Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore proves the perfect filmmaker to craft this loving tribute to one of the all-time greats: composer Ennio Morricone (1928-2020). Tornatore knew Morricone as a regular collaborator and a friend, and the film is built around a series of interviews they recorded together six or seven years ago. A trumpet player who set out to become an avant garde composer, Morricone was sidetracked by cinema, a medium for which he found had an exceptional affinity. But he never abandoned his avant garde learnings; part of what makes his scores so revolutionary is his openness to go beyond the orchestra to incorporate unorthodox instruments (jew’s harp; electric guitar) and “found” sounds: gun shots, snapping whips, the percussion of hooves and boots. That said, his music could also be unapologetically romantic, witness his scores for The Mission and Days of Heaven. An extraordinary roster of talents testify to Morricone’s genius, but it’s his personal warmth and sensitivity that speaks loudest. Even at 2.5 hours the film barely scratches the surface of an immense career that stretched beyond 400 credits.
VIFF is showcasing several of his greatest scores this month, including The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, This Mission, The Untouchables, and Days of Heaven.
A painstakingly detailed, fantastically entertaining, and profoundly exhausting deep dive into the career of the hyper-prolific Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
Leslie Felperin, The Guardian
One of the movie’s nice surprises is that Morricone turns out to be a total charmer, a low-key showman with a demure gaze that he works like a vamp and an impish smile that routinely punctuates one of his anecdotes.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
The bad news about the Ennio Morricone documentary “Ennio” is its length: 2 1/2 hours. Far too short!
Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
Community Partner
Giuseppe Tornatore
Ennio Morricone, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, Hans Zimmer, Dario Argento
Italy
2021
In Italian and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Friday March 14
Sunday March 16
Tuesday March 18
Saturday March 22
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Gianni Russo, Gabriele Costa
Also in This Series
Ennio
Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore proves the perfect filmmaker to craft this loving tribute to one of the all-time greats: composer Ennio Morricone (1928-2020).
Image: Courtesy of Music Box Films
A Fistful of Dollars
Morricone's clamorous score -- with its chanting, flamenco guitar, bells and whistling -- encapsulated everything that was exciting and new about Sergio Leone's revolutionary spaghetti western, its brazen cheek and style.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The third and the best of the so-called 'Dollars' trilogy amplifies Leone's baroque style: crane shots, shock cuts and Morricone music all vying for attention as three rogues hunt buried gold in a series of triangular variations.
The Mission
Written by Robert Bolt (Lawrence of Arabia; A Man for All Seasons), The Mission is the story of an C18th Catholic outpost on the lands of the Guarani people, near the Iguazi Falls. Music is a transcendent force here, and Morricone's score is inspired.
