Without Ennio Morricone's music, films like "A fistful of dollars", "Once upon a time in America", "Mission" and "Cinema Paradiso" would be very different. Of course, this is true for every film, but rarely in the history of cinema does a melody or a sound refer to a scene, to a gaze of the protagonist, to a feeling as it happens for Morricone. Just think of the almost exaggerated close-ups of Lee van Cleef, Eli Wallach and, of course, Clint Eastwood in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" during the final three-way duel: Morricone's music is as much a protagonist as are the three actors/gunslingers. When we listen to that poignant trumpet (played by Michele Lacerenza) we are transported - wherever we are - in the American West of the 1800s. When the orchestral notes of "Cinema Paradiso" enter inside us, we magically return children to a smoky theatre where they only show black and white films.
Born in Rome on 10 November 1928 and raised in a family of musicians, "Il Maestro" soon distinguished himself for his originality and creativity. Graduated in trumpet at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, he then studied composition with Goffredo Petrassi and joined state broadcaster RAI, where he remained only one day (as an employee he discovered that he could not play his compositions). He then began working as an arranger for popular singers of the time, such as Edoardo Vianello, Gino Paoli and Gianni Morandi, but it was cinema that gave him the greatest satisfaction and made him a household name all over the world. The soundtracks of Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns" are only a small fraction - albeit the most quoted - of his musical heritage: over 500, including cinema and TV. Some titles (in addition to those already mentioned): "A fistful of dynamite", "Novecento", "Once upon a time in the West", "Investigation of a citizen above suspicion", "The Untouchables", "One night at dInner", "Sacco and Vanzetti".
Ennio Morricone has won two Oscars: one for his career in 2007 and one for the soundtrack of "The Hateful Eight" by Quentin Tarantino i 2016. Too few, according to many observers. He left us on July 6, 2020. After a fall that caused his femur to rupture, age got the better of him. An original even in view of his death, he prepared a farewell letter that his son Giovanni made public. "There is only one reason - reads the letter - that pushes me to say goodbye everyone like this and to have a funeral in private form: I don't want to disturb."
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