"Con il cinema – confida il Maestro – ho praticamente chiuso. Con una importantissima eccezione: Giuseppe Tornatore. Sto scrivendo le musiche dei suoi prossimi due film. Quando me lo chiede Peppuccio è diverso. Ci conosciamo: io so quello che vuole, lui sa come mi piace lavorare. Ci sono i presupposti perché esca un buon risultato."
With the cinema - confesses the Master - I practically closed it. With a very important exception: Giuseppe Tornatore. I'm writing the music of his next two films. When Peppuccio asks me, it's different. We know it: I know what he wants, he knows how I like to work. There are the conditions for a good result.
Of course at his age, nearing 90, the attitude of hanging up your spurs is logical but you do get the feeling if Quentin Tarantino or Warren Beatty traipsed over to Italy to sell him on a project his ears would be open.
What amazes me about this lifelong workaholic is there are so many nooks and crannies of his life that continually surface. After following his career since 1970 here is a little tale I never heard and it belongs with his Stanley Kubrick story being just as mind blowing. Federico Fellini AND Piero Paolo Pasolini have dinner with Ennio proposing a film about a futuristic society where music is banned! What a film that would have made. As the interviewer mentioned Paolo Sorentino (THE GREAT BEAUTY) should be proposed for a project like this. May I also say there is a handful of American filmmakers still around, from Terry Gilliam to Wes Anderson, who might also be ideal for such a project. Morricone's career is a bottomless pit of tales of so many possible wonders.
Thanks Mathias. I also heard something similar from another source. We have to live with the fact that Tornatore remains the privileged friend. Elsewhere in this article, EM says he just turned down two offers coming from the States. So it will be interesting to see what going to happen if Tarantino's knocking at his door once again.
Of course at his age, nearing 90, the attitude of hanging up your spurs is logical but you do get the feeling if Quentin Tarantino or Warren Beatty traipsed over to Italy to sell him on a project his ears would be open.
What amazes me about this lifelong workaholic is there are so many nooks and crannies of his life that continually surface. After following his career since 1970 here is a little tale I never heard and it belongs with his Stanley Kubrick story being just as mind blowing. Federico Fellini AND Piero Paolo Pasolini have dinner with Ennio proposing a film about a futuristic society where music is banned! What a film that would have made. As the interviewer mentioned Paolo Sorentino (THE GREAT BEAUTY) should be proposed for a project like this. May I also say there is a handful of American filmmakers still around, from Terry Gilliam to Wes Anderson, who might also be ideal for such a project. Morricone's career is a bottomless pit of tales of so many possible wonders.
What was the Kubrick story if you don't mind me asking?
Of course at his age, nearing 90, the attitude of hanging up your spurs is logical but you do get the feeling if Quentin Tarantino or Warren Beatty traipsed over to Italy to sell him on a project his ears would be open.
What amazes me about this lifelong workaholic is there are so many nooks and crannies of his life that continually surface. After following his career since 1970 here is a little tale I never heard and it belongs with his Stanley Kubrick story being just as mind blowing. Federico Fellini AND Piero Paolo Pasolini have dinner with Ennio proposing a film about a futuristic society where music is banned! What a film that would have made. As the interviewer mentioned Paolo Sorentino (THE GREAT BEAUTY) should be proposed for a project like this. May I also say there is a handful of American filmmakers still around, from Terry Gilliam to Wes Anderson, who might also be ideal for such a project. Morricone's career is a bottomless pit of tales of so many possible wonders.
What was the Kubrick story if you don't mind me asking?
It varies depending on whether you get Ennio's or Sergio Leone's version but this is the gist of it. Stanley Kubrick contacted Morricone about doing his newest film A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Ennio was enthusiastic and as he was won't to do when a project excited him started writing the score in his head. But somehow the next contact made was Kubrick calling Sergio Leone and him informing Stanley that the current project they were working on DUCK YOU SUCKER would take up most of Morricone's time. Ennio said he never heard back from Kubrick and then discovered that Wendy Carlos was given the assignment. I personally would have kept more on top of an offer from Kubrick but Ennio in 1971 (according to IMDB) did a record 24 scores so he WAS working non-stop. I know Leone was a most demanding director but at the same time if this workaholic could do 23 other scores that year my gut tells me he would have made room for Kubrick. I wish someone would have asked Kubrick to clear the matter up.
I assumed this score was lost to the ages but I also remember Ennio's penchant not to waste music such as his using a cue he wrote for John Huston's THE BIBLE in SECRET OF THE SAHARA. In 1979 Morricone wrote a score for one of his few excursions into sci-fi THE HUMANOID a STAR WARS rip-off. There is an oddity in this score. The main title transforms into an electronic version of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" for no apparent reason. However Ode IS an important centerpiece to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. No one has ever asked him about this but my mind wanders to Kubrick whenever I play that piece.
