Cinema Paradiso: The Classic Film Music Of Ennio Morricone

The film that took the 1989 Special Jury Prize at Cannes, Cinema Paradiso features a promising collaboration between il Maestro Ennio Morricone and director Giuseppe Tornatore. Essentially a bittersweet love letter to the enchantment of the cinema-going experience, "Paradiso" offers the melodic and romantic side of Morricone at his peak. The story line gratifyingly calls for Morricone to musically encapsulate a broad range of historic film music, from the orchestral grandeur of Golden Age Hollywood to the Neopolitan jazz of Rota and Fellini, which he does with typically brilliant panache. Telling fact: the main theme is so memorable it was recently co-opted for a car commercial! --Jerry McCulley