• Composed by Ennio Morricone
• CAM COS 700-001 / 1990 / 41:32

After the magnificent Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore went on another charm offensive in Stanno Tutti Bene, in which Marcello Mastoianni plays an elderly man touring Italy visiting his children.  Released in the West as Everything’s Fine, the film garnered good reviews, but didn’t attract nearly so much attention as its predecessor.Morricone’s first score for Tornatore is amongst his most popular, hardly surprising considering how beautiful it was.  Stanno Tutti Bene is a very different matter – more stately, but with a gentle comic air running through much of it, it’s pleasantly melodic throughout.  The highlight is undoubtedly the opening theme, “Viaggio”, a witty tarantella.  (Please note that I have no idea if it’s actually a tarantella or not, I just said it was so it might appear as if I know what I’m talking about.)  It’s full of life, full of charm, an absolute delight.

Andrea Morricone was credited with helping his father out with one of the most popular themes in Cinema Paradiso, and here he gets co-composing credit on “Sogno”, a dreamlike piece which opens with ethereal electronics before pan flutes join in.  It’s slightly jarring after that wonderful opening cue, but it’s not hard to fall under its spell before too long.  The rest of the score is essentially a series of little nuggets, some suggesting love, some suggesting humour, all done with a lot of love.  This is simply an enormously charming score – I said earlier that it’s very different from the previous Tornatore/Morricone score, but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that while the methods are different, actually the effect is similar – the listener is left under a warm, sunny glow – and everybody’s fine.  ****

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