From spaghetti western to “La cage aux folles”, Ennio Morricone the inimitable

"The Italian composer who wrote" ah-ee-ah-ee-ah ", the theme of the Good, the Bad and the Truant  ". Ah-ee-ah-ee-ah? Really ? If the Washington Post is on the verge of a troll with its obituary of Ennio Morricone, who died on Monday at 91, there is some truth. The music of “Il Maestro”, as it should be called in an interview, is recognizable among all, from the first notes, whistles, sounds… As Le Monde  writes : “His unique style was an atypical mixture of heady melodies and unusual arrangements using the most diverse whistles, percussions and real noises ”. Not better.

"A constant source of inspiration, like a member of the family"

Since the announcement of his death, everyone, anonymous as a personality, has paid homage to him, his favorite piece: the harmonica of Once upon a time in the West of course, but also the theme of Mission by Roland Joffé , the hopping My name is nobody , the forgotten  L'Exorciste 2 , without forgetting his work for the French director Henri Verneuil. “I discovered Ennio Morricone when I was a child thanks to the music of Henri Verneuil's Casse which I listened to on loop over 45 laps, testifies our cinema journalist Caroline Vié. He is the first composer of film music whose name I knew. "

Ennio Moriconne was film music, by the influence it had on generations of composers (Jean-Michel Jarre speaks of "a constant source of inspiration, like a member of the family") and by the richness of his compositions, which resonated in each of us and created a special, intimate bond between him and the public.

I discovered @MEnnioMorricone when I was a child thanks to the music of Henri Verneuil's Casse which I listened to on loop over 45 laps. He is the first composer of film music whose name I knew. Bon voyage M. Morricone.https: //t.co/r0v2tNkiU6

From Sergio Leone to Son Goku

Everything about her collaboration with Sergio Leone and her role in the spaghetti western has already been said and written. Morricone's name and music are closely related to both. In addition to the Dollar trilogy, he participated in making three Once upon a time film legends. And the western in general, and spaghetti in particular, will not be the same without it, with many films, of the cult My name is nobody to those of Sergio Corbucci ( Django , Le Grand silence ), passing by Les Huit Salopards .

LEGENDARY DUO. 🎬 A working session with two sacred monsters: Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone, here working on the theme of "Once upon a time there was the revolution" #CulturePrime #EnnioMorricone pic.twitter.com/IpqtxYtJZJ

Quentin Tarantino had already used his music, taken from other films, in Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds or  Django Unchained , before his dream came true, with an Oscar for best soundtrack to the key. On the other hand, Ennio Morricone will regret not having composed for Clint Eastwood, director. "I missed a great opportunity and I deeply regret it," he explained to the BBC in 2014. When Clint called me, I said no but not because of his films. Out of respect for Sergio Leone. "A user also remember, wrongly, that there's Ennio Morricone into Dragon Ball Z . You will no longer see the fight between Goku and Broly as before.

I always liked the way in which Dragon Ball Z appropriated the codes of spaghetti westerns. There were always long gazes in the desert plains punctuated by silences which added tension. We lost that with the recent adaptations of Dragon Ball. https://t.co/XyBFPFz9DZ

The chills of anxiety

“I don't want to speak about Sergio Leone. The message is clear, in the preamble to an interview in Le Figaro for a concert in Bercy in 2014. Ennio Morricone is fed up that his career can be summed up in westerns and Sergio Leone. "My production for westerns is maybe 7.5 to 8% of everything I've done," he said in 2007 to Reuters. It must be said that he also participated in the greatness of another highly codified genre: horror, fantasy. First in his country of origin with the films of Lucio Fulci (The Maniacs ), Mario Bava ( Danger: Diabolik ) and Dario Argento ( The bird with the plumage of Crystal), but also internationally with The Thing by John Carpenter, The Exorcist 2 by John Boorman or Mission to Mars by Brian De Palma.

Even if Hollywood offers him a villa, the composer will prefer to stay on the good old continent, and collaborate with several French directors. From 1967 and The Battle of San Sebastian , he worked with Henri Verneuil, a fruitful relationship of several masterpieces:  Le Clan des Siciliens, Le Casse, Peur sur la ville , I… come Icarus . More astonishing, and less known, his collaboration with Francis Girod ( Le Trio Infernal, René la Canne, La Banquière ), a film by Philippe Labro ( Without apparent motive ) or… the trilogy La cage aux folles  !

With all the bigger ones, except Kubrick

Don Siegel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Yves Boisset, Samuel Fuller, Pedro Almodovar, Mike Nichols, Roman Polanski and even Terrence Malick on Les Moissons du ciel , it would be simpler to list the filmmakers with whom he did not work. There is one, and it is the musician's great regret: Stanley Kubrick. The 2001 director and Spartacus contacted him to sign the music for Mechanical Orange , but he was already engaged on Once Upon a Time by Sergio Leone and had to decline. According to the versions, it is even Leone who would not have wanted to free him.

"Il Maestro" will have touched all genres of cinema and music (he has also collaborated with Chet Baker and Mireille Mathieu). On his music, his collaborations, his "recipe", he detailed to Le Monde in 2006 that "situations vary, especially since I am stimulated by very diverse film genres. There, I have to write music for a producer in a hurry. I only had time to read 50 pages of the script. Otherwise, I usually get the film a month before editing. My music is often better when I can't see the pictures ”.

Cinema

"Film music must exist beyond film", assures composer Howard Shore who signed that of "Lord of the Rings"

Cinema

John Carpenter in concert at Pleyel: "I made the music for my films, because I didn't have the budget for a real composer"

• Cinema
• Original Sound Track
• Music
• Culture