Press Release from Quartet:Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM, presents an Armando Trovajoli double-header with two infectious scores for classic Italian comedies by Dino Risi and Pasquale Festa Campanile, both released in 1969.
Quartet Records presents a remastered reissue of one of the most celebrated collaborations between Ennio Morricone and Giuseppe Tornatore, the composer’s most important partner during the last twenty years of his career. Together they achieved great success in Italian and international cinema with films such as CINEMA PARADISO, STANNO TUTTI BENE, THE LEGEND OF 1900, MALENA and THE BEST OFFER, among others. A PURE FORMALITY (1994) is an intense Kafkaesque noir drama (starring Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski at his best as an actor) about a famous writer who hasn’t published any new books for quite some time and has become a recluse. When he is picked up by the police one stormy night, without any identification, out of breath from running madly and with no clear memory of recent events, the Inspector is suspicious.
Ennio Morricone offers one of his best efforts for a Tornatore film, with a haunting main theme, a very nostalgic song performed by Depardieu (“Ricordare”), dramatic tension cues and introspective violent music. The score is mainly dark and fatalistic, in a style that the Italian maestro was experimenting with at the time (in scores such as IN THE LINE OF FIRE, WOLF, DISCLOSURE and THE STENDHAL SYNDROME).
The original album of A PURE FORMALITY was released at the time by Sony Classical and reissued by GDM in 2013. This is a remastered reissue of the generous 50-minute album program, remastered by Chris Malone. The booklet includes an in-depth essay by film music writer John Takis discussing the film and score.
