Ennio

"You cannot describe music, it needs to be listened to."
Ennio Morricone

Like opening a ticking box, you expect to find a bomb but inside is a metronome counting out the beats of a heart you discover you have.
I spent much of Ennio literally trembling with emotion, and much of that is because the film left enough room to appreciate long swaths of his music.

This beautifully edited documentary (the interwoven transitions between the interviews and the film excerpts are extremely deft) which combines sound bites from a rich array of admirers and select scenes from the maestro's cinematography left me speechless. It not only taught me how Ennio Morricone essentially created and then developed music for films, it did it in a especially moving and amusing way.

In addition to the emotional aspect of the doc, we are treated to commentary from the likes of

Bernardo Bertolucci
Bruce Springsteen
Quentin Tarantino
Clint Eastwood
Hans Zimmer
Dario Argento
Joan Baez
John Williams
Pat Metheny
Roland Joffé
James Hetfield


But more than that, we get to witness first hand amazing moments in his career, including a scene in Once Upon a Time in America where Sergio Leone actually plays Morricone's sidetrack on set during the filming!

Certainly, part of my ranking has to be tied to how mistaken my expectations were of this documentary, but the high it gave me was undeniable. If you're a lover of music, movies or both, I cannot recommend this film strongly enough.

I don't know what surprised me more - that the maestro was into so many different forms of music or that he was produced as much music as he did. Either way, what a genius. I wish that I had paid attention more to the soundtracks of his movies.

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It may seem quite a long documentary, especially in the last quarter, which corresponds perhaps with the weakest works (post mid-90s). But for the greatest of the greatest film (and also pop) music composers, it is more than deserved.

It is a pleasure to see Ennio Morricone remember with surprising memory and get emotional, despite the chaos of formats that Tornatore introduces. It is a necessary documentary to place the Maestro in the orbit of his relevance in the contemporary music, but many interviewees are underused. Curiously, those who contribute the least are the other soundtrack composers (Hans Zimmer, Mychael Danna, John Williams...), with the exception of Nicola Piovani, always correct in his thoughts. Too much praise and lack of depth, but moving.