By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
The Great Ennio Morricone…
… wil finally get an Oscar. An honorary one. After 5 nominations and a legendary career, no one could be more deserving. And nice that Eastwood will be in the room, eh?
May 15, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
This is great news!
Indeed. By far my favorite film composer. Aside from the better known scores (Once Upon A Time In America/West, Good, Bad & Ugly), he has done brilliant stuff for movies like “My Name Is Nobody”, “Danger, Diabolik”, Argento’s “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” and just about a million others.
For a true genius who doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, this is indeed the best of news.
I’ve always been a sucker for his gorgeous score to The Mission.
Eastwood should present it, no?
Days of Heaven is my favourite Morricone score. I wrote about Ennio on my blog.
My son is studying music composition as an undergraduate at NYU with the hopes of becoming a film composer. He will be thrilled.
He also did this beautiful super-melancholy score to Adrian Lyne’s ‘Lolita’ (a movie I love for reasons I can’t all together explain).
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir, but for me it’s all about Once Upon a Time in the West. I’ve never gotten sick of listening to that score even though I’ve heard it hundreds of times.
Bravo to Mr. Morricone. I’ve been hoping for this for years now, and I’m so happy the Academy’s wised up.
In high school my Spanish teacher had us deconstruct the sequence (to study how it was composed, the types of shots used etc.) from The Mission where Gabriel first meets the indians as he plays the oboe. That one melody (Gabriel’s Oboe) haunted me for a long time after, and is one of my favourite pieces of movie music! – and the rest of the soundtrack ain’t bad either! ;o) –
I love the score to The Mission — I wish the whole thing was available on iTunes. Casualties of War is a score I listen to all the time.
Another, not-well-known Morricone score is the one he did for the 1980’s miniseries Marco Polo. Most of those 80’s miniseries (Shogun is a great example) have scores that sound so horribly dated now, you cringe through certain scenes. But Marco Polo is as good as it was then. I was delighted to find an import CD after keeping an eye out in vain for years.
The only Morricone score I can think of that I don’t like much is Mission to Mars — but I tend to blame that on the director.
Does anyone remember a few years ago when Jennifer Love Hewitt and LL Cool J presented a Golden Globe to Morricone, and when he didn’t go to the podium (he wasn’t in attendance) Hewitt goes, “They’re not here??”
Oy.
Anyway, glad to see he’s getting more recognition. I’ve always loved Morricone (even if the Untouchables and Bugsy scores are a little uh, identical). If nothing else, Once Upon A Time in The West is a masterpiece.
Another great but little-known one is for INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION; even by his own standards, it’s mighty quirky. And it provided a wonderful in-joke decades later when he reused it at a key point in Oliver Stone’s U-TURN.
At least we have one fun montage to look forward to in this year’s show.
That’s one montage that I’m totally amped for! Can you imagine?? *salivate*