FSM Board: PERLASCA Morricone screening 5:30 jan 27 LA (2025)

http://www.iiclosangeles.esteri.it/iic_losangeles/en/gli_eventi/calendario/2017/01/international-holocaust-remembrance.html

Thanks. Even though "have a great time" doesn't seem like the appropriate wording for a holocaust film, nevertheless I know what you mean. Ennio's music married to the right imagery results in quite a powerful experience.

It was also a very rare occasion of Morricone conducting a suite from the yet unreleased film:

The concert was on 25 april 2004, while the film premiered on 8 february 2005.

I see this was directed by Alberto Negrin who has collaborated with Morricone 14 times. More than even Tornatore! Now I REALLY look forward to this.

2012 Paolo Borsellino - I 57 giorni (TV Movie)
2009 Memories of Anne Frank (TV Movie)
2009 Bread and Freedom (TV Movie) Pane e libertà (used in that Beatty film RULES DON'T APPLY)
2007 L'ultimo dei Corleonesi (TV Movie)
2006 Bartali: The Iron Man (TV Movie)
2005 The Heart in the Well (TV Movie) Il cuore nel pozzo
2003 Ics (TV Movie)
2002 Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man (TV Movie)
1999 Nanà (TV Movie)
1998 The Sands of Time (TV Movie) I guardiani del cielo
1994 Missus (TV Movie)
1990 Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair (TV Movie) (with Burt Lancaster)
1988 Secret of the Sahara
…and the mini-series from 2012 L’isola.

I have to admit I have an allergy to Holocaust films. So do many Jewish friends of mine. Not necessarily because they might be depressing but because too many think that watching them (good, bad or indifferent) are a duty. I hated SON OF SAUL last year. Whose only brilliance was the gimmick of having a subjective camera where everything in the preriphery was to various degrees out of focus (just as it would be for someone in the midst of this horror trying to stay sane). But too many details were totally wrong (including visibly fat bodies in the gas chambers).

BUT good Holocaust films give us insight into our “Heart of Darkness” as no comic book film ever could. Not just SCHINDLER’S LIST but THE READER, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS and even marginal items like VALKYRIE brought an understanding of how these things can happen. I’ll never forget how Spielberg opened SCHINDLER showing the banality of evil with, not Hollywood clichés, but Nazis leisurely setting up their processing posts and joking with each other. They look like they are distracting themselves from the human dog pound they are working at. And in their mind that is exactly what they are doing – a distasteful job that they think has to be done. And then we get to the un-empathetic socio-paths that are in charge and unemotionally do the final dirty work.
PERLASCA tells a story I have never heard before. The Holocaust in Hungary has had little coverage and telling the story of this Italian con man who becomes a hero is totally new. Big kudos to Luca Zingaretti for his astounding performance as Perlasca. At first I thought it was strange until I realized only someone who could have that much confidence could convince Nazis, who are used to nervousness and cowering, that all he says is true. Luca, way more than Liam Neeson, creates a con artist who can convince anyone of anything. I am also appreciative of the Italian Institute showing this long two parter instead of the feature it was whittled down to. Only with this continually arduous saga is the reward at the end as powerful. It took me a while to recognize Mathilda May (the naked alien of LIFEFORCE) as the countess. One of some dozen wonderful performances here. Director Alberto Negrin expresses all concerned as human beings. The victims sometimes doing stupid things based on their own convictions and values. In the same way the perpetrators have various levels of conscience that sometimes come in handy at the right time. This is my first Negrin film and I am impressed. The cinematography by Stefano Ricciotti (who shot the classic SWEPT AWAY) is exemplary.

Most people feel the shocking scene by the river is the most powerful. A harsh one that must be there to underline how close all these survivors came to losing their lives. But my favorite scene is at the train station where Perlasca, through pure bluff and thinking on his feet, snatches one person after another from the jaws of death right up to when the last door closes. The last shot at the credits is of Perlasca before he died in the 90s saying in an interview the lesson is simply to do what you can when you can against the forces of violence. This film brings home to me that our problematic Trump isn't intrinsically evil, but that the Nazis among us are emboldened and empowered by some of his behavior and some of his policies. And that IS the absolute danger.

Last but not least Ennio Morricone makes this great film greater. I actually kind of dismissed it when I first got the CD long ago because it reminded me too much of GOTT MIT UNS. Now I realize this score does much more for this movie than that older one did for it’s film. The only common point is their main theme’s sad underpinning. But this one develops into a lovely melody that represents the soul of Perlasca. It is used as urgent emphasis when Perlasca is doing his song and dance for the Nazis to make clear what is at stake. Morricone gets to do a lot of other things in this 3 hour epic – everything from salon music to ethnic folk tunes. But it is his dramatic scoring is what keeps the film tense and heartfelt. And it never seems generic. A Morricone suspense cue is like no other.

The rewards to seeing practically every film Ennio has scored (even some of the bad ones) seem to be enormous.

Thank you! We are lucky in LA but you have to have your antennae up to catch everything. I see LOLITA will run Feb. 3 & 4 at our New Beverly cinema. I have never seen this version with the Morricone score.

Thank you, Sean. For years I have been a bit irritated that Morricone spent so much time on Italian TV projects. Now that I have seen one by this Alberto Negrin I want to see more. Morricone doing fourteen projects with him reminds me of Ennio's early days when he did close to ten films with a number of directors. Particularly I want to see the Anne Frank film Negrin did with Ennio, whose score has never seen the light of day.

Interestingly Ennio has also ventured to this territory in FATELESS (Sorstalanság). I have seen that film twice in a cinema when it came out, the score is brilliant and I liked that film too (more that Son of Saul).

Looking at the summary of the Morricone/Negrin collaboration, I see several scores which I believe have not been released, including the mentioned Anne Frank. Perhaps they will become available one days instead of re-re-releasing some of his more notorious scores.

Anyway, thank you for your impressions and for the information!

Interestingly Ennio has also ventured to this territory in FATELESS (Sorstalanság). I have seen that film twice in a cinema when it came out, the score is brilliant and I liked that film too (more that Son of Saul).

Looking at the summary of the Morricone/Negrin collaboration, I see several scores which I believe have not been released, including the mentioned Anne Frank. Perhaps they will become available one days instead of re-re-releasing some of his more notorious scores.

Anyway, thank you for your impressions and for the information!

Sure, Morricone is currently scheduled to score Lajos Koltai's newest film, his first since FATELESS.

After finding out the Italian titles to many of Negrin's films I realized I had all but three scores on CD. The ANNE FRANK one I mentioned, ICS (according to IMDB very few have seen this) and the mini-series I'SOLA. Always wondered why, since RAI Trade no longer makes CDs, some other company hasn't tried to get those later scores released? Or maybe they have and RAI won't let them.

As a Hungarian I must disagree. It's probably only true if you count the internationally known Hungarian movies about the Holocaust but we have many-many movies that deal with the topic. (Even last year, beside of Son of Saul we had Fever at Dawn and I know at least one movie coming out later this year with this same theme.)

Interestingly, we have much less movies about the crimes of the communist regime even though it lasted more than 40 years in the country.

By the way: do you know movies scored by Morricone that deal with the communist terror? Maybe Mosca addio or one of my favourite Morricone scores, Il cuore nel pozzo, though I haven't seen any of these movies so I can't be sure. Any other suggestions?

By the way: do you know movies scored by Morricone that deal with the communist terror? Maybe Mosca addio or one of my favourite Morricone scores, Il cuore nel pozzo, though I haven't seen any of these movies so I can't be sure. Any other suggestions?

I don´t know more Morricone scored films about the communist terror, but I totally agree with you about the focus on some historical events and the absence of others. I think it says a lot about the world we live in. I found Il cuore nel pozzo( two parts) online some years ago. I don´t know italian, but I watched it for the music. It´s a beautiful score and the string version of Suona L'Armonica is gorgeous.

Try this link: http://www.rai.it/dl/RaiTV/programmi/page/Page-bc7d4d01-efe9-4b15-9d9d-30c5a4af86ce.html

As a Hungarian I must disagree. It's probably only true if you count the internationally known Hungarian movies about the Holocaust but we have many-many movies that deal with the topic. (Even last year, beside of Son of Saul we had Fever at Dawn and I know at least one movie coming out later this year with this same theme.)

Interestingly, we have much less movies about the crimes of the communist regime even though it lasted more than 40 years in the country.

By the way: do you know movies scored by Morricone that deal with the communist terror? Maybe Mosca addio or one of my favourite Morricone scores, Il cuore nel pozzo, though I haven't seen any of these movies so I can't be sure. Any other suggestions?

I suppose 72 METERS doesn't count because the Kursk disaster was after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Putin regime was in. To be fair to Morricone everybody reacts more directly to personal experience. For my Venezuelan friend the left wing cannot ever do anything right. Morricone grew up during during WWII under the Fascist regime. In fact his younger brother died indirectly because of Mussolini. So he has been left wing all his life.

Coverage of many later Communist atrocities also has to do with people still involved being alive and it being such a fresh bitter memory. It took a long time before Nazi atrocities were portrayed here. DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG were the first big ones I remember close to 1960 (15 years after the end of the World War). My comment about Hungarian coverage has to do with films that get here to America. I have the feeling there is quite a lot that don't, which is why this was the first Alberto Negrin film I have ever seen.