The maestro of your filmgoing life

It’s not often that I will sit through a foreign film, sans sous-titles - for almost three hours. But that was the case with the recent screening in Montreal of Ennio: The Maestro, about the movie music composer that has probably had more impact on the filmgoing experience – scratch that, has had – than any other musician over the past half century. Outside the rarefied world of cineastes (ha), however, the vast majority of people wouldn’t recognize his name. But you certainly recognize the music. Ennio Morrione made his mark with the Sergio Leone’s so-called "Spaghetti Westerns" of the 1970s, starring of course Clint Eastwood. When you hear the song The Good The Bad and the Ugly – also the film name – that music is indelibly Morricone’s. But he composed music for a whole swath of films that created a sound backdrop that in many ways was just as dramatic or more so than the visuals on the screen. The documentary Ennio: The Maestro by Giuseppe Tornatore is a superb portrayal of this genius, who died in 2020, with numerous interviews with composers around the world as well as filmmakers like Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Bernardo Bertolucci and musicians like Pat Methany and Bruce Springsteen. From Once Upon a Time in the West to The Mission, Cinema Paradiso to The Battle of Algiers, even The Thing and Bugsy,  Merricone’s unique musical stamp will unmistakably catch your ears, a character in its own right. And sitting through three hours of Italian with French sub-titles? Not a problem. Just let this scintillating music wash over you.

A nice little film I also caught in Montreal is Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up starring Michelle Williams and Judd Hirsch. There aren’t a lot of films about artists – the visual kind who paint or make sculptures – and this one delves into a fictional artist colony in uber artsy Portland (satirically "Portlandia") Oregon. But this is a soap opera of sorts, and the artists are often frenemies, praising each other’s work as they vie for exhibition space, and encountering such daily frustrations as not having hot water in their apartments. The film's at times humorous and moving and the art is great.

The Eight Mountains is another set-in-Italy production by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, based on a book by Paolo Cognetti. It takes place in the Italian Alps between the 1980s and present. But the film’s title is not about those mountains, but a Buddhist phrase about life’s accomplishments. The story follows Pietro and Bruno, who meet as kids on vacation in the Alps. Pietro is a city boy and Bruno, who grew up in the mountains, shows him the rugged mountain ways. But a major plot twist occurs regarding their upbringing, which has a kind of reverse outcome. Later, as adults, Pietro (Andrea Palma) and Bruno (Francesco Palombelli) rekindle their friendship but have obviously gone different paths. Bruno maintains, somewhat stubbornly, his rural roots. Pietro is now trying to make his way as a writer. This is a quiet character-driven film with exceptional scenery, some of which must have been extremely difficult to shoot as scenes take place on mountain ridges and glaciers. Perhaps a tad long but it’s an honest look at friendship and what bonds people together.