METTI UNA SERA A CENA (1969)
Metti Una Sera a Cena is an Italian drama film about sexual experimentation and relationships, directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, from a screenplay by Dario Argento, who adapted Griffi’s original stage play for the screen. The film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Florinda Bolkan, and Tony Musante as three friends – a playwright, his wife, and their actor colleague – who meet regularly for dinner where they indulge in bored, amoral conversation, and engage in passionless sex. Things change when the actor suggests they add a fourth player to their bedroom games – an insouciant bisexual poet – whose presence in their lives brings a new level of excitement, but also danger, into their world.
The score is mostly a series of tropical, cool-jazz, and light rock rhythms overlaid with do-be-do-be-do vocals, breathlessly vocalizing over melodic ideas for keyboards, guitars, percussion, and lush string backings. The opening “Metti, Una Sera a Cena,” the smoother and more relaxed “Sauna,” are just lovely; elsewhere, “Terrazza Voita” uses more urgent vocals and a prominent Hammond organ to add a bity of 1960s psychedelia, while “Alla Luce del Giorno” is a groovy dance beat that’s so catchy it’s almost impossible not to boogie along to the beat.
“Croce d’Amore” and “Nina” are much more traditionally jazzy, smoky and seductive, with a terrific noir brass theme that emerges in the second half of each piece and gives them a real sense of power and gravitas. Both “Uno Che Grida Amore” and “Ti Prego Amami” have a hint of Morricone’s spaghetti western love themes, combining oboes with vocals, strings, and his quintessential undulating staccato pianos. “Ric Happening” uses a sitar and offbeat percussion, because why not? The song “Hurry to Me” is based on the main “Metti Una Sera a Cena” theme, has lyrics by Giuseppe Patroni-Griffi and Jack Fishman, and was originally performed by The Sandpipers, but has since gone on to be one of Morricone’s more popular songs, enjoying covers by artists as varied as Amii Stewart and Hayley Westenra.
Trivia note: the score for Metti Una Sera a Cena has become quite popular to British sports fans recently, even though they probably don’t know it – “Alla Luce del Giorno” was used as the melodic core of the song “Chase the Sun” released by EDM group Planet Funk in 2001, which was subsequently used as the theme music for Sky Sports’s coverage of World Darts events. Darts fans drunkenly sing the song whenever there is a break in play, and I bet less than 1% of them know it originally came from a 1969 Italian sex drama. The more you know.
Metti Una Sera a Cena is one of Morricone’s most famous and popular lounge jazz scores, so naturally there are 287 different albums out there. The one I have reviewed is the one released by Italian label Cinevox in 1997, which gives a nice 40-minute summation of the best stuff, but there are literally dozens of others which provide longer running times, alternate cues, bonus tracks and so much more.
Track Listing: 1. Metti, Una Sera a Cena (4:30), 2. Sauna (4:51), 3. Terrazza Vuota (3:06), 4. Alla Luce del Giorno (2:01), 5. Croce d’Amore (2:27), 6. Uno Che Grida Amore (4:40), 7. Ric Happening (2:10), 8. Ti Prego, Amami (2:04), 9. Nina (4:43), 10. Metti, Una Sera a Cena (Main Titles – Alternate Version) (1:55), 11. Nina (Alternate Version) (4:45), 12. Hurry to Me (The Main Theme Song) (4:05). Cinevox MDF-309, 41 minutes 17 seconds.
