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Malèna: (Ennio Morricone) Reminiscent of the
kinds of films that made Federico Fellini into a master of the genre,
Malèna was Giuseppe Tornatore's 2000 coming-of-age tale
involving a 13-year-old boy during the height of World War II. When the
most beautiful woman in his coastal town becomes a widow because of the
war, his imagined image of her perfection is shattered by the realities
of her unsavory habits. If the story sounds familiar, then don't be
surprised to learn that the production values of
Malèna
are extremely predictable as well, though that didn't stop the film from
earning significant attention in America. One of the film's most
heralded aspects was its score by veteran composer Ennio Morricone. Ever
since the highly successful score for
Cinema Paradiso, Morricone
has been a regular match for director Giuseppe Tornatore, with
predictably strong results. Morricone's work for
Malèna
was one of the last Italian scores in a line of European underdogs to
mesmerize the voters of the Academy in the late 1990's. The popularity
of this score in Los Angeles came as no surprise; all you had to do was
recall the arthouse-inspired love that so many Academy members felt for
scores like
Life is Beautiful and
Il Postino to realize
that one of these kinds of scores was destined to be rewarded every once
in a while. The fact that
Malèna was the last of that
string is perhaps an interesting topic for a different debate. Even
though traditional American film score fans often shunned the genre of
hopelessly romantic Mediterranean scores with disgust, Miramax Films
proved to be very successful in promoting them at the time. The same
year, Miramax was also successful in pushing Rachel Portman's
Chocolat into the awards mix even though it clearly wasn't her
best score of that year.
It has been said that Morricone himself promoted
Malèna very heavily prior to the Golden Globe and Academy
Awards nomination periods, and if so, it obviously resulted in
nominations (though not wins) from both groups. So the question is this:
is
Malèna a good score? Yes. Was it worthy of these
nominations? Unfortunately, no. Morricone's attempts at scoring modern
horror or action films over the previous few years were not as
successful as any of his fans had hoped; the disaster
Mission to
Mars was completely inappropriate within the context of the film and
made some listeners wince in pain during its album. The
Malèna score, however, is evidence of Morricone clearly in
his comfort zone, and it is thus a superb match for its subject matter.
It has all the classic and romantic elements of a trademark
Mediterranean score, exuding not only the setting of Sicily, but also
infusing a few noir-like tones in its incorporation of lonely brass in
its solemn portions. Like
Life is Beautiful and
Il
Postino, the bittersweet story of
Malèna presents
something of a challenge in its music. But Morricone successfully
balances the fear of war, the romanticism of the coming of age, the
flight of comedy, and the tragedy of loss. A lovely theme for the
imagined romance is explored in several of the longing cues, while a
jaunty descending motif of comedy (which coincidentally resembles one of
Alan Menken's songs for the Broadway musical of
Beauty and the
Beast) lends more extroverted personality to the region. The
detriment of this material is that Morricone has done this work
countless times before and it's easy to say that those who disliked the
equally similar
Life is Beautiful and
Il Postino in the
previous decade won't find much new to cheer about in
Malèna. The score's own inconsistencies also present a few
problems in the flow of its album.
Morricone's variation of the same general Italian sound
is very predictable, a simple variation on the traditional
romance/tragedy scores that had already been repeatedly rehashed by
Bacalov, Donaggio, Piovani, and others over a hundred times. So at least
you'll know what you're going to hear. 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. Most of the melodic
and romantic grace of the score is housed there, with string-dominated,
whimsical personality that is truly endearing. Between the "Linciaggio"
and "Cinema D'Altri Tempi" tracks, however, the score features its
obnoxious comedy skits and frightful, troublesome cues representing the
war. The last few tracks once again visit a more eloquent statements of
sentimentality, but the middle portion of the score is so jarring
(especially within the wilder comedy cues), that it is difficult to
recover the listening experience from there. The album is arranged quite
well, and, as such, the first six tracks are nevertheless very
enjoyable, encompassing twenty minutes of superior material. There is a
theory to be explored that Mediterranean scores like this will always
have difficulty breaking into the mainstream of other regions of the
world if only because the sound of the prancing and trite comedy cues is
so unique to these European sensibilities. There has always been
excellent romance music to come out of this region of the world, and
contrary to the belief of casual fans, Portman wasn't the only one
producing it. While nobody really thought that Morricone's score for
Malèna could overcome the great odds of beating
Gladiator for the Academy Award in 2000 (and, of course, another
surprise was waiting for Hans Zimmer),
Malèna is a decent
score by any standard. Morricone collectors rejoiced appropriately, but
for others, the score's sound proved to be simply too much of the same
old flavor.
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The insert includes extensive credits and notes about both the director and composer.
