Name	Sergio Leone
Birth name	Sergio Leone
Birth date	January 03, 1929
Birth place	Rome, Lazio, Italy
Death date
Death place	Rome, Lazio, Italy
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1959 -1984
Spouse	Carla Leone
Children	FrancescaRaffaella (born 1961)Andrea

Sergio Leone (;January 3, 1929 – April 30, 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.

Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots. His movies include The Colossus of Rhodes, the Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Once Upon a Time in the West; Duck, You Sucker!; and Once Upon a Time in America.

Life and career

Born in Rome, Leone was the son of the cinema pioneer Vincenzo Leone (known as director Roberto Roberti or Leone Roberto Roberti) and the silent film actress Edvige Valcarenghi (Bice Waleran). During his schooldays, Leone was a classmate of his later musical collaborator Ennio Morricone for a time. After watching his father work on film sets, Leone began his own career in the film industry at the age of 18 after dropping out of law studies at the university.

Working in Italian cinematography, he began as an assistant to Vittorio de Sica during the movie Bicycle Thieves in 1948. Leone began writing screenplays during the 1950s, primarily for the 'sword and sandal' (a.k.a. 'peplum') historical epics, popular at the time. He also worked as an assistant director on several large-scale international productions shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, notably Quo Vadis (1951) and Ben-Hur (1959) financially backed by the American studios.

When director Mario Bonnard fell ill during the production of the 1959 Italian epic The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei), starring Steve Reeves, Leone was asked to step in and complete the film. As a result, when the time came to make his solo directorial debut with The Colossus of Rhodes (Il Colosso di Rodi, 1961), Leone was well-equipped to produce low-budget films which looked like larger budget Hollywood movies.

1960s

In the early 1960s, historical epics fell out of favor with audiences, but Leone had shifted his attention to a sub-genre which came to be known as the "Spaghetti Western", owing its origin to the American Western. His film A Fistful of Dollars (Per un Pugno di Dollari, 1964) was based upon Akira Kurosawa's Edo-era samurai adventure Yojimbo (1961). Leone's film elicited a legal challenge from the Japanese director, though Kurosawa's film was in turn probably based on the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest (1929). A Fistful of Dollars is also notable for establishing Clint Eastwood as a star. Until that time Eastwood had been an American television actor with few credited film roles.

The look of A Fistful of Dollars was established by its Spanish locations, which presented a violent and morally complex vision of the American Old West. The film paid tribute to traditional American western movies, but significantly departed from them in storyline, plot, characterization and mood. Leone gains credit for one great breakthrough in the western genre still followed today: in traditional western films, heroes and villains alike looked as if they had just stepped out of a fashion magazine, with clearly drawn moral opposites, even down to the hero wearing a white hat and the villain wearing a black hat. Leone's characters were, in contrast, more 'realistic' and complex: usually 'lone wolves' in their behaviour; they rarely shaved, looked dirty and sweated profusely, and there was a strong suggestion of criminal behaviour. The characters were also morally ambiguous by appearing generously compassionate, or nakedly and brutally self-serving, as the situation demanded. Some critics have noted the irony of an Italian director who could not speak English, and had never even seen the American Old West, almost single-handedly redefining the typical vision of the American cowboy. According to Christopher Frayling's book Something to do with Death, Leone knew a great deal about the American Old West. It fascinated him as a child, which carried into his adulthood and his films.

Leone's next two films – For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) – completed what has come to be known as the Man with No Name trilogy (a.k.a. the Dollars Trilogy), with each film being more financially successful and more technically accomplished than its predecessor. The films featured innovative music scores by Ennio Morricone, who worked closely with Leone in devising the themes. Leone had a personal way of shooting scenes with Morricone's music ongoing.

Based on the success of The Man with No Name trilogy, Leone was invited to the United States in 1967 to direct Once Upon a Time in the West (C'Era una Volta il West) for Paramount Pictures. The film was shot mostly in Almería, Spain and Cinecittà in Rome. It was also briefly shot in Monument Valley, Utah. The film starred Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale. Once Upon a Time in the West emerged as a long, violent, dreamlike meditation upon the mythology of the American Old West, with many stylistic references to iconic western films. The film's script was written by Leone and his longtime friend and collaborator Sergio Donati, from a story by Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento, both of whom went on to have significant careers as directors. Before its release, however, it was ruthlessly edited by Paramount, which perhaps contributed to its low box-office results in the United States. Nevertheless, it was a huge hit in Europe, grossing nearly three times its $5 million budget among French audiences, and highly praised amongst North American film students. It has come to be regarded by many as Leone's best film.

1970s

After Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone directed Duck, You Sucker! (Giù la Testa, 1971). Leone was intending merely to produce the film, but due to artistic differences from then-director Peter Bogdanovich, Leone was asked to direct the film instead. Duck, You Sucker! is a Mexican Revolution action drama, starring James Coburn, as an Irish revolutionary, and Rod Steiger, as a Mexican bandit who is conned into becoming a revolutionary.

Leone continued to produce, and on occasion, step in to reshoot scenes in other films. One of these films was My Name is Nobody (1973) by Tonino Valerii (though true participation of Leone in shooting is disputed), a comedy western film that poked fun at the spaghetti western genre. It starred Henry Fonda as an old gunslinger who watched 'his' old West fade away before his very eyes as he played his guitar. Terence Hill also starred in the film as the young stranger who helps Fonda leave the dying West with style.

Leone's other productions included A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975, another western comedy starring Terence Hill); The Cat (Il Gatto; 1977, starring Alberto Sordi, and The Toy (Il Giocattolo; 1979, starring Nino Manfredi). Leone also produced three comedies by actor/director Carlo Verdone, which were Fun Is Beautiful (Un Sacco Bello, 1980), Bianco, Rosso e Verdone (White, Red and Verdone – Verdone means "strong green" – a pun referring to the three colours of the Italian flag, the star and to director Verdone, 1981) and Troppo Forte (Great!, 1986). During this period, Leone also directed various award-winning TV commercials for European television.

In 1978, he was a member of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.

1980s

Leone turned down the opportunity to direct The Godfather, in favor of working on another gangster story he had conceived earlier. He devoted ten years to this project, based on the novel The Hoods by former mobster Harry Grey, which focused on a quartet of New York City Jewish gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s who had been friends since childhood. The four-hour finished film, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), featured Robert De Niro and James Woods. It was a meditation on another aspect of popular American mythology, the role of greed and violence and their uneasy coexistence with the meaning of ethnicity and friendship. Feeling the final cut was too long, Warner Bros. recut it drastically for the American market, abandoning its flashback structure for a linear narrative. Lasting over just two hours, the recut version shown in North America received much criticism and flopped. The original version, released in the rest of the world, received better box office returns and a positive critical response. When the original version of the film was released on DVD in the USA, it finally gained major critical acclaim, with many critics hailing the film as a masterpiece.

According to biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, Leone was deeply hurt by the studio-imposed editing and poor commercial reception of Once Upon a Time in America in North America. It would be his last film.

In 1988, he was head of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in Venice.

Later years and death

Leone died on April 30, 1989, of a heart attack at the age of 60. He was infamous for his compulsive eating, and had become obese. Before his death in 1989, Leone was part way through planning a film on the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. He is survived by his wife and three children.

In his later years, Leone had a falling out of sorts with Clint Eastwood, his most famous actor. When Leone directed Once Upon a Time in America, he commented that Robert De Niro was a real actor, unlike Eastwood. However, the two made amends and reconciled before Leone's death. In 1992, Eastwood directed Unforgiven, a revisionist western drama for which he won an Oscar for best director, as well as Best Picture. Leone was one of the two directors whom Eastwood dedicated his award to, the other was Don Siegel who directed Eastwood in a string of movies in the 1970s, including Dirty Harry. (The film contains a dedication "To Sergio & Don" before the end credits roll.)

Style

Wide Image Format (Techniscope)

Great Depth of field.

Extreme close-ups (staging of duels), often on face of hero, alternating with wide views.

Expanded time: extended staging of duels, close observation of details, sparse dialog.

Important role of music (composed by Ennio Morricone).

Moments of calm in conversations; enhanced sound effects.

Very violent scenes, often using slow-motion effects.

Marginal role of women.

Unrealized projects

The Godfather

Leone was approached as a potential director of The Godfather, but turned down the offer in order to work on his prohibition era crime epic Once Upon a Time in America. The film was ultimately directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

A Place Only Mary Knows

The script was written by Leone, Luca Morsella, and Fabio Toncelli. Set at the height of the American Civil War, the treatment for Leone's idea of an "Americanized" western concerned a Union soldier and a Southern con man/drifter searching for buried treasure while avoiding the battles between the Confederate States of America and the North. It was to star Mickey Rourke and Richard Gere as the two main leads.

Although the written draft never got into pre-production, Leone's son Andrea had it published in 2004.

Leningrad: The 900 Days

While finishing work on Once Upon a Time in America in 1982, Leone was impressed with Harrison Salisbury's non-fiction book The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, and he planned on adapting the book as a war epic. Although no formal script had been completed or leaked, Leone came up with the opening scene and basic plot. According to the documentary Once Upon a Time, Sergio Leone, the film opened in medias res as the camera goes from focusing on a Russian hiding from the Nazis' artillery fire to panning hundreds of feet away to show the German Panzer divisions approaching the walls of the city. The plot was to focus on an American photographer on assignment (whom Leone wanted to be played by Robert De Niro) becoming trapped in Russia as the German Wehrmacht begin to bombard the city. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes romantically involved with a Russian woman, whom he later impregnates, as they attempt to survive the prolonged siege and the secret police, because relationships with foreigners are forbidden. According to Leone, "In the end, the cameraman dies on the day of the liberation of the city, when he is currently filming the surrender of the Germans. And the girl is aware of his death by chance seeing a movie news: the camera sees it explode under a shell .... "

By 1989, Leone had been able to acquire $100 million in financing from independent backers, and the film was to be a joint production with a Soviet film company. He had convinced Ennio Morricone to compose the film score, and Tonino Delli Colli was tapped to be the cinematographer. Shooting was scheduled to begin sometime in 1990. The project was canceled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film.

In early 2003, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore sparked interest in announcing he would direct a film called Leningrad, and he expressed interest in casting Nicole Kidman in the role of the female love interest. The film was in production by 2008, but whether or not it is related to the Leone project has yet to be revealed.

Don Quixote

According to Frayling's biography of Leone, Something to Do with Death, he envisioned a contemporary adaptation of Cervantes' 17th century novel Don Quixote with Clint Eastwood in the title role and Eli Wallach as Sancho Panza. He had discussed doing the project throughout the 1960s-70s, and he started seriously considering it towards the end of his life.

Colt

In 1987, Sergio Leone contacted his old collaborators Sergio Donati and Fulvio Morsella, pitching an idea for a TV miniseries about a Colt revolver that passed from owner to owner throughout the Old West, similar to Anthony Mann's film Winchester '73 (1950). Donati indicated that Leone was interested in a more revisionist take on the genre than his earlier works, wanting to show the Old West "like it really was." Leone abandoned this project in favor of A Place Only Mary Knows, though Donati wrote a treatment and the project remained in gestation for years after Leone's death.

Other planned films

Leone was also an avid fan of Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind and the 1939 film adaptation. His relatives and close friends stated that he always talked about filming a remake of the film that was closer to the original novel, but it never advanced beyond discussions to any serious form of production.

Leone was a fan of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's novel Journey to the End of the Night and was considering a film adaptation in the late '60s; he incorporated elements of the story into The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Duck, You Sucker! but his idea of adapting the novel itself never got past the planning stages.

Leone also started writing a screenplay based on Lee Falk's The Phantom, and scouted locations for the project. Despite this, he never got to make a movie based on the comic book hero. He declared he would have liked to follow his Phantom project with a movie based on another Falk-created character, Mandrake the Magician.

Leone was an early choice to direct Flash Gordon (1980). Leone was a fan of the original Alex Raymond graphic novels, but turned down the film because the script didn't resemble Raymond's work.

Recurring actors

Filmography

Screenplay

1958: Afrodite, dea dell'amore

1959: The Last Days of Pompeii

1959: Nel Signo di Roma

1961: Le, Sette Sfide

1961: Romolo e Remo

1961: Il Colosso di Rodi

1964: A Fistful of dollars

1964: La Veri bandiere di Allach

1965: For a Few Dollars More

1966: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

1968: Once Upon a Time in the West

1971: Duck, You Sucker!

1975: Genio, due compari, un pollo, Un

1984: Once Upon a Time in America

1986: Troppo forte

Assistant of director

1946: Rigoletto

1948: Bicycle Thieves

1948: La Legenda di Fuast

1949: Fabiola

1949: Ill Trovatore

1950: Taxi di Notte

1950: Il Voto

1950: Il Brigante Musolino

1952: I tre corsari

1952: Jolanda, la figlia del Corsaro Nero

1952: Ill folle di Maracharo

1953: L'uomo, la bestia e la virtù

1953: La Tratta delle bianche

1953: Frine, cortigiana d'Oriente

1954: Tradita

1954: Of Life and Love

1995: La Ladra

1956: Mi permette Babbo !

1957: Il Maestro

1958: Afrodite, dea dell'amore

1959: La legge mi incolpa

1959: Il figlio del corsaro rosso

1961: Sodoma e Gomorra

Awards and nominations

David di Donatello

* 1972: Duck, You Sucker! (Won)

BAFTA Awards

* 1984: Once Upon a Time in America (Nomination)

Golden Globe

* 1984: Once Upon a Time in America (Nomination)

References

External links

Fistful-of-Leone.com

Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

A Fistful of Westerns

The Spaghetti Western Database

Photo

Category:Spaghetti Western directors Category:Italian film directors Category:People from Rome (city) Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:1929 births Category:1989 deaths Category:Italian screenwriters Category:Italian film producers Category:Italian film actors Category:Ennio Morricone

Name	Ennio Morricone
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth date	November 10, 1928
Alias	Maestro
Genre	Film music, Classical music, Pop music, Jazz, Lounge music, Easy listening
Origin	Rome, Italy
Occupation	Composer, orchestrator, music director, conductor, trumpeter
Associated acts	Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni, Mina, Yo-Yo Ma, Mireille Mathieu, Joan Baez, Andrea Bocelli, Roger Waters, Sarah Brightman, Amii Stewart, Paul Anka, Milva, Gianni Morandi, Dalida, Catherine Spaak, Pet Shop Boys, Hayley Westenra, and others
Years active	1946 – present
Url	http://www.enniomorricone.it

Ennio Morricone, Grande Ufficiale OMRI (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor.

He is widely acknowledged as one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, particularly recognised for his film scores. He has composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and TV productions and is well-known for his long-term collaborations with internationally acclaimed directors such as Sergio Leone, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, and Giuseppe Tornatore.

He wrote the characteristic film scores of Leone's Spaghetti Westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). In the 80s, Morricone composed the scores for John Carpenter's horror movie The Thing (1982), Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Roland Joffé's The Mission (1986), Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Oliver Stone's U Turn (1997), Tornatore's The Legend of 1900 (1998) and Malèna (2000), De Palma's Mission to Mars (2000), Lajos Koltai's Fateless (2005), and Tornatore's Baaria - La porta del vento (2009).

Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs in 1979–1992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". The composer also has been nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Original Score during 1979–2001.

Life and career

Classical music

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter. Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents. Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. Morricone formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in either two years or six months (date approximate). He studied the trumpet, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces.

These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "open city"; the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period.

After he graduated, he continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1946, Morricone received his trumpet diploma and in the same year he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of 7 "youth" Lieder. Other serious compositions are "Imitazione" (1947) for voice and piano on a text by Giacomo Leopardi and "Intimita" for voice and piano on a text by Olinto Dini.

In the early 1950s, Morricone began writing his first background music for radio dramas. Nonetheless he continued composing classical pieces as "Distacco I e Distacco II" for voice and piano on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "Verra' la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo.

Although the composer had received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) in 1952, his studies concluded in 1954, obtaining a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to write or arrange music for films credited to other already well-known composers (ghost writing). He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

Morricone wrote more works in the climate of the Italian avant-garde. A few of these compositions have been made available on CD, such as "Ut", his trumpet concerto dedicated to the soloist Mauro Maur, one of his favorite musicians; some have yet to be premiered. From the mid-sixties and onwards, he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a group of composers who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations, even scoring a few films during the 1970s.

Public reputation

In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI. Performed by Mina, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus. In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina. Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva, Gianni Morandi, Paul Anka, Amii Stewart, and Mireille Mathieu.

Leone film scores

Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp (1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1974). and Le Professionnel (1981) as well as the TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981). Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project La bibbia ("The Bible"). In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son, Andrea, on the Ultimo crime dramas. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning Nuovo cinema Paradiso. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called Musashi and was the Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior. A part of his "applied music" is now applied to Italian television films.

Concerts and conducting

Since 2001, Morricone has been on a world tour, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Munich Philharmonie in 2005 and Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London, UK, on 2006-12-01 and 2006-12-02.

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A Los Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero." Morricone, though, has said: "Conducting has never been important to me. If the audience comes for my gestures, they had better stay outside."

On December 12, 2007, Morricone conducted the Roma Sinfonietta at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, presenting a selection of his own works. Together with the Roma Sinfonietta and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Morricone performed at the Opening Concerts of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, in the Waterfront Hall on October 17 and 18, 2008. Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena (Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009.

On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) the Crouch End Festival Chorus. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary. Two other concerts took place in Verona and Sofia (Bulgaria) on 11 and 17 September 2010.

Recent activity

Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.

Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the soundtrack for his most recent film, Inglourious Basterds. However, Morricone refused because of the sped-up production schedule of the film. Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack.

Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad.

In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her upcoming album Paradiso, which was released in New Zealand on 18 April 2011. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years. Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010. Paradiso will be released in Japan on June 8 2011, the UK on August 29 2011, and in the United States on October 18 2011.

Personal life

On 13 October 1956, he married Maria Travia and had his first son, Marco, in 1957. Travia has written lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. They have three sons and a daughter, in order of birth: Marco, Alessandra, the conductor and film composer Andrea (Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker who lives in New York City).

Influence

Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer has called Ennio Morricone his favorite composer in the world. Zimmer's Parlay in Soundtrack is a tribute to Ennio Morricone's Man with a Harmonica.

Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the main theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968.

Aside from his music having been sampled by everyone from rappers (Jay-Z) to electronic outfits (the Orb), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Françoise Hardy, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album.

Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown, with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s. Lyricists and poets have helped convert some of his melodies into a songbook.

Morricone collaborated with world music artists, like Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 with Focus, an album praised by Paulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting.

In 1990 the American singer Amii Stewart, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone for the RCA label, including a selection of the composer's best known songs. Since the mid 1980s Stewart resides in Italy, the Pearls album features Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra and was co-produced by Morricone himself.

The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill.

Metallica uses Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony also use the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's Symphonic rock album S&M;. Ramones used the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a concert intro. The theme from A Fistful Of Dollars is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.

His influence extends from Michael Nyman to Muse. He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Ennio Morricone Experience.

Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in "The Holiday" [2006 film]), as creator of magical sounds that formed a charracter as much as lines of music in his films. This played out in a scene at a video rental store between Black and actress Kate Winslett.

In 2007, the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

British band Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their album Black Holes and Revelations.. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to Knights of Cydonia.

In January, 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio".

Discography

Ennio Morricone has sold over 50 million records worldwide, including 6.5 million copies in France and more than two million albums in Korea.

Top worldwide film grosses

Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! Year !! Title !! Director !! Gross |- | 1966 || The Good, The Bad & The Ugly || Sergio Leone || $25,100,000 |- | 1977 || || John Boorman || $30,749,142 |- | 1987 || The Untouchables || Brian De Palma || $76,270,454 |- | 1991 || Bugsy || Barry Levinson || $49,114,016 |- | 1993 || In the Line of Fire || Wolfgang Petersen || $176,997,168 |- | 1994 || Wolf || Mike Nichols || $131,002,597 |- | 1994 || Disclosure || Barry Levinson || $214,015,089 |- | 2000 || Mission to Mars || Brian De Palma || $110,983,407 |}

Other successful movies with Morricone's work are Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.

Awards

Academy Honorary Award

Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Though nominated five times, he had not previously received an Oscar. In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast. The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlier—for the first time in 40 years—at a reception.

Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928.

List of prizes and awards

1965 — Nastro d'Argento for A Fistful of Dollars

1967 — Diapason d'Or

1969 — Premio Spoleto Cinema

1970 — Nastro d'argento for Metti una sera a cena

1971 — Nastro d'argento for Sacco e Vanzetti

1972 — Cork Film International for La califfa

1979 — Academy Awards nomination for Days of Heaven

1979 — Premio Vittorio de Sica

1981 — Premio della critica discografica for Il prato

1984 — Premio Zurlini

1985 — Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for Once Upon A Time In America

1986 — Academy Awards Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for The Mission

1986 — Premio Vittorio de Sica

1988 — Academy Awards nomination, Nastro d'argento, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for The Untouchables

1988 — David di Donatello for Gli occhiali d'oro

1989 — David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

1989 — Ninth Annual Ace Winner for Il Giorno prima

1989 — Pardo d'Oro alla carriera Locarno Film Festival

1990 — BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

1991 — David di Donatello for Stanno tutti bene

1992 — Academy Award nomination for Bugsy

1992 — Pentagramma d'oro

1992 — Premio Michelangelo

1992 — Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent)

1993 — David di Donatello and Efebo d'Argento for Jonas che visse nella balena

1993 — Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia

1993 — Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi

1994 — ASCAP Golden Soundtrack Award (Los Angeles)

1995 — Premio Rota

1995 — Golden Lion Honorary Award by the Venice Film Festival

1996 — Premio citta' di Roma

1996 — Premio Cappelli

1996 — Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia

1997 — Premio Flaiano

1998 — Columbus Prize

1999 — Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis für Film

1999 — Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award

2000 — Golden Globe Award for The Legend of 1900 (1998)

2000 — David di Donatello and Nastro d'argentofor for Canone Inverso

2000 — Academy Awards nomination for Malèna

2000 — Nastro d'argento for Malèna

2001 — Mikeldi de Honor at "Zinebi - International Festival of Documentary and Short Films" of Bilbao

2002 — Honorary Degree by the "Seconda Università" of Rome

2003 — Golden Eagle Award by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia for 72 Meters (film)

2003 — Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

2006 — Grand Officer Award from President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

2007 — Honorary Academy Award for career achievement

2007 — The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement

2007 — David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for La sconosciuta

2008 — Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce Springsteen

2008 — Medal of the French Legion of Honour

2009 — Medal of Merits for Macedonia

2009 — America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation

2010 — Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts

Sources

Horace, B. Music from the Movies, film music journal double issue 45/46, 2005: ISSN 0967-8131

Miceli, Sergio. Morricone, la musica, il cinema. Milan: Mucchi/Ricordi, 1994: ISBN 88-7592-398-1

Miceli, Sergio. "Morricone, Ennio". The Nesw Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 3. Dal 1960 al 1969. Gremese, 1993: ISBN 88-7605-593-2

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979* A/L. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-935-0

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979** M/Z. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-969-5

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989* A/L. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-423-0

Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989** M/Z. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-429-X

References

Further reading

Lhassa, Anne, and Jean Lhassa: Ennio Morricone: biographie. Les Planches. Lausanne: Favre; [Paris]: [diff. Inter-forum], 1989. ISBN 2-8289-0418-0,

Wagner, Thorsten. "Improvisation als 'weiteste Ausdehnung des Begriffs der aleatorischen Musik': Franco Evangelisti und die Improvisationsgruppe Nuova Consonanza". In ...hin zu einer neuen Welt: Notate zu Franco Evangelisti, edited by Harald Muenz,.48-60, 2002. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. ISBN 3-89727-177-X.

Webb, Michael D. Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-89-0

External links

Ennio Morricone myspace

The Ennio Morricone Online Community

Once upon a Time in the West">Streaming audio of Morricone's "The Man with the Harmonica," from his soundtrack to Once upon a Time in the West

TÊTE-À-TÊTE: Ennio Morricone by Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles Times Magazine

Category:1928 births Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Italian composers Category:Italian film score composers Category:Living people Category:Virgin Records artists Category:People from Rome (city) Category:Spaghetti Western composers