Iconic Italian film composer Ennio Morricone composed a song for American director Quentin Tarantino’s homage to spaghetti westerns, ‘Django Unchained’.
Morricone composed ‘Ancora Qui’ (Still Here) with lyrics written and performed by Italian singer-songwriter Elisa Toffoli. The song was a contender for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category, but was not nominated
The soundtrack to ‘Django Unchained’ features many songs written by Morricone for spaghetti westerns of the 1960s and 1970s, including ‘Un Monumento’ (A Moment) from ‘I crudeli’ (The Hellbenders, 1966) directed by Sergio Corbucci, and ‘Trinity’ from ‘Lo chiamavano Trinità’ (They Call Me Trinity, 1970) directed by Enzo Barboni.
The composer presented Tarantino with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Rome Film Festival ahead of the European premiere of ‘Django Unchained’ in Italy. The moviemaker’s latest film has strong ties to Italy: as well as featuring Morricone’s music, the movie was inspired by Corbucci’s spaghetti western ‘Django’ (1966), which starred Italian actor Franco Nero, who has a cameo role in Tarantino’s movie.
Tarantino dedicated ‘Django Unchained’ to Corbucci and Italian director Sergio Leone, among others. Tarantino praised the Italian-made B-movie macaroni westerns. He said of the low-budget cousins of spaghetti westerns: “Macaroni westerns, as we call them in America, are the ones I love the best because of their surrealism and the extremes they present.”
‘Django Unchained’ tells the story of a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz), who frees a slave (Jamie Foxx). The film is nominated for five Oscars, including Best Film. The Oscars ceremony takes place on 24 February.
