Lo sguardo della musica

S a kid I grew up in the 50s watching the Academy Awards and was baffled by it. Not by the glitz or the movie stars but by why the average Joe would watch an awards ceremony that would honor film cinematographers, editors, animators, foreign films, costume designers composers and a lot more. But I cared because I loved film and watched adoringly. Especially film music where there was no recognition elsewhere at all. ENNIO: THE MAESTRO is about a film music composer so I don't expect a lot of people to share what I thought of the film.

Given that, I need to express what a monumental achievement Giuseppe Tornatore has created. Having followed all kinds of film composers over the years I have always had a passion for a small group that transcended that title and made their careers literally a musical journey through every musical byway that they were challenged with. As Morricone says in this piece film composers are asked to do anything. I have seen dozens of film composer biographies over the years like "In The Tracks of" series, BBC epics and Fred Carlin's Jerry Goldsmith piece. But Tornatore has used his ample filmic skills to pay tribute to one of the greatest, most prolific, wide ranging film composers who ever lived by relating his journey, while he was still alive, and getting him to express the passion that usually comes out only in his music. He does this by every means possible with documentary footage, home movies, old TV shows, interviews, concert footage, snapshots and mostly through Ennio's own words. It is two and a half hours long and all who I talked to (including Marshall Harvey a film editor!) wished it was longer.

Morricone himself relates everything from his childhood to the days his dad, and then he, played trumpet on a number of Italian film scores. It is astounding to watch Ennio describe in detail what he brought to his early arrangements and then compositions to make them different, to make them stand out. The interviews, old and new, are far ranging including his teachers, musicians, singers, film directors, artists he influenced, a number of fellow Italian film composers and a few American ones like Hans Zimmer and John Williams. The film is totally dense with detail to the point I HAVE to see it again. The film ends on the ultimate film music conundrum, is it as purely expressive as absolute music? Is that snobbishness that resulted justified? Morricone answers that decisively. Tornatore has created the ideal tribute/biography that I will not see the likes of again.

Lastly I saw it with a more than half full audience masked and vaccinated. I know this is not possible for many but If you can see it with an audience do so. There are a lot of laughs, emotional moments and audible reactions that will not be there seeing it at home no matter how large a screen you have.

This is a 70 year old's dream film music tribute come true. I was an emotional wreck by the end of it. Thank you Giuseppe.

From the moment we step into Ennio Moriccone's home we become immersed in the man and his work with over 60 years of magnificent music to sample along the way. Yes, we are obviously treated to a segment on his magnificent soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in the West, my personal favourite, together with all the other best known of his cinema accompaniments, but the viewer is also treated to dozens of other snippets of fine music many of which were unknown to me and which I now need to sample. There's an array of luminaries from the world of music and cinema to sing his praises as well but arguably the most engaging feature of this is the man himself, sat at home taking us through his life's work. It's a very long film but the music is so good it doesn't drag for an instant. An impressive piece of work.

This film is perfect: there are all the Morricone's genius and all his love for Music. This film is great in taking the spectator inside his composition and his works with the presence of several sequences of the films with Morricone's soundtracks.

Some moments and some sequences are heartbreaking for whom loves cinema.

What else? You have to watch it. And all it could be possibile thanks to the huge work made by Tornatore. Thanks for this.

Sometimes 2.5 hours is just not enough. Its a story over 60 years with a great artist that formed so much. Its the 60's Its the 70's and Its dedication to life to music and when He finally get his well derserved Oscar you will understand.

There's a part late in the 2.5-hour Ennio: The Maestro where a clip of Quentin Tarantino calling Morricone the great composer of all time (y'know, over Mozart, Beethoven, etc) is played, which other interviewees criticise as hyperbolic. They say maybe 200 years has to pass before Morricone's music is held to that same standard.

I'm going to similarly risk being hyperbolic by saying that this might be the best music documentary I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of great ones, tons of decent ones, and even a number of really awful ones. But director Giussepe Tornatore's love letter to his favourite composer (and Italy's most famous composer) is astoundingly good.

My expectations were high. I love Ennio Morricone's music. I knew Tornatore being the director would make it extra personal and moving. I was excited to hear it was 156 minutes long. And the list of interviewees here is to die for- Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Springsteen, Wong Kar-Wai, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, just to name a few of the most famous ones. And so many more, some of whom give insight into surprising facts about Morricone's youth.

I learnt a lot about the first few decades of Morricone's life, as my knowledge of him only really starts with the Sergio Leone westerns. There's some amazing facts that I can't believe I didn't know about before, like how Morricone almost composed music for Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

This film covers all the films you'd want it to, plays so much beautiful Morricone music it's almost emotionally overwhelming, and the Maestro himself as the main interviewee is consistently engaging, insightful, and emotive.

Could've even been longer. He composed hundreds and hundreds of film scores, so I could've happily watched 10 hours of this. It's also extremely moving, especially near the end, but not because it spends a long time on his passing- in fact, it doesn't even mention it. The film argues that Morricone's music is immortal and transcends generations, and that's a powerful and emotional enough takeaway on its own.

(Sidenote- the bit where they broke down how all the different themes from The Mission intersected whilst playing clips from the movie is one of the best sequences from any film I've seen in months; maybe all year).