L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS he was genius and modera- tion at the same time." Indeed, his work was cha- r a c t e r i z e d b y c o m p o s u r e and creativity, innovation and moderation. But espe- c i a l l y , b y c o h e r e n c e : i n 2 0 1 6 , w h i l e s t a n d i n g i n front of his own star — no. 2 5 7 4 — o n t h e W a l k o f Fame, he said, "I always aim at creating a soundtrack that b o t h t h e p u b l i c a n d t h e director enjoy, but also that I e n j o y . I ' m n o t h a p p y o t h e r w i s e . I h a v e t o b e happy with my work more than the director is. I cannot betray my music." Morricone sold 70 million records. Since 1946, he com- posed more than 100 classi- cal pieces and the sound- t r a c k s o f m o r e t h a n 5 0 0 movies and TV series, along with works of contemporary music. He only received two Oscars, one in 2007 "for his magnificent contributions to the art of motion picture music" and in 2016 for the soundtrack of The Hateful E i g h t , b y Q u e n t i n T a r a n t i n o . B u t t h e Academy unjustly denied him many more: from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ( 1 9 6 6 ) , t o O n c e U p o n a T i m e i n A m e r i c a ( 1 9 8 4 ) ; from Mission (1986) and Cinema Paradiso (1988) to The Legend of 1900 (1998). It wasn't a case that, during the standing ovation at the O s c a r s i n 2 0 0 7 , w h e n h e received from the hands of C l i n t E a s t w o o d — i c o n i c a c t o r o f S e r g i o L e o n e ' s westerns — a lifetime achie- vements Academy Award he said: "My thoughts go to all those artists who deserved this award and never got it. May they receive it soon." With his soundtracks, he won three Grammy Awards, f o u r G o l d e n G l o b e s , s i x B a f t a s , t e n D a v i d d i D o n a t e l l o , e l e v e n N a s t r i d'Argento, two European Film Awards, a Golden Lion for his career and a Polar Music Prize. He received five Oscar nominations: in 1979 for Days of Heaven, in 1987 for Mission, in 1988 f o r T h e U n t o u c h a b l e , i n 1992 for Bugsy, in 2001 for Malèna. He received other f i v e n o m i n a t i o n s t o t h e Golden Globes: in 1985 for O n c e U p o n a T i m e i n America, in 1990 for The Untouchable, and then for C a s u a l t i e s o f W a r , f o r Bugsy, for Malèna. Of the over 100 awards he received throughout his extraordi- nary career, he used to say: "They are created to adverti- se cinema, not to award a person. I accept the awards, but I don't think they are what really counts." Definitely more impor- tant to him was his ambi- tious personal aesthetics of applied music. A graduate, t h e n a c a d e m i c , a t t h e C o n s e r v a t o r i o d i S a n t a Cecilia in Rome, his native city which he always loved deeply — and for which he renounced to a Beverly Hills mansion De Laurentiis wan- ted to give him — he wrote for western movies directed b y S e r g i o L e o n e , D u c c i o T e s s a r i a n d S e r g i o C o r b u c c i , a s w e l l a s f o r masterpieces by Brian De P a l m a , O l i v e r S t o n e , Quentin Tarantino, Barry Levinson. He collaborated with John Carpenter, Mike Nichols, Terrence Malick. He left a sign in Italian cine- m a b y w o r k i n g w i t h P i e r P a o l o P a s o l i n i , G i u l i a n o M o n t a l d o , L u c i o F u l c i , Dario Argento, Elio Petri, E t t o r e S c o l a , B e r n a r d o Bertolucci, Carlo Verdone, G i u s e p p e T o r n a t o r e a n d many other world known directors. He, quite simply, became w h a t w e c o m m o n p e o p l e d e f i n e a c i n e m a " s u p e r star," and not only for his seminal collaboration in the 1960s with Sergio Leone — an old primary school clas- s m a t e o f h i s — a n d t h e i n c r e d i b l y f a m o u s F o r a Fistful of Dollars, thanks to which he officially became part of the history of cinema a n d o f w o r l d m u s i c . B u t because he created a piece of Beauty. Because this is what music — art — does when it steps above all the rest: it builds humanity's intangible patrimony. This, too, belongs to his works: "We can't forget to feed our soul with beauty, especially t h a t o f m u s i c , t h e a r t expression that brings Man close to God the most," he said at the 2016 Jubilee of Mercy concert, wanted by P o p e F r a n c i s w h o , t h r e e years later, was to award h i m w i t h t h e M e d a g l i a d'Oro del Pontificato "for his extraordinary artistic commitment, which also touched upon religion." Indeed, his interview with Avvenire hinted at this cha- racteristic of his music, spi- rituality: "Luciano Salce, with whom I worked with for The Fascist, noticed it" Morricone said . "When the movie was over he told me 'there is something sacred in your music, it can't work for my comedies.' " As the Los Angeles Times wrote, Morricone "didn't offer subtle emotional gui- dance or heartstring-pulling o b v i o u s n e s s . R a t h e r , h i s s c o r e s a d d e d e n t i r e n e w layers and tones to movies. Serving as sort of whimsical, opinionated Greek chorus — one that could turn dark and sinister in a flash — his work played a co-starring role. " Continued from page 4 Ennio Morricone (right) with Giuseppe Tornatore at the Berlin Film Festival (Photo: Dreamstime) Morricone on the red carpet. He was an eclectic composer, whose work touched on several genres, from classi- cal music to contemporary and popular songwriting (Photo: Dreamstime)

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