Days of Birthday

It's my birthday in two months and three days. Who wants to buy me this? My current copy is l-a-m-e comparatively.

Please take to the stage... Ennio Morricone

I read over at The Scotsman (???) via In Contention that film composer Ennio Morricone will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from AMPAS as next year's Oscar ceremony. And ya what? I couldn't agree more! It's all well and good to reward the directors and actors who got snubbed throughout their lives, but people like Ennio and others in the technical arena seem to continously be pushed aside. So it's nice to read that Morricone will have an Oscar come February next year. He's received five Oscar nominations in his time. Days of Heaven in 1978, The Mission in 1986, The Untouchables in 1987, Bugsy in 1991 and, most recently, Malèna in 2000.

My very favourite Morricone score is that for Terrance Malick's Days of Heaven, a personal all-timer for me. It's probably the most perfect merging of images and sound ever put to screen. I don't care about the characters, or the dialogue, or the plot (well, no, I do. Obviously), but seeing those images with Morricone's music over the top is just... *sigh*. It's dreamy.

Ennio Morricone selected filmography
5x2 (2005)
Malèna (2000)
Vatel (2000)
Bulworth (1998)
Lolita (1997)
U-Turn (1997)
Wolf (1994)
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Bugsy (1991)
Hamlet (1990)
Casualties of War (1989)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Frantic (1988)
The Untouchables (1987)
The Mission (1986)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
The Thing (1982)
La Cage Aux Folles (1978)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
Il Mostro (1977)
The Inheritence (1976)
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
The Infernal Trio (1974)
Death Rides a Horse (1967)
The Rover (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Glenn's 'Top 5 Movies That Changed My Life' List - #5

I'm bored and am deliberately not doing homework! Let's start at #5!

5. Days of Heaven (1978, dir. Terence Malick)



This movie wasn't on my radar at all, ever. It was on television one day and I noticed it starred Richard Gere and was directed by Malick - who I had heard of because of The Thin Red Line being released a few years prior - but never seen anything of. I thought I'd give it ago and from the very first frame I was entranced by it's oddly stoic-yet-inviting beauty. The movie starts and then within about 2 minutes it had already surprised me (remember I had zero idea what it was all about).

I continued watching and revelled in it. The movie was existing only for me at that moment. The second that Ennio Morricone's Oscar nominated score (one of my all-time favourites) merged with the Oscar-winning images (who knows who they're by, there's so many conflicting stories - but Nestor Almendros was the one with the statue) I new I was viewing something special.



It showed me that you didn't need specifically words or powerful acting to create a masterpiece. I am a very visual person and when I saw the images of a dusk sky saturated in locusts it just hit me extremely hard. I don't really know how to explain it. But it's something I've been in love with ever since. I always think a movie that can show us and not tell us is interesting. The other one's that come to mind are Gus Van Sant's recent death trilogy. He may very well have been taking a page out this this movie's book (in fact, Last Days I think does so very much). When the movie was over I really liked it but it to is a movie that really grows with you. You remember the images, the music, the everything. It has since become a strong favourite of mine, as you can see in the sidebar. But why can't I find the soundtrack anywhere?