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FA6824 Un bellissimo novembre / That Splendid November
Auther: Jonathan Broxton

ENNIO MORRICONE REVIEWS, Part 8-86

UN BELLISSIMO NOVEMBRE [THAT SPLENDID NOVEMBER] (1969)

Un Bellissimo Novembre is an Italian romantic drama film directed by Mauro Bolognini, based on the novel of the same name by Ercole Patti. It stars Gabriele Ferzetti and Gina Lollobrigida and concerns the various erotic exploits of a large Sicilian family in which the father (Ferzetti) lectures his wife and children about morality and self-control, but pursues extra-curricular lovemaking with reckless abandon, while the rest of his family does the same – only for things to spiral out of control when a teenager (Paolo Turco) falls in love with his beautiful aunt (Lollobrigida) and becomes jealous when she shares her bed with other men.

The available score for Un Bellissimo Novembre comprises four score cues and a song based on the main melody. “Nuddu” is a delicate, intimate piece for guitars, classical strings, and a whistled melody by the great Alessandro Alessandrini, haunting and evocative in the way that only Morricone could be. The second cue “Sensi” is the exact opposite of the lush emotion of the opening cue – in fact, it’s downright bizarre, with jangling percussion, a boinging Jew’s harp, scraped violin harmonics, and pizzicato basses that collide in a wholly weird fashion; then, when the low, keening cellos come in during the second half of the cue, the whole thing takes on a surprising horror movie sensibility that is somehow terrible and brilliant at the same time. Endless creativity.

“Buio Mattino” is a dour little piece for low, gloomy cello and viola textures, that creates a somewhat depressing mood. Thankfully, the conclusive “Ancora Più Dolcemente” is much more upbeat, a tropical bossa-nova rhythm overlaid with a lovely melodic writing for guitars, oboe, strings. Finally, the vocal version of “Nuddu” is a song with lyrics by Franco Pisano, performed by the honey-voiced Fausto Cigliano, and is both charming and warmly romantic.

Overall, the score is a bit of a mixed bag. The “Nuddu” theme is lovely, and the conclusive “Ancora Più Dolcemente” is as sweet as the title suggests, but the rest veers from the dull to the totally dingbats, and will take some effort to appreciate. Considering how short the score for Un Bellissimo Novembre is, it has never been released as a standalone soundtrack album, but the five tracks listed below have been listed as ‘bonus cues’ on the 2014 Beat Records release of Il Grande Silenzio. In addition, the single song “Nuddu” has been included on various Morricone compilations over the years.

Track Listing: 1. Nuddu (2:36), 2. Sensi (2:43), 3. Buio Mattino (3:05), 4. Ancora Più Dolcemente (2:44), 5. Nuddu (Vocal) (2:43). Beat Records CDCR-126, 14 minutes 05 seconds.
Oct. 17, 2020
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001
Nuddu (sung Fausto Cigliano_ lyrics - Franco Pisano) (02:41)
002
Ancora Piu Dolcemente (02:45)
003
Buio Mattino (03:06)
004
La Zia E La Veglia (02:21)
005
Sensi (02:45)
006
Notte Profonda (01:15)
007
Nuddu (02:37)
Attachment: About Jonathan Broxton
Jon is a film music critic and journalist, who since 1997 has been the editor and chief reviewer for Movie Music UK, one of the world’s most popular English-language film music websites, and is the president of the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA). Over the last 20+ years Jon has written over 3,000 reviews and articles and conducted numerous composer interviews. In print, Jon has written reviews and articles for publications such as Film Score Monthly, Soundtrack Magazine and Music from the Movies, and has written liner notes for two of Prometheus Records’ classic Basil Poledouris score releases, “Amanda” and “Flyers/Fire on the Mountain”. He also contributed a chapter to Tom Hoover’s book “Soundtrack Nation: Interviews with Today’s Top Professionals in Film, Videogame, and Television Scoring”, published in 2011. In the late 1990s Jon was a film music consultant to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, and worked with them on the films “Relative Values” with music by John Debney, and “The Ring of the Buddha” with music by Oliver Heise, as well as on a series of concerts with Randy Newman. In 2012, Jon chaired one of the “festival academies” at the 5th Annual Film Music Festival in Krakow, Poland. He is a member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists, the premier nonprofit organization for composers, lyricists, and songwriters working motion pictures, television, and multimedia. (Here)
2023.12.10
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