Ennio
My love of Ennio Morricone’s music took place in three stages. In the first one, there was the introduction through “Fistful of Dollars,” “The Mission” and “Lolita” that made an impact on me as a film music lover. In the second stage, the Italian western scores took over, as I found myself inspired to write my own music with his influences spread throughout, resulting in my third album, “Sonic Visions of a New Old West.” In the final stage, there was expanding the compilations- long overdue soundtracks being added to my collection, compilations and just appreciating the genius of one of the most inspiring composers of all-time. His passing in 2020 hit me hard; when I did an encore of a virtual concert I had done to promote a recent EP release, I substituted one of the pieces I closed with with one of my western-inspired pieces in tribute. Whenever I watch a film with one of his scores, I know the music itself is just going to make me smile.
Finished in 2021, but hitting the states from Music Box Films this year, “Ennio” is a 156-minute tribute to the composer from one of his most memorable collaborators, director Giuseppe Tornatore. Their most famous collaboration, 1988’s “Cinema Paradiso,” is a film I only watched for the first time a two years ago, and it was just as warm and emotional an experience celebrating cinema as I had heard it was. This isn’t just a tribute from artists and collaborators to Morricone, however; because of the timeframe Tornatore filmed in, we get plenty of Ennio himself, reflecting on his life, his work, and how he often didn’t see his music’s contribution to a film the same way his directors did; there are great stories involving “The Untouchables” and some of his Italian films that are delightful, and get to the complex nature of collaboration, and positive choices for art don’t always mean the collaborators agree.
There is nothing extraordinary done by Tornatore in this film from a cinematic way, and there doesn’t need to be. The most important thing that must come through is his love of his subject, and that is evident in every frame. Whether we’re hearing about his early musical training as a child or his first scores or the invaluable input of his wife or how some of the most iconic musical ideas in his Leone scores come into being, we are fascinated because Morricone is a great storyteller verbally as well as musically, and Tornatore knows just which clips and interviews to intersperse with Ennio’s stories. “Ennio” follows an arc as varied and complex as any score the composer wrote, and film music fans will feel as though they are ascending into heaven, especially when we see him conducting some of his most beloved themes in concert. “Ennio” is essential for movie lovers.
Music Box Films’s DVD came out on June 25, and includes and interview with Tornatore, some behind-the-scenes for the scene of Ennio’s Office Concert, as well as a bonus scene called “The Democracy of Sound.”
