Documentary "Sound and Soul": Morricone, as wide as the sea

Giuseppe Tonadore photographed Ennio Morricone with the reverence of the well-cared-for juniors for the masters and seniors. The 150-minute documentary "Ennio: The Maestro" is based on Tonadore's long interviews and film clips with Morricone, interspersed with the memories and opinions of people from all walks of life. The editing is good, the multi-person conversations are wrapped into tight conversations by invisible ropes, and the humming of Morricone and the directors is transformed into the image of an old movie. The last half hour is a dog's tail, Oscar's recognition of the lifelong achievements of the elderly Morricone, and Quentin Tarantino's supreme praise (more than Mozart and Beethoven), which contains the meaning of closing the coffin. Anyone who has watched a few of the 500 films that Morricone scored, or watched the first two hours of a documentary, will agree that the last half hour is superfluous. Although being recognized by the world will make the master happy, and may cry, but this kind of joy will not exceed when he is composing music, or even when he is slowly exercising at the beginning of the film.
I have never seen an old man with such clear and bright eyes as Morricone. His eyes gave people a deep impression, unlike most people, the eyelids completely cover the whites of the eyes when they get old, leaving only the eyeballs, which empty straight to the soul. Morricone, who wears reading glasses, magnifies this miracle that has not been obliterated by time.

The eyes of Ennio Morricone

The documentary eschews much of his private life and only touches on the influence of his childhood father as a trumpeter, his wife Maria, who always smiles like a Virgin, and his most important mentor, Gofredo Peter Lacy and chess, completely missing his other passion: football.
Chess taught him "the struggles of life". Having said that, it is still hard for us to imagine that Morricone, who has only one love in his life and lives a simple life, can understand people's hearts like a first-class novelist, excavating for every director and every film he cooperates with. A treasure that the creator himself never imagined. Five hundred movies are as broad as the sea, and you can feel the wind and waves just by watching the clips in the movie, not to mention the music for them one by one.

Ennio Morricone and his wife Maria

When Morricone watched the dailies for the first time, he sometimes appeared to be on the verge of falling asleep. Directors who are familiar with him do not know whether he is dozing off, or whether he is playing a trick like a master in a Western movie.
Antonio Munda has published a book of Morricone's oral interviews, recording fifteen interviews with Morricone by the author, focusing more on the master's film collaborators. I prefer this film version of the interview, its only theme is music, and even the master himself is behind the music.
Listen to Ennio Morricone talk about music, listen to him sing and sing about the birth of movie music. How the inversion of the trumpet in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) affected Clint Eastwood's performance (he was only the first, and later required the soundtrack to be played on set to get in) Robert De Niro of the play). While Sericio Leone insists on the whistle and trumpet again in For A Few Dollars More (1965), Morricone has his own principles. In his career for more than half a century, Morricone has two principles: not to repeat himself;

Clint Eastwood - "Red Dead Redemption"

Counterpoint was the theme of Ennio Morricone's life. The counterpoint he reveals, consciously or unconsciously, in his music reflects his ambivalence in the transition between experimental music and classical melodies, as a film scorer and composer.
While John Cage was experimenting with sound at festivals where serious composers gathered, Morricone also began to use the trumpet to make non-trumpet sounds. The famous sound in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) comes from his twisting the long ladder.
"Voice is also music." He later tried to use "voice" instead of "melody" soundtracks in three avant-garde films in a row, until someone told him: "All three sound the same, and you will lose your job for it, You'll never have a director come to you to score music again."

"Once Upon a Time in the West"

For years, Morricone has tried to convince him that he is more interested in sound than melody. But it was clear to others how good he was at writing good melodies. His relationship with the melody is far more complicated than it says. His wife Maria, who did not understand music, was the first audience for Morricone's work. He used to write a tune for Maria to listen to first, and only the melody that Maria thought was good would have a chance to be sent to the director, and the melody she didn't like had no chance to leave the study at all.

Morricone's study

Bernardo Bertolucci's Nineteen Zero (Novecento, 1976) is an epic masterpiece. Morricone read the rough cut version and found a pen and paper on the spot to write the theme song. The melody is quiet and solemn, like the beginning and end of a story. If Bertolucci asked, he could immediately write a Vivaldi-like piece. "The music flows inside the film, and Morricone makes a parallel film with music."

"He created a parallel film with music." - Bernardo Bertolucci

The Desert of the Tartars (1976) is about the dreams of a lost youth. Valerio Surini wanted to hear the four notes Morricone once struck on the piano. These four notes later became the theme song of the film. The five bugles chased each other in front of the snowy mountains, symbolizing the imaginary enemy who would never come, heading for the ultimate disillusionment.

"Desert of the Tartars"

Morricone wrote three theme songs for three groups in Roland Joffe's The Mission (1986). After watching the dailies, Morricone told Joffe that the film didn't need any music, and that he heard nothing but silence between heaven and earth. Joffe later got a call from Morricone saying he had a little inspiration. One inspiration becomes three thematic melodies. It wasn't intentional, but Morricone found that the three types of music blended together naturally, opposing each other, complementing each other, and rivaling the grandeur of the film.

"church"

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a few notes, a melody from Morricone gave birth to a movie. A few years before the script for Once Upon A Time In America (1984) took shape, the tune that would become our memory was written. Leone had heard Morricone play this piece on the piano. During those years, Leone hesitated, sometimes asking Morricone to play him another piece. In the end I settled on that tune, because the music slips into memory in a covert way, becoming part of a vague past. It will resurface one day in the future, and sneak into the memories of more people through mysterious transmission methods.

Leone listening to Morricone play "Once Upon A Time In America"

Morricone has always believed that less is more. He could turn the four notes of the quad into a song by hitting the accents in turn, and he could find inspiration in the howling of coyotes and the drumming of the parade outside the window. That's why Morricone's music is moving, and even the most blunt of music can remember a small melody that recurs and constantly deforms; so he is broad, from pop songs to symphonies, experimental music to jazz. Also because Morricang's mind is pure and emotional, there are moments when he recalls his old friends and tears in the book and in the film.
Ennio Morricone walked on with more and more memories, the blank sheet of music on the table waiting for him to write. He wants an idea to take root, to spread its branches, to move the trees, to chase that idea. "What's chasing? I don't know."