Giovanni Morricone Interview | Alex Gilbert #7

Ennio Morricone or Il Maestro, 88 years old today, received for the first time in his carreer the 2016 Academy Award for best soundtrack in Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight movie.

Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone were communists during the 70’s and loved bloodthirsty’s directors, Dario Argento & John Carpenter.

The first time Tarantino asked Il Maestro to compose the soundtrack of Inglorious Basterds, shot in former nazi Berlin Babelsberg studios, he declined. Nazi director, Leni Riefenstahl, is for Tarantino, as for Jonas Mekas & George Lucas, the best director who ever existed.

For the soundtrack of Django Unchained, Morricone accepted to compose one song, Ancora qui interpreted by Elisa. Largely inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, he manifested regrets after watching the violent scene with dogs eating black slaves owned by Leonard Di Caprio’s character. Spike Lee said he would not even see the movie.

For his son, Giovanni Morricone, Il Maestro neither recognize influence from Leni Riefenstahl nor from Aleksander Soljenytsyne.

On November 12th, he will give a concert of charity with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta and il Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia sustaining Pope Francis construcation project of Moroto’s cathedral in Uganda and Burkina Faso’s agrarian school.