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From the most whistled Spaghetti Western soundtracks of the 60's and 70's, to the music of masterpieces by beloved Maestros of Italian cinema -- like Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio de Sica and Bernardo Bertolucci, along with of course his longtime collaboration with Giuseppe Tornatore -- all the way through to his later years, when Ennio Morricone has scored some of best known music in contemporary cinema around the world.
Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight of course garnered Morricone an Oscar and he's had more Golden Globes and Grammys than we care to count.
For this upcoming edition, La Biennale di Venezia Venice International Film Festival presents Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore, a portrait of Ennio Morricone, screening Out of Competition.
The documentary tells his story through a long interview with the late Maestro by Cinema Paradiso filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, and with comments by artists and directors such as Bertolucci, Giuliano Montaldo, Marco Bellocchio, Dario Argento, the Taviani brothers, Carlo Verdone, Barry Levinson, Roland Joffé, Oliver Stone, Tarantino, Bruce Springsteen, Nicola Piovani, Hans Zimmer and Pat Metheny, and through music and archive footage.
"Today my dream has come true" -- Giuseppe Tornatore
Ennio is also an investigation that seeks to reveal Morricone’s lesser-known aspects, such as his passion for chess, which may have mysterious connections to his music. And the realistic origin of some of his musical intuitions, like the howl of a coyote that inspired the theme of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, or the rhythmic banging of hands on tin cans by striking workers protesting in the streets of Rome, which inspired the magnificent theme of According to Pereira. A gift for invention that is confirmed in his constant love for absolute music, and his talent for ceaseless experimentation.
“I worked with Ennio Morricone for thirty years,” states Giuseppe Tornatore. “I made almost all my films with him, not to mention the documentaries, commercials and projects that we tried unsuccessfully to put together. During this time, our friendship was increasingly consolidated. Thus, film after film, as my understanding of his character as a man and an artist grew ever deeper, I always wondered what type of documentary I could make about him. And today my dream has come true. I wanted to make Ennio to tell Morricone’s story to the audiences around the world who love his music. My intention was not just to have him tell me his life story and talk about his magical relationship with music, but also to search archives around the world for repertory interviews and other footage relative to the countless past collaborations between Morricone and the most important filmmakers of his career. I structured Ennio as an audio-visual novel that relied on clips from films for which he composed the music, repertory images and concerts, to introduce the spectator to the formidable existential and artistic career of one of the most beloved musicians of the twentieth century”.
The 78th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia will take place on the Lido from September 1st to 11th 2021, under the Artistic Direction of Alberto Barbera. For more info, check out their website.
