofSodom (Salò o le 120 giornate diSodoma). These were all the filmsPasolini directed from 1966 to theend of his career.

More recently, Maestro Morriconeestablished a similar intense artisticpartnership with Giuseppe Torna-tore. From the Academy Awardwon for Cinema Paradiso (NuovoCinema Paradiso - 1988) to TheCorrespondence (La corrispon-denza - 2016), the collaboration be-tween Tornatore and Morricone wasnever interrupted. The music to TheLegend of 1900 (La leggenda del pi-anista sull’oceano) and Malèna,were also awarded among otherprizes, a Golden Globe (2000) andan Oscar nomination (2001).

Morricone also received a GoldenGlobe and an Oscar nomination al-ready in 1987 for the soundtrack toMission directed by Roland Joffé,that also won the Golden Palm at the39th Cannes Film Festival. Morri-cone also worked with Joffé for FatMan and Little Boy (L’ombra dimille soli - 1989), City of Joy (Lacittà della gioia - 1992) and Vatel(2000).

Morricone received his other threeOscar nominations for the musicwritten to just as many films made inthe US.

The first was in 1979, for Days ofHeaven (I giorni del cielo) directedby Terrence Malick, with whomMorricone worked again this year forVoyage of Time, the unreleased andlong-awaited documentary by thebrilliant American director based onthe universe’s life and history.

After Mission, in 1988, the Oscarnomination came for the music com-posed for Brian De Palma’s TheUntouchables – Gli intoccabili, Ca-sualties of War (Vittime di Guerra -1989) and Mission to Mars (2000).

Before Malèna, in 1992, Morri-cone also received a nomination for

Bugsy directed by Barry Levinson.The composer and director from Bal-timore also worked again togetherthree years later for Disclosure (Riv-elazioni - 1994).

A unique, but particularly signifi-cant collaboration was the one withJohn Carpenter who was also a mu-sician and author of the music ofnearly all his films. Carpenter de-cided that he would have someoneelse write the film score to his filmThe Thing (La cosa - 1982). «He’sfantastic, simply brilliant», stated theAmerican director in speaking ofMorricone in an interview withRolling Stone. Morricone recalledthat «the collaboration with Carpen-ter was truly extraordinary and veryparticular. He came to Rome to showme the film, but had to leave immedi-ately after that. I was struck by themovie, but concerned since he left mewith no instructions». Carpenter thenphoned Morricone asking him tocompose something «really simpleand effective». «I tried to use differentsounds – said Morricone. At the end,

n.2 may 2016 25

Opening: Robert DeNiro in Mission. Tothe side: EnnioMorricone. Below:Carlo Verdone. In thispage, from the top: ascene from TheUntouchables, theMaestro with JohnCarpenter (left) andwith Brian De Palma.Above: MonicaBellucci in Malèna

he chose only one track. And now,one of the tracks he did not choose,is part of The Hateful Eight’s sound-track». The two films share anotherimportant common element: KurtRussell. The lead actor of the 1982film based on the sci-fi horror novelWho Goes There? (La cosa da unaltro mondo) by John W. Campbell,also in the cast of The Hateful Eight,in presenting Tarantino’s film inItaly, Kurt Russell expressed his grat-itude to the Maestro’s art in a fewwords, «I’m happy to have been intwo films with Morricone’s music».Simple and effective. !!!

Four hundred film scores rep-resent a vast and unparal-leled musical production. In

55 years of film career, EnnioMorricone wrote a large numberof film scores, an average of aboutseven films a year, with new musicbeing composed nearly every twomonths. Considering that alongwith his film work, Maestro Mor-ricone also wrote and arranged agreat deal of orchestra, classical,lyrical and even pop music (Setelefonando, Sapore di sale, etc.),one wonders, as also did his friendSergio Leone: “…when do youhave time for composing all thesewonderful sounds”? (see card onpage 20). All his sounds, werequite different from each other,also because Morricone covered somany different genres, from drama,

A brief journey through thewords and anecdotes of those

who published and spreadMorricone’s music in Italy and

across the world. From DanieleDe Gemini of Beat Records,

the son of the man who playedthe harmonica, to Sugar,

passing through Carosello-Curci, Universal, Warner, Emi-

Sony and Radiofilmusica

Other publishers

n.2 may 201626

to comedy, romance, thriller, hor-ror, mystery, detective, war film,action movies and obviously, West-erns. Ennio Morricone’s curricu-lum includes all of film history, atleast from 1961 to the present day.His musical notes always succeedin having the screen come to lifewith emotions through his variedscores characterized by his uniquestyle.

Daniele De Gemini, artistic di-rector at Beat Records, that in-cludes in its catalogue various ofMorricone’s works and managesthe distribution and print of manyothers (The Untouchables, Allon-sanfan, The Battle of Algiers, TheBasilisks, Companeros, OnceUpon a Time in the West, to men-tion only a few), provides a directtestimonial of the composer’s way

«The Maestro’s ability is knowinghow to communicate with hismusicians: through the heart» by L.A.

paper describing how to play thenotes played by Charles Bron-son…

Wheezing – Yelling – Angry –Pain – Hate – Stubborn – Cold –Poisonous – Hallucinated –Cursed – Destiny fulfilled– Bold –Chilling – Poetic – Out of reality–Always sweetly (see photo Ed.)…

Morricone’s great ability wasand continues to be understandinghow to communicate with his mu-sicians, from the moment he knewthe extraordinary artist would haveplayed his notes as he wanted himto, with his heart, after receivinginstructions, as in this case. Todayit is wonderful to see how MaestroMorricone received an Oscar for afilm of the same genre, 48 yearsafter the night he shared the dollartrilogy with Sergio Leone, for the

27n.2 may 2016

Opening: CharlesBronson in OnceUpon a Time in theWest (C’era unavolta il West). To theside: EnnioMorricone. In thebox: Franco DeGemini, ’”the manwith the harmonica”,and the Maestro’sscore. Below:Morricone and DeGemini

Above: the coversof the LPs of TheDevil is a Woman (Ilsorriso del grandetentatore) and TheIron Prefect (Ilprefetto di ferro).Below: the LPcovers of Lastagione dei sensiand of Teorema

of working, of his capability intransmitting emotions and inspir-ing them also in his collaboratorsand those close to him, a master atcreating emotions. «Other evi-dence of a long-standing collabo-ration with Ennio Morricone canbe found in the relationship he hadwith my father, Franco De Gem-ini, also known as the ‘man withthe harmonica’ (who passed awayin 2013-Ed.)», said Daniele DeGemini. «Maestro Morricone ofteninvolved him as a playing musicianwhen recording many soundtracks,especially those for Westernmovies. The most important collab-oration between the two was forOnce Upon A Time in the West(C’era una volta il West -1968). Inthe recording studio, Morriconegave my father a ripped piece of

director’s fourth Western film mu-sically scored by him as if it werean opera». The Beat Records’ cat-alogue includes various titles ofvarious genres with Maestro Mor-ricone’s music... «The Antichrist,Woman Buried Alive, The Devil isa Woman, E ridendo l’uccise,Dalle Ardenne all’inferno, DirtyHeroes, Holocaust 2000, Sesso inconfessionale, I Am the Law, The

n.2 may 201628

Link, The Five Man Army… aresome of these films. There may beothers, but I can’t recall now»,confirms De Gemini, adding,«Maestro Morricone is most at-tached to the film score of TheDevil is A Woman (1974) directedby Damiano Damiani. At the timethe film was made, he consideredthis his masterpiece. It was also se-

lected among the possible nomina-tions for the Oscar that year».

The Oscar was finally awardedin 2016 with The Hateful Eight,nine years after the honorary onecelebrating his career as a com-poser. The soundtrack to Taran-tino’s film is published by DeccaRecords and is distributed in Italyby Universal Music PublishingRicordi, a major film record-labelthat manages Morricone’s works,in addition to those of many Italianauthors, including masterpiecesblending image and sound such asThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly(Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo).

Other works by Morricone areincluded in the catalogues of theGruppo EMI Music Publishing –such as Time to Kill (Tempo di uc-cidere - 1989) directed by Giu-liano Montaldo, managed in Italyby Sony ATV Music Publishing.

One of Morricone’s last works,The Correspondence (2016), wasthe music for Giuseppe Torna-tore’s film with the same name, aswell as his previous film, The BestOffer (La migliore offerta - 2013),edited and published by WarnerChappell Musica Italiana.

Other works of the great Maestrocan also be found in other cata-

At top: Ugo Tognazzi inThe Fascist (Il federale).Above: the cover of the

film’s soundtrack andFilippo Sugar. Below:

the LP cover of La Cageaux Folles, Who Killed

Pasolini?, Escalationand The Long Silence( Il

lungo silenzio)

29

logues, from Radiofilmusica (TheSicilian Checkmate, 1972, by Flo-restano Vancini; Matchless, 1967,directed by Alberto Lattuada) toCarosello Records, one of the cor-nerstones of Italian music industry,part of an historical publishinggroup, Edizioni Curci, with whomMaestro Morricone began workingin the 1960s. «I was born in 1959– said Alfredo Gramitto Ricci,current CEO and managing direc-tor of Edizioni Curci – it was myfather that made them (GiuseppeGramitto Ricci). Unfortunately hepassed away in 2009 and I knowvery little. There were certain

tracks that were published forMorricone or with Morricone, butthese were brief, sporadic collabo-rations». The catalogue does con-tain a film directed by Pasolini in1968, Teorema, and a few filmsmade the year later, La stagionedei sensi directed by MassimoFranciosa and Vergogna schifosiby Mauro Severino.

Sugar Music, instead, had a spe-cial relationship with MaestroMorricone having bought C.A.M.,Creazioni Artistiche Musicali,among the global leaders of sound-tracks, and having obtained artisticworks produced over a period of

50 years. «In early 2011, webought Cam’s entire catalogue, thebest on the market in soundtracks

Above: Clint Eastwoodin The Good, the Badand the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo). In thebox: the LP cover of thefilm’s soundtrack. To theside: the LP cover ofThe Hateful Eight.Below: Ennio Morriconeconducting theorchestra

n.2 may 201630

To the side: the Maestro conducting in thestudio. Below: the LP covers of Time to Kill(Tempo di uccidere) and Cinema Paradiso

Left: the LP coversof TheCorrespondence(Lacorrispondenza)and of The BestOffer (La miglioreofferta). Right: LPcovers ofMatchless andThe SicilianCheckmate(Violenza: Quintopotere)

and more – said Filippo Sugar,President and CEO of SugarMusic, as well as SIAE President,in an interview with Agi – Nearly3,000 tracks signed by over 500artists including Oscar winnerEnnio Morricone. C.A.M.’sfounder, Giuseppe Campi, and mygrandfather Ladislao collaboratedsince the 1950’s and I am con-vinced that they would be just asenthusiastic as we are about thisnew venture». The Sugar Grouphas all of Morricone’s filmography,starting from the first work com-posed for the film industry. Thefilm score of The Fascist (Il fed-erale) directed by Luciano Salce,dating back to 1961, marked Mor-ricone’s entrance into the filmworld. A universe in which for over50 years Morricone affirmed him-self as one of the greatest com-posers of all times. If not thegreatest. !!!