a masterful and endlessly fascinating documentary
Ennio Morricone is one of the most famous composers of film music. But he was that and so much more, as this beautiful documentary by Giussepe Tornatore sets out to show.
Centred around an in-depth interview Tornatore conducted with Morricone shortly before his death in 2020, Ennio: The Maestro combines archival footage and contemporary interviews to paint a picture of an extraordinary artist.
Morricone himself is articulate, passionate, honest, and vulnerable. Tornatore allows him to talk, pause, tear-up, reminisce, without any sense of urgency. This is very much a music documentary. Although, of course, aspects of Morricone’s personal and family life are touched on, the spine of this feature is the composer’s development from child-trumpeter, to tentative composition-student, to band-leader, to world-renowned composer and conductor. All is about the music, and it is this level of detail that differentiates this from a run-of-the-mill music doco, with some fascinating, but not academic, discussions of how he put together certain pieces.
Interviewees include Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Lina Wertmüller, Joan Baez, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Quincy Jones. The speak as colleagues, collaborators, admirers, students, and friends. Morricone himself speaks lovingly of those musicians and teachers who inspired him.
Many will know Morricone’s music for such classics as: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; The Mission; Cinema Paradiso; and 1900. But the full breadth and depth of his canon is breath-taking. This documentary places Morricone in his rightful position in the Western musical consciousness.
Delightful, fascinating, and always surprising, Ennio: The Maestro, is two and a half hours of pure cinematic delight.
More News
