He is preparing an international film, for now only via Zoom, but he cannot say anything about it ("every time I anticipated something then nothing was done"). Then he cannot even imagine a world without a cinema, while on Covid he only says: "It influenced our whole way of behaving, but we must go back to not being afraid and hope to find those moments of lightheartedness we had before". To speak like this today in Rome is the Oscar winner Giuseppe Tornatore to present that little great masterpiece that is ENNIO, a full-fledged docu-portrait by Ennio Morricone, already out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, which will be released with a preview of Lucky Red on 29 and January 30 and then arrive in the hall on February 17.
And from a very passionate Tornatore, many words about the two-time Oscar-winning musician-friend and author of over five hundred unforgettable soundtracks. And again about the cinema, to which he has dedicated perhaps his most beautiful film NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO, Tornatore said: "For nothing in the world I can imagine its end, I exclude it. Or rather, I refuse to think about it. difficult season for everyone and if there are new broadcasting systems today, such as platforms, I believe it does not end here: others will arrive. I experienced moments of infinite sadness when you find yourself in a room alone, you feel like crying, but you don't have to let go".
ENNIO was born from an eleven-day interview with Morricone, from clips of films he set to music, his arrangements for pop songs (from Morandi to Gino Paoli) and, finally, from the testimonies of artists and directors, such as Bertolucci, Montaldo, Bellocchio, Argento, the Taviani, Verdone, Barry Levinson, Roland Joffè, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino.
What did music matter to Morricone? "He actually rejected the idea that in a film it was decisive, but rather believed that there had to be the right balance so that music and images did not overshadow each other".
What will happen to your next films without Morricone's music? "I have always maintained that music in a film is not a tinsel at all, but one of the important elements such as script, photography and editing. Of course, thinking about it now my films without Morricone would have been different and so my next work will inevitably have something different". "ENNIO's sentimental line - adds Tornatore - is certainly not wanted, indeed I often had to suffocate it. So it is for the emotionality of one of his pieces of music that was never born spontaneously, but from a musical experiment. He said l inspiration does not exist, you have to work to make music ".
Great absent (in the documentary he never speaks) Morricone's wife, Maria Travia, his great and only love: "Initially I thought of interviewing her believing it was useful for the film, but she immediately refused. She told me: 'I can tell you without being filmed' . And she was right. She is a woman with such a great personality that perhaps I should have changed the title to ENNIO E MARIA. If he was a genius of music, almost without knowing it, she was a genius of human relations capable of making around him a chain of protection that has safeguarded him ".
(HANDLE).