Biographer Richard Dyer asserted that Nino Rota's work with Fellini was among the most celebrated of all director-composer collaborations; spoken of alongside Eisenstein and Prokofiev, Hitchcock and Herrmann, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, Spielberg and Williams. Nino Rota's Fellini scores define his style, conjuring, from the very first note of each film, the very image of the director and the bizarre and fantastic characters of his world. After a post-war apprenticeship wring screenplays for Roberto Rossellini, Fellini graduated to direction, at first collaborating with Alberto Lattuada on Variety Lights before embarking on The White Sheik, his first solo production. I Vitelloni followed, a witty portrayal of the life of a group of individuals in a small provincial town on the Romagna coast; a scene providing echoes of Fellini's own background. Now his domestic breakthrough came with La Strada, which received an enthusiastic reception, both critical and commercial, with memorable performances from the leading players, Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina. In Il Bidone, Fellini's swindlers are the vitelloni of petty crime, overgrown adolescents who can only dream of bringing off the really big "job". Nights of Cabiria followed, the travails of a kind of fairy-tale prostitute. More triumph for Giulietta Masina; a hit that completed Fellini's first creative phase. In 1960, Fellini achieved international fame with the extraordinary La Dolce Vita, which struck the heart of the establishment. The film's evocation of 1950s Italian decadence offending church and state who were shocked by the vitality and intensity of Fellini's vision. The film made a star of Anita Ekberg and coined the term "paparazzo" (a certain type of bothersome photographer) that is still in use today. A "powerfully creative meditation on the inability to create", Otto E Mezzo finds cinema being used to interpret cinema, as a famous film director (a perfectly nuanced performance by Marcello Mastroianni) fights to make sense of the delirium of actors, producers, intellectuals, technicians that whirl around him. Eight and a Half is the modernist masterpiece of one of the great innovators of film style. It is regarded by many to be Fellini's greatest achievement. This presentation comprises the complete original film soundtracks of La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita and Otto E Mezzo, a suite of music from I Vitelloni and the main themes from Variety Lights, The White Sheik and Il Bidone, complemented by diegetic and non-diegetic selections from I Vitelloni, La Dolce Vita, Otto E Mezzo, the hallucinogenic Toby Dammit, Amarcord, And The Ship Sails On and Intervisa; the music of Ottorino Respighi that inspired Nino Rota's famous title music for La Dolce Vita and the Baroque work by Arcangelo Corelli that Fellini had played on set during the filming of La Strada to inspire cast and crew.
24 Arcangelo Corelli Sonata Op.5, No.12 "La Folia" (Arthur Grumiaux)
25 (Theme on Set)
26 Il Bidone (Nino Rota)
27 Le Notti Di Cabiria
28 Aspettando Giorgio
29 Donne Di Vita (Mambo Di Cabiria)
30 Via Verneto - Il Divo
31 Cabiria E Il Divo (Mambo Di Cabiria)
32 E Se Anche Lo Racconto Chi CI Crede?
33 Spiando Dal Bagno
34 Il Pellegrinaggio
- Disc 2 -
1 Pic-Nic Al Divino Amore
2 L'illusionista
3 Cabiria E Il Ragioniere - FRÀ Giovanni - Sulla Strada
4 Fra 15 Giorni CI Sposiamo
5 Il Trasloco
6 "Lla RÌ Lli RÀ" - la Trattoria
7 Ma la Vita Continua - Finale
8 Titoli Di Testa Canzonetta - Notturno - Cadillac
9 La Dolce Vita Arivederci Roma - Carcalla's / la Bersagliera
10 La Dolce Vita in Via Veneto
11 Patricia Caneonetta - Entrada Dei Gladiatori - Parlami Di Me (Valzer)
12 Lola (Yes Sir, That's My Baby) Parlami Di Me (Valzer) - Stormy
13 Weather
14 Via Veneto E I Nobili
15 Blues la Dolce Vita Dei Nobili
16 Notturno O Mattutino
17 La Dolce Vita la Bella Malinconica
18 La Dolce Vita Nella Villa Di Fregene Can Can - Jingle Bells - Blues - la Dolce Vita - Why Wait
19 La Dolce Vita Finale
20 Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 (Helmut Walcha)
21 Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 (Helmut Walcha)
22 Ottorino Respighi
23 Pines of Rome: Pines Near a
24 Catacomb (Fritz Reiner / Chicago
25 Symphony Orchestra) (Inspiration to Rota for la Dolce Vita: Titoli Di Testa)
- Disc 3 -
1 La Passerella Di Otto E Mezzo
2 Cimitero - Gigolettes "La Danza Delle Libellule" - Cadillac - Carlotta's Gallop
3 E Poi (Valzer)
4 L'illusionista
5 Concertino Alle Terme Overture from the Barber of Seville / Dance of the Mirlitons (Dance of the Reed Flutes)
6 Nell "Ufficio Di Produzione Di Otto E Mezzo"
7 Ricordo D'infanzia - Discesa Ai Fanghi
8 Fiesta Rhumba (Saraghina's Dance)
9 Guido E Luisa - Nostalgico Swing
10 Carlotta's Gallop
11 L'harem
12 Rivolta Nell'harem la Cavalcata Delle Walkirie - la Ballerina Pensionata (Ca C'est Paris) - la Conferenza Stampa Del Regista
13 La Passerella D'addio
14 Frédéric Chopin Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 in E Flat Major (Arthur Rubinstein)
15 Ray Charles Ruby (It's You)
16 André Previn Stormy Weather
17 Giuseppe Verdi la Donna È Mobile from Rigoletto (Giuseppe Di Stefano)
18 Giuseppe Verdi Oh Patria Mia from Aida (Zinka Milanov)
19 Claude Debussy Claire de Lune (Rudolf Firkusny)
20 Franz Schubert Moments Musicaux No. 3 in F Minor, D 780 (Edwin Fischer)
21 Albert Ketelbey in a Persian Market (Robert Sharples / New Symphony Orchestra)
Biographer Richard Dyer asserted that Nino Rota's work with Fellini was among the most celebrated of all director-composer collaborations; spoken of alongside Eisenstein and Prokofiev, Hitchcock and Herrmann, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, Spielberg and Williams. Nino Rota's Fellini scores define his style, conjuring, from the very first note of each film, the very image of the director and the bizarre and fantastic characters of his world. After a post-war apprenticeship wring screenplays for Roberto Rossellini, Fellini graduated to direction, at first collaborating with Alberto Lattuada on Variety Lights before embarking on The White Sheik, his first solo production. I Vitelloni followed, a witty portrayal of the life of a group of individuals in a small provincial town on the Romagna coast; a scene providing echoes of Fellini's own background. Now his domestic breakthrough came with La Strada, which received an enthusiastic reception, both critical and commercial, with memorable performances from the leading players, Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina. In Il Bidone, Fellini's swindlers are the vitelloni of petty crime, overgrown adolescents who can only dream of bringing off the really big "job". Nights of Cabiria followed, the travails of a kind of fairy-tale prostitute. More triumph for Giulietta Masina; a hit that completed Fellini's first creative phase. In 1960, Fellini achieved international fame with the extraordinary La Dolce Vita, which struck the heart of the establishment. The film's evocation of 1950s Italian decadence offending church and state who were shocked by the vitality and intensity of Fellini's vision. The film made a star of Anita Ekberg and coined the term "paparazzo" (a certain type of bothersome photographer) that is still in use today. A "powerfully creative meditation on the inability to create", Otto E Mezzo finds cinema being used to interpret cinema, as a famous film director (a perfectly nuanced performance by Marcello Mastroianni) fights to make sense of the delirium of actors, producers, intellectuals, technicians that whirl around him. Eight and a Half is the modernist masterpiece of one of the great innovators of film style. It is regarded by many to be Fellini's greatest achievement. This presentation comprises the complete original film soundtracks of La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita and Otto E Mezzo, a suite of music from I Vitelloni and the main themes from Variety Lights, The White Sheik and Il Bidone, complemented by diegetic and non-diegetic selections from I Vitelloni, La Dolce Vita, Otto E Mezzo, the hallucinogenic Toby Dammit, Amarcord, And The Ship Sails On and Intervisa; the music of Ottorino Respighi that inspired Nino Rota's famous title music for La Dolce Vita and the Baroque work by Arcangelo Corelli that Fellini had played on set during the filming of La Strada to inspire cast and crew.