I recently made a list of what I think to be some of his best or undervalued scores. So here we go!
1) For me, “Danger:Diabolik” is number one. Sad story that the Masters got destroyed in a fire and there’s never been the proper soundtrack. But they peeled a lot of it from the movie and there’s an unofficial score and it is the definition chaotic psychedelia. It is just fucking fantastic from about 1968. Frenetic, jarring chords for an anti-hero trip out. I highly recommend getting your hands on this movie and watching it. I actually made a mix with a few samples:
nb: Here is a 2h30m recording of more Ennio, but laid back Lounge Jazz and Psychedelic Exotica
2) The Mission is probably “also number one” because it got me into movie scores. That one really changed my life. I remember hearing it, and the pan flute and children’s chorus in a Nature Company. It was in Palo Alto, and I remember at the time I carried around a little cassette recorder of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana before I knew what it was (recorded from TV) and tried to play it for people whenever I thought someone would know music. I played it for what was obviously literally a nineteen-year-old nature company clerk, & he handed me this soundtrack and that’s the first time I knew who Ennio Morricone was.
3) Number three is the Sergio Leone series.. 3 for 3.
4) John Carpenter’s The Thing… that score is partly why that is a masterpiece of filmmaking.
5) Vergogna Schifosi a thriller during late 60s Italian protests, & a fun, weird score. It’s like a cultish Midsommar sound with waxing and breathy female vocalizations, harpsichord, quite playful, and lovely “on the wind” humming and lighter sounds of the 60s. Wavering femme vocals to lift you up.
6) Hamlet – so heavy, rich in morbid and ponderous foreboding.
7) State of Grace – anchored what is possibly one of the greatest mobster films of all time. Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Robin Wright Penn, Sean Penn.
8) Cinema Paradiso – masterful at setting mood, & place over time.
9) Citta Violenta -a double-crossed hitman with Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas. Excitement!
101) The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Dario Argento’s first directing gig. The atmosphere here is wild.
11 Il Gatto a nove code, another argenta horror film it creates a perfect landscape for morricone to have atmospheric and engaging score.
12) LaCage aux folle!
13) would be last stop on the night train and orca, those two films are more about nostalgia tho.Orca freaked me out when I was young. Perfect Saturday afternoon chiller theater.
NB: a lot of people undervalued the hateful eight, and I’m not sure I know enough about music to know why, but I looooved it. Still have to watch the miniseries they created out of all the outtakes for Netflix.
& I had forgot he had done Malick’s days of Heaven!!!
I think the above get overshadowed by his later work…
Untouchables, etc… but this is when he became more of a traditional composer versus experimental (though he never stopped with traditional Italian movie scores and the experimentation).
I would have to re-watch tie me up tie me down because I can’t remember it. I do remember the bathtub scene wind-up toy!
I certainly need to revisit:
Ripley’s game
72 meters
Lastly, I hadn’t remembered the film “So Fine” about bottomless pants, I can’t believe he did that score. Mid-eighties farcical romp type thing.
Cheers Ennio! thank you!