I remember seeing the trailer for this film in the independent cinema Harbour Lights, Picturehouse in Southampton, I was instantly interested in seeing it and I'm glad when I eventually got round to it, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso). Basically, Italian composer Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a professional trumpeter. This film looks back at his life and career, with contributions from the man himself and those who worked with him and admired him. Morricone was a classmate of his later collaborator Sergio Leone, initially learning to play the trumpet, then he studied composition and choral music, eventually becoming part of an orchestra. He started writing and composing music at a young age, beginning with compositions for the theatre, with Hollywood types spotting his talent and eventually asking him to write arrangements for American television and radio. He moved into the film industry, writing music for many Italian films, and wrote more than 400 scores. His most famous film composition works include: Death of a Friend (1959) (conducting only), Run with the Devil (1960) (orchestrations only), L'avventura (1960), The Fascist (1961) (first full score), A Fistful of Dollars (1964) (his breakthrough, his first collaboration with Sergio Leone), Before the Revolution (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Battle of Algiers (1966), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), 1900 (1976), Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Days of Heaven (1978) (Oscar nominated and BAFTA winner for Best Original Score), The Thing (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Red Sonja (1985), The Mission (1986) (Oscar nominated, and BAFTA and Golden Globe winner for Best Original Score), The Untouchables (1987) (Oscar and Golden Globe nominated, BAFTA winner for Best Original Score, and Grammy winner), Frantic (1988), Cinema Paradiso (1988) (BAFTA winner for Best Film Music), Casualties of War (1989) (Golden Globe nominated for Best Original Score), Hamlet (1990), Bugsy (1991) (Oscar and Golden Globe nominated for Best Original Score), In the Line of Fire (1993), Wolf (1994) (Grammy nominated), Lolita (1997), U Turn (1997), Bulworth (1998) (Grammy nominated), Mission to Mars (2000), Ripley's Game (2002), and The Hateful Eight (2015) (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner for Best Original Score). Morricone won the Honorary Award at the Oscars in 2007 for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music. Morricone himself was interviewed for this film, he sadly died aged 91 before its release, so this is fitting tribute and celebration of his genius. With contributions from Bernardo Bertolucci, Clint Eastwood, Roland Joffé, Quincy Jones, Barry Levinson, Terrence Malick, Bruce Springsteen, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer. I will admit it was longer than I expected, at two and three quarter hours, but in a career spanning six decades it almost impossible to include all Morricone's credits, I'm pleased it included the most famous films. It is interesting to learn his beginnings in music composition, the editing is splendid, and you are pleased to see the clips and hear the recognisable scores, it is a compelling portrait of an extensive career of a great maestro, a most watchable biographical documentary. Very good!
Review of Ennio
