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Composed, Orchestrated, and Conducted by:
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Ennio Morricone
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Produced by:
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Enrico De Melis
Claudio Messina
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Release Date:
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February 6th, 2001
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Audio Clips:
1. Inchini Ipocriti E Disperazione (0:27), 136K malena1.ra
3. Passeggiata In Paese (0:40), 200K malena3.ra
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Availability:
The 2/6/01 Virgin Records America album
is a regular U.S. release. The European Virgin branch has had the score
available for some time prior to that. In the U.S., the album is still difficult
to find in some street stores.
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Awards:
Nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, 2000.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Malèna: (Ennio Morricone) Ever since the successful score for
Cinema Paradiso, Ennio Morricone has been a regular match for director
Giuseppe Tornatore. And just on schedule, Morricone's Malèna is
the newest Italian score in a line of European underdogs to mesmerize the
Academy which holds its annual awards. The popularity of this score in Los
Angeles should come as no surprise; all you have to do is recall the arthouse
love that so many Academy members felt for Life is Beautiful and Il
Postino to realize that one of these sorts of scores comes around every once
in a while. Even though traditional American film score fans shun Mediterranean
scores with disgust, Miramax Films has been very successful in promoting them.
Mirimax was also successful in pushing Rachel Portman's Chocolat into the
awards even though it wasn't her best score of the year. It has been said that
Ennio Morricone promoted Malèna very heavily prior to the Golden
Globe and Academy Awards nomination periods. Obviously, it worked. So the
question is this: Is Malèna a good score? Yes. Is it worthy of
these nominations? Unfortunately, no.
I am no fan of Ennio Morricone's attempts at scoring modern horror or action
films. Last year's Mission to Mars made me wince in pain while listening
to the album, and was completely inappropriate within the context of the film.
The Malèna score, however, is a superb match for its film. It has
all the classic and romantic elements of a trademark European --and more
specifically, Mediterranean-- score. Its instrumentation is a perfect match for
the setting of Sicily, as well as the war-torn time during which the story takes
place. Like Life is Beautiful and Il Postino, Malèna
is a bittersweet story that can present quite the challenge for a composer. The
score successfully balances the fear of war, the romanticism of the coming of
age, the flight of comedy, and the tragedy of loss. The album's presentation of
the music is perhaps one of the reasons for the score's award nominations. If a
person were to listen to only the first six tracks, one might conclude that this
is the best score of the year. The melodic and romantic grace of the score is
housed here, with string-dominated, whimsical personality that is very
endearing. Between the seventh and fifteenth tracks, the score features its
obnoxious comedy skits and frightful, toublesome cues of war. The last few
tracks once again visit a more eloquent statement of sentimentality, but the
middle sequence of the score is so jarring (especially with the carnival clown
cues), that it is difficult to recover the listening experience from there.
I am 100% sure when I say that the people who disliked Life is Beautiful
and Il Postino in the past years won't like Malèna.
Morricone's variation of the Italian motif is exactly that... a variation on the
same Italian romance/tragedy score that has already been rehashed by Bacalov,
Donaggio, Piovani, and others over a hundred times. The first six tracks are
nevertheless very enjoyable, and they do encompass twenty minutes of superior,
nonstop underscore. To this extent, the album is arranged quite well. I
sometimes wonder, though, why Italian composers cannot get more American press
for scores that don't dwell in the prancing and trite comedy cues that are often
required by European comedies. There is some excellent romance music coming out
of this region of the world today, and Rachel Portman isn't the only one
producing it. Should Morricone's score for Malèna overcome the
great odds of beating Gladiator for the Academy Award this year, then I
will disappointed, because even though Malèna is a decent score by
any standard, it is simply too much of the same old flavor. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Inchini Ipocriti E Disperazione (2:04)
• 2. Malena (2:37)
• 3. Passeggiata In Paese (3:17)
• 4. Visioni (2:36)
• 5. Nella Casa... (2:16)
• 6. Malena (End Titles) (4:25)
• 7. Linciaggio (2:46)
• 8. Orgia (1:13)
• 9. Il Ritorno (1:47)
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• 10. Bisbigli Della Gente (2:42)
• 11. Ma L'Amore No (1:52)
• 12. Casino-Bolero (2:10)
• 13. Altro Casino (2:16)
• 14. Visioni (Fantasie D'Amore) (2:15)
• 15. Cinema D'Altri Tempi (3:39)
• 16. Ipocrisie (2:00)
• 17. Pensieri Di Sesso (2:29)
• 18. Momenti Difficili (4:19)
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Insert includes extensive credits and notes about the film or composer.
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