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Ennio Morricone
December 01, 2023 – January 08, 2024
The Museum of Modern Art
In collaboration with Cinecittà, Rome, MoMA celebrates Ennio Morricone (1928–2020), one of the greatest movie composers of all time, with a retrospective of more than 35 films spanning his nearly 60-year career. With more than 17 new digital restorations as well as 35mm archival prints, the exhibition presents a rich selection of films featuring Morricone’s most renowned scores (including Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Roland Joffé’s The Mission, Bernard Bertolucci’s 1900 and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso) alongside more unsung titles (Sergio Corbucci’s Navajo Joe and The Great Silence, Sergio Solima’s The Big Countdown and Revolver, Mario Bava’s Danger:Diabolik, and Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Red Tent among them).
A rare German television program from 1967 features Morricone himself performing as part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (“The Group”), the radically experimental collective of composer-musicians who banded together in Rome in 1964 in a utopian spirit of nonhierarchical improvisation. Morricone’s ingenious forging of classical instrumentation with new electronic technologies, musique concrète and jazz, and seriality and noise carried over into his film scoring. His self-conscious use of mouth harps, pan pipes, bells, twanging guitars, cantering drums and—ever and always—the human voice and whistle revolutionized the music of popular genre moviemaking, from Westerns and horror to operatic comedy and melodrama, and continues to influence contemporary composers and musicians as far ranging as Hans Zimmer, Angelo Badalamenti, Radiohead, John Zorn, Mica Levi, Jay-Z, and Metallica.
Organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, and Francisco Valente, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; and Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Cinecittà. Thanks to Cineteca Nazionale (Maria Bonsanti), Giovanni Morricone, and Marco Cicala.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black, with major contributions from the Triad Foundation, Inc., The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, and by Karen and Gary Winnick.
Press Kit
Images
Ennio (Ennio: The Maestro). 2021. Italy/Belgium/Netherlands/Japan. Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Courtesy Piano B Produzioni
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso). 1988. Italy/France. Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Courtesy Paramount
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). 1966. Italy. Directed by Sergio Leone. Courtesy Park Circus.
The Untouchables. 1987. USA. Directed by Brian De Palma. Courtesy Paramount
C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West). 1968. USA/Italy. Directed by Sergio Leone. Courtesy Paramount
Il deserto dei Tartari (The Desert of the Tartars). 1976. Italy/France/West Germany/Iran. Directed by Valerio Zurlini. Courtesy of Cinecittà
Il gatto a nove code (The Cat o’Nine Tails). 1971. Italy/France/West Germany. Written and directed by Dario Argento. Courtesy of American Film Genre Archive
Le clan des Siciliens (The Sicilian Clan). 1969. France/Italy. Directed by Henri Verneuil. Courtesy Disney / Criterion Pictures
Two Mules for Sister Sara. 1970. USA/Mexico. Directed by Don Siegel. Courtesy Universal Pictures
Teorema. 1968. Italy. Written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Courtesy Janus Films
Once Upon a Time in America [European Theatrical Version]. 1984. USA/Italy. Directed by Sergio Leone. Courtesy Disney / Criterion Pictures
The Thing. 1982. USA. Directed by John Carpenter. Courtesy Universal Pictures
Diabolik (Danger: Diabolik). 1968. Italy/France. Directed by Mario Bava. Courtesy Paramount
I basilischi (The Lizards). 1963. Italy. Written and directed by Lina Wertmüller. Courtesy Intramovies
I pugni in tasca (Fists in the Pocket). 1965. Italy. Written and directed by Marco Bellocchio. Courtesy Janus Films
La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers). 1965. Italy/Algeria. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Courtesy Janus Films
Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin). 1971. Italy/France/Spain/United Kingdom. Directed by Lucio Fulci. Courtesy American Film Genre Archive
Le foto proibite di una signora per bene (The Forbidden Photos of a Lady above Suspicion). 1970. Spain/Italy. Directed by Luciano Ercoli. Courtesy American Film Genre Archive
Cosa avete fatto a Solange? (What Have You Done to Solange?). 1972. Italy/West Germany/United Kingdom. Directed by Massimo Dallamano. Courtesy American Film Genre Archive
Gli occhiali d’oro (The Gold-Rimmed Glasses). 1987. Italy/France/Yugoslavia. Directed by Giuliano Montaldo. Courtesy Mediaset
Camilla Cormanni, Rajendra Roy, Fabrizio Di Michele, Nicola Maccanico, and Josh Siegel attend opening night of Ennio Morricone at The Museum of Modern Art on December 1, 2023, presented by MoMA in collaboration with Cinecittà. Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art
Josh Siegel, Giovanni Morricone, Gisella Marengo, Marco Morricone, Nicola Maccanico, Rajendra Roy, and Camilla Cormanni attend opening night of Ennio Morricone at The Museum of Modern Art on December 1, 2023, presented by MoMA in collaboration with Cinecittà. Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art
Giovanni Morricone and Marco Morricone attend opening night of Ennio Morricone at The Museum of Modern Art on December 1, 2023, presented by MoMA in collaboration with Cinecittà. Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art
Rajendra Roy, Jo Champa and Nicola Maccanico attend opening night of Ennio Morricone at The Museum of Modern Art on December 1, 2023, presented by MoMA in collaboration with Cinecittà. Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art
Gisella Marengo and Marco Morricone attend opening night of Ennio Morricone at The Museum of Modern Art on December 1, 2023, presented by MoMA in collaboration with Cinecittà. Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art