Here is our review of Ennio, Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary on the great revolutionary composer
TITLE: Ennio. GENUS: documentary, biographical. COUNTRY: Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Japan. DIRECTOR: Giuseppe Tornatore. CAST: Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe Tornatore, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Dario Argento, Oliver Stone, Roland Joffé, Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Morandi. time: 152 minutes. PRODUCTION: Plan B Productions. ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION: Lucky Red. EXIT: premiered on 29 and 30 January, then from 17 February 2022.
Enniothe documentary directed by Giuseppe Tornatore on the figure of the great Roman composer, it is a gem and an unmissable appointment for all lovers of music, films and more. Through this work the shy and unique figure of Morricone is deepened, from his family origins to his latest successes. Let’s go into Ennio’s review, starting from trailer.
The plot | Ennius
Ennio tells the journey of his protagonist. He starts with an awakening of the over 80-year-old Morricone, who trains at home, remembering the rhythm of a metronome. Then the teacher sits down and begins to tell. Through a long interview with Giuseppe Tornatore, Morricone opens up, starting from his birth up to his last great success, the Oscar winner for The Hateful Eight of Tarantino. In the middle we find interventions by dozens of different personalities, from internationally renowned colleagues such as Hans Zimmer e John Williams to homegrown faces like Gianni Morandi e Carlo Verdone. Each of them tells an anecdote, a background or simply praises the figure of Morricone, who in the course of his life it helped shape the world we live in todaythrough his music.
The man before the composer | Ennio
Ennio wants to be first of all a homage to the Morricone man, before the composer Morricone. What moved me most about the documentary was in fact the great one humanity that transpired from the master. In recounting his childhood, his relationship with his father and other hard moments in his life, especially in his youth, his emotion enveloped him. The moments in which the teacher stops for a few seconds to relive the moments he is telling are not rare. In these moments the viewer stops with him, held back by emotion. From Ennio’s vision, a Morricone emerges that perhaps many did not know, both because his career is longer than the life of many of us (myself included) and because we have perhaps focused more on his music than on his figure. Through the tales of the master and the testimonies of the various guests, Ennio appears as a man shy, brilliant, hard-fought, unaware of his success for a long time and its influence on the world around it. His is also honored wife Annaa very important figure in his life and as Morricone himself told: “The directors only listened to the music my wife liked”.
«In 1970 I stop making films» | Ennio
So said Morricone himself during the documentary. Throughout his career, especially at the beginning, Morricone was frowned upon by other composers because he was himself sold to the world of cinema. From 1961 the maestro began his film career with The federal by Luciano Salce and immediately believes that the activities of the classical and cinematographic composer are irreconcilable. It is in that year that he pronounces the sentence above. The same sentence will repeat it at the beginning of each decade, without ever stopping. Over the course of his career, Morricone composed the score for over 500 filmsmany of which are unforgettable: from the Dollar Trilogy to Once Upon a Time in America, from The Mission to The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean, from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso to The Untouchables, from Investigation of a citizen above all suspicion to The Hateful Eight. Each of us has at least one Morricone soundtrack in our hearts and can’t help but get excited listening to it in the cinema during this documentary. As far as I’m concerned, I can’t think of Once Upon a Time in the West without thinking about the harmonica of the protagonist and the main theme of the film.
Tornatore’s great work | Ennio
However, the great work carried out by the director of this documentary must not go unnoticed. Giuseppe Tornatore he creates a very enjoyable work, albeit with a considerable duration. The alternation between the memories of the past, the words of Ennio, the testimonies of the guests and the music is rendered with great balance. There’s a Red thread which connects all the biographical elements of the master, from the aforementioned first scene of him training to the last, in which Morricone silently directs to his room. Ennio is thus a 2 and a half hour documentary which, however, does not bore, but enchants thanks to the uniqueness of the story of its protagonist and thanks to the emotions it transmits. Tornatore gives to posterity an invaluable proof of Morricone’s passage on this worldmaking his career even more immortal.
Conclusions
Ennio is awonderful workthat speaks to all who want to listen. It had been a long time since it had happened to me to go to the cinema and see such a varied audience: elderly couples, young people, adults, children. Everyone had come to once again admire the work of one of the greatest composers of all time. Tornatore gives us a summary of Morricone’s career, a concentrate of all his successes, both cinematographic and not, and at the same time a portrait of the man behind the music. A documentary unmissable for everyone, why we all live in a world shaped by the music of Ennio Morricone.
What do you think of our Ennio review? Have you seen it at the cinema? Let us know in the comments!
Points in favor
- Balance between testimonies, images and music
- Morricone’s uniqueness emerges in all its glory
- The soundtrack (obviously)
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