The second cue, “L’étau se resserre”, is one of the score’s ventures into more suspenseful territory, but as I mentioned, it’s never abrasive nor unpleasant. Strings play short, slightly tentative phrases, running over multiple layers, little pizzicato bursts offer some stings – it’s not anything we haven’t heard many times before from Morricone, but he does do it very well. “Ils resteront trois” is one of those Ennio Morricone pieces: a sumptuous, soaring, exquisite and unforgettable melody, from the “Deborah’s Theme” mould (without the voice). It is so fluid, so seemingly effortlessly moving – a feather on the breeze. The B-section is lighter still, warmer still. It’s just so, so beautiful.

Flashback to late 2014: I learnt through an indirect source that Ennio Morricone got a French assignment. A film taking place during WWII, more precisely at the beginning of the exodusafter the defeat of May 1940. Browsing on the internet through the future releases of the first
half of 2015, I found nothing. Around mid-January 2015, an Italian correspondent wrote to me:the Maestro recorded a new soundtrack, entitled Esodo (Exodus). We were dealing with the same assignment. And yes, it was recorded! It’s definitive and will be surely used, contrary to
Un crime (France, 2006), I thought. And consequently, Morricone’s last official French film, La cage aux folles III (1985) is finally superseded.
Planned to be released in spring 2015, the film was postponed to the autumn. If the assignment had only been done 2 or 3 months later, it is almost certain that Morricone would have declined: afterwards, there was the concert tour reprise and the Tarantino movie. A little miracle.

We will detail in a longer article the film process, with a text by Christian Carion, director, from the French press kit (see p.16), informative, different from the crossed interview between him and Morricone that is included in the CD booklet.

Christian Carion started his series of avant-premieres around mid-September 2015 and came down to more Southern territories of the country. At one of these avant-premiereq, as planned with the cinema center, I was able to obtain an exclusive interview with him (see p.19).

We will conclude with some impressions on the Quartet Records CD (see p.20).

The film

The story tells the exodus of thousands people in Northern France after the shameful and quick defeat of May 1940. So in the film settled in June, huge disorder mixed numerous destinies, including a German opposed to the Nazi regime, in search of his 8-year old son. For this “choral” film, all the actors are right, sober and intense. They carry humanity and symbolize each of us in these troubled days.

Let us affirm that we are dealing with a major film, well shot, well photographed (rather exceptional in French films by now!), taking time to install the true historical context. Born in Cambrai (North of France), Carion certainly had a special sensitivity for the episode, not wellknown into the whole WWII.

The movie has been released in French cinema theatres on November 4, 2015, with no date for
other countries yet.

It worked and caused something very strong. Eve Machuel, from the production team, then proposed to me to work with Ennio Morricone. I thought it was totally unrealistic. While I was in Lyon (France) to edit the film, she progressing on this project in Paris. And the production called me one day to tell me that an agreement with Ennio Morricone was nearly concluded, but the Maestro wanted to see me!

I was very excited, and at the same time I was anxious: how to collaborate with such a man? I went to Rome, telling to myself that the project was going to fail. And I ended up in a sublime apartment, that Morricone bought from Sophia Loren who had received it from her husband Carlo Ponti! Ennio Morricone explained to me his work method: “The directors talk to me about their films and during the script writing, I compose and then I record before the shooting and I give the music to the director. We meet again for the editing and if we need to adapt, we adapt. And that’s it.” Then I told him that one year before, I would never have imagined to ask him to compose the music.

He told me: “Now that you are here, what do you have to show me?” I had two DVDs, one containing the film edited with temp track, much of which was by Morricone but not only. The other DVD was edited without music.

I proposed to him to watch the latter, but the Maestro preferred watching the one with music. He wanted to know my tastes. We were in a room where 4 seats were installed in front of a poor TV set: for his wife, his agent, for him and for myself. I would not have been able to watch the film next to him, so I sat behind. The film started. First piece of music: The Thin Red Line by Hans Zimmer. He said: “What is that? It doesn’t work with the emotions!” He went on with some sentences in Italian the translator didn’t even translate. The film continued, in French without subtitles. He didn’t speak anymore. At the end of the 2 hours of watching, Morricone turned towards me and I saw he was moved. He himself was surprised. He told me: “The film is great and the music is very good”. I replied: “If you think I will buy the rights of Once upon a time in the West or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, then we’d better stop here, I have a plane to take.” He laughed. He asked me to follow him to his office. In his mess of documents, he found a paper and told me that before our meeting, he had received the synopsis in Italian. “While reading it, I thought about this”, he told me as he moved to his piano. Surprised, I asked him if he was going to play. “Yes”. I stopped him: “I have to shoot this, I have to come back to Paris with your music.” He thought a bit and asked: “Personal?” I replied: “Personal!” (even if, since that moment, I showed it to many people). As from the first 4 notes, you know that you
are dealing with music by Morricone. It was a major theme for the movie. I had no hindsight and I asked myself if it was good for the film. But I was strongly moved. He then explained how he was going to develop the themes and said: “We will meet on 12th January for the
recording.” I insisted to see him again before that day, in order to decide where to put the music.

We met again, we spoke together. “You know, we always do too much. Even if it is by me, we have to know how to waste.” I found this to be
incredible!” Ennio Morricone indeed composed one hour of music and I kept only 20 minutes. For the New Year wishes, he told me: “I thought about another theme. I don’t have the time to make you listen to it. We will start with this one at the recording, on 12th of January.”
The 12th of January! The day after the great walk in homage to the victims of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. So after having walked in Lyon, I was
in the plane to Rome, saying to myself: is it worth it, all this work? I was puzzled.

Christian Carion started his series of avant-premieres around mid-September 2015 and came down to more Southern territories of the country. After the film and before answering the questions from the audience, he showed what he had shot with his phone: Morricone playing the main theme on the piano (1:30). Of course the director warned everyone to not shoot or record this extra (maybe on the future DVD?). In this Northern quarter of France, he felt at
home, installing a warm but serious climate with the public. At one of the avant-premieres, as planned with the cinema center, I was able to obtain an
exclusive interview with him. Many thanks to him for having accepted it between two screenings.

Q: You developed the topic in the press kit and the CD booklet, but what were the reasons to call Morricone, who had nearly disappeared from the big screen for many years, especially in France?
C. Carion: While writing the script, I listened to his music for westerns and Once upon a Time in America, The Mission, powerful and moving. I then logically put them as temporary tracks. But then how to remove these? The production had the idea to contact Morricone, through another director, who had had a project with Morricone, not realized32.

Q: Did you gave him some indication for the music?
CC: I met the Maestro 3 times before the recording session. I indicated to him what the sequences were intended for. He wrote on a notebook, a sort of agenda. He fortunately told me that I had to through away some of his music, because in the fascination for such an artist, I wouldn’t have dare to! It’s the kind of music that gets you carried away, without it being boring or heavy. Morricone has an elegance in his work, the music infuses the movie, it is not
thunderous.

Q: The sort of mill, looking like our wing mills but smaller, seen in the film: is it too much to imagine it is a wink to …the West by Sergio Leone ?
CC: It actually is a wind mill of the period, in order to bring electricity to the water tower you see in a sequence. Obviously it was intentional. I conceived the film a little bit like a western.

Q: Has the final editing been made according to the music, much later?
CC: Yes, the editing between pictures and music was important, a lot of work. We had the help of his sound engineer, Fabio Venturi, who collaborated with us. The sound editor has a musical background, it helped us to make cuts here and there. We had some liberty because I had the composer’s trust. But we couldn’t do everything with the music because Morricone controlled the whole.

Q: On the end titles, we noticed the name of a harmonica player and of a female singer, both not present in the soundtrack. Why couldn’t the music with these soloists be kept?
CC: I believe you will find these tracks on the CD! Under the condition that the Maestro included them, because he masters the CD content. He recorded one piece with harmonica, different from the main themes. Then the player tried to play the main theme solo. And Morricone recorded it with him and the orchestra, as a new version. I wanted to use the first harmonica theme at the beginning of the film, on pictures in black and white of real people. But
it didn’t work, moreover the next music was by Schubert. It was maybe interesting but I removed the music: it expressed more without music, the pictures didn’t need it. And almost nobody played harmonica in France, it didn’t belong to the popular instruments, contrary to the accordion, for instance. The other track for orchestra, female solo voice and trumpet is his project for the end titles. It isn’t in the film because I finally didn’t retain it.
Q: The piece Morricone wrote as a surprise, unknown to you until the recording: is it the one for the end titles?
CC: Yes, the one I called the “Morricone Bolero”, an 8-minute long piece which takes you, with a progression. It has been used in another scene too. Its natural place, a maximal one, was at the end titles. Two themes were important: one for the departure of the people who leave their home, and the one for the end titles. Just after the recording of this track, I see Ennio taking a phone, talking a little bit and getting the phone close to the loudspeaker while the
music was playing: it was his wife Maria. She approved to it.
Q: Do you have a little anecdote about Morricone or the music?
CC: I came back in April 2015 to see Morricone with the film subtitled in Italian and with the music and a new editing. His wife was very moved at the end, with tears in her eyes. Ennio Morricone asked her: “It was great, wasn’t it?” She said: “Yes, excellent.” He said: “The film, sure, but what about my music?”

C. Carion: Cinema brought me to the music: Soylent Green opened me to Beethoven's 6th symphony, Kubrick brought me to the classical music. Cinema is a popular art allowing to open to other arts. Cinema and music go together, according to me, an intimate relationship. While writing, I need music. In En mai?, there is existing music, by Schubert, but it is rare in my films. I like the idea of a music 《imagined and conceived for...》.

Morricone, for me, is more than a cinema composer, he is cinema. He is in the DNA of the worldwide cinema, through everything he made since many years. His strength is that his music is cinema. There aren't many in this category: while you listen to his music, you really are in cinema. He knows how to do that.

One of my first 45 RPM's was Once upon a Time in the West, the front cover with the longcoat guys seen from the back, and the young boy in front of them. I thought about that cover in the lift, when going to his home. I said to myself: I should not think about that, otherwise I am done. An experience helped me: I remembered how I lived Une hirondelle a fait le printemps with Michel Serrault, a cinema monster. If I begin thinking about the films he did, I wouldn't know how to direct him to play. And there in Rome, I said to myself: I have to forget Morricone's
music in order to really talk to him. [......]

The CD (Quartet Records QR 207): First impressions

The CD opens with the end titles, En mai?, introducing the theme by a static and repetitive motive on organ (or electronic instrument), rather boring. Without it, the track would have more strength when listening to the CD. One of the nicest pieces of the soundtrack, it impresses by
its solemnity.
Few other tracks illustrate the movie. Ils resteront trois, moving and soft, takes the role of the film’s main theme, long and rich, it contains several really delicious motives. Traverser la guerre is heard, the softest of the 3 atmospheric tracks, but the soundtrack’s qualities are elsewhere. A track by far more often heard, Respirations, underlines the unquiet situation of the German looking for his son and the sad event of the people fleeing on the roads. As its title suggests, numerous pauses interrupt the music for strings, another well-know Morriconian pattern.

The harmonica cue, not used, is the first half of Tout laisser. The second half, a sweet and sentimental theme for strings, is used in the trailer. And in there, it is heard completely including the pedal introduction, while it is curiously cross-faded with the end of the first track on the CD
(a detail noticed by an Italian correspondent).

Many other tracks don’t appear in the film, or weren't perceived and remembered: L’étau se resserre, Ils arrivent, Tous ensemble, Et même les animaux sont avec eux, A la recherche de la paix. Tous ensemble, a gentle track, melodic but not flat, puts in light the flute, exceptionally.
The flute player Paolo Zampini, added “Esodo” to his film credits (see Maestro 7): it is actually this film, the Italian title being temporary for the recording. We have to keep this information because the soloist is oddly not mentioned in the CD credits, whereas other named soloists have
a similarly modest involvement. Et même les animaux sont avec eux presents a melodic treatment, like Ils resteront trois, but through another theme, welcome and very pleasant. A la recherche de la paix uses the theme from Tout laisser part 2 in a touching, melodic and ample way: it will suit to everyone. The female voice is sparse, discreet, and the trumpet is less aggressive than in I demoni di San Pietroburgo’s A mio padre. It concludes very well the CD, lasting 44 minutes (comparing to a 60-minute recorded soundtrack, we can be happy, as it could have been shorter).

Note that the definitive track titles are totally different from the ones registered in the SIAE database (see Maestro 8), surely changed by Stéphane Lerouge for the CD. The booklet contains a crossed interview between Carion and EM, long and informative, even if some parts are in the press kit), managed by Stéphane Lerouge. This is rare enough to be underlined.

Quartet Records is very proud to present the first new score by Maestro Ennio Morricone since Giussepe Tornatore’s La Megliore Offerta (The Best Offer) (2013).

Returning to French cinema after an absence of 35 years, Morricone has collaborated with director Christian Carion (Une hirondelle a fait le printemps, Joyeux Noel) on an emotional film about the invasion of France by German troops in 1940, and the people of a small town fleeing from the barbaric Nazis.

Ennio Morricone has written a moving, beautiful, deeply melancholic and nostalgic symphonic poem. The music takes us back to the sound of his best epic scores, such as A Time of Destiny, Casualties of War, Il Deserto Dei Tartari or Baaria. Played by the Roma Sinfonietta under the baton of the composer, this is certainly a great milestone and one of the most highly anticipated works of the year. (Here)

enmaifaiscequilteplaitOriginal Review by Jonathan Broxton

If the information on the Internet Movie Database is correct, En Mai Fais Ce Qu’il te Pla?t is the 521st score of Ennio Morricone’s career, which stretches back to his first score, Il Federale, in 1961. In the intervening 54 years the Italian has written some of the most iconic music in the history of cinema; En Mai Fais Ce Qu’il te Pla?t will likely not be remembered as one of his standout works but, considering the fact that he is now aged 86, that he is writing film music at all is a minor miracle. That it’s still this good is nothing short of astonishing. The film – the title of which translates to Darling Buds of May in English – is a French drama written and directed by Christian Carion, who previously directed the well regarded films Une Hirondelle a Fait le Printemps and Joyeux No?l. Set during the early days of World War II, the story follows a group of people from a small village in Pas-de-Calais in northern France, who flee from the advancing German troops, and essentially become homeless, traversing the French countryside trying to avoid the Nazis, while trying to retain some semblance of a normal life under new, terrible circumstances.

The score is quintessential Ennio Morricone. Conducted and orchestrated by the great man himself, it contains a pair of utterly magnificent central themes, sweet and romantic but also deeply melancholic, which are offset by some more dramatic suspense music accompanying the threat of war that displaces the families from their village. After a several minutes of minimalist buildup for strings and organ, the opening cue, “En Mai,” gradually emerges from its repetitive four-note base into a simply stunning main theme, redolent of summer time, rolling countryside, and a tranquil environment.

Morricone embraces this style of writing in several subsequent cues. “Ils Resteront Trois” introduces the secondary theme, for the lead character, Paul, and his wife and son. It’s one of those heart-meltingly gorgeous melodies that only Morricone can write, and has a hint of Cinema Paradiso to it, especially in the string harmonies, but the return of the subtle organ orchestration from the opening cue gives it a slightly religioso quality too, that is both appropriate and appealing. Later, “Tout Laisser” embraces some hints of traditional Gallic folk music, stripped down to just an accordion, harmonica, and solo violin, and has a bittersweet sense of loss and regret, before returning to restate the Family theme, again with a wash of melancholy strings. The subsequent “Respirations” is filled with a sense of relief, of families being reunited, and the simple pleasure of being with the ones you love.

Meanwhile, “L’étau se Resserre” and “Traverser la Guerre” are filled with tension and apprehension, with tremolo string writing and plucked bass notes that gradually give way to more strident phrases for violins and moody, slightly mysterious-sounding oboes. Similarly, “Ils Arrivent” has a martial cadence and a sense of quiet, stark desperation, with high, pulsating strings and staccato muted brass writing that briefly recalls the similar-sounding militaristic tones of his score for Indagine su un Cittadino al di Sopra di Ogni Sospetto from 1970. These cues are clearly intended to musically depict the looming threat of the Germans, storming over the border and leaving destruction in their wake; although none of these cues are truly devastating in their depiction of war, they impart instead a sense of resignation and sadness, with the citizens of Pas-de-Calais having lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their peace of mind.

The elegant flute writing of “Tous Ensemble” has an unexpected playfulness to it, again conveying a light and summery air, completely at odds with the tone of the rest of the film. The final two cues, “Et Même les Animaux Sont Avec Eux” and “A la Recherche de la Paix”, are deeply moving, allowing the performance of the Roma Sinfionetta to rise to the fore with statements of both main themes. The emotional quality of the music really shines through in the first cue, recalling works like Casualties of War and A Time of Destiny, eulogizing the losses that war brings to everyone, while celebrating the stoicism and optimism that humanity can, somehow, maintain in the most desperate conditions. However, Morricone saves the best for last; the stirring solo trumpet performance that anchors the first half of the final cue is especially lovely, having a wistful and nostalgic quality, and an air of remembrance that is wholly appropriate. When the solo female vocalist enters for the first and only time during the second half of the cue, providing haunting counterpoint to the orchestral performance of the main theme, the effect is sensational. Edda dell’Orso would be proud.

No-one writes film music like Ennio Morricone, and no-one else ever will. He has successfully written music in every conceivable genre, and has been a groundbreaking trailblazer in all of them. However, despite how creative his western and thriller scores are, and despite how much innovation he has brought to the table throughout the decades, it is his drama and romance writing that holds a special place in my heart. Although he clearly has a signature sound, with familiar chord progressions and instrumental combinations that span the decades, his capacity for writing utterly spellbinding, ridiculously beautiful themes is simply unparalleled, and En Mai Fais Ce Qu’il te Pla?t is another one that we can add to that canon. Of course, as I said earlier, it will never be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in America, The Red Tent, or my own personal favorite, La Califfa, but considering his advancing years, anything Ennio Morricone writes these days should be cherished. En Mai Fais Ce Qu’il te Pla?t is an essential purchase for fans of the maestro’s work.

Buy the En Mai Fais Ce Qu’il te Pla?t soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

En Mai (8:56)
L’étau se Resserre (3:58)
Ils Resteront Trois (5:05)
Traverser la Guerre (1:55)
Tout Laisser (2:51)
Ils Arrivent (3:39)
Respirations (4:07)
Tous Ensemble (2:38)
Et Même les Animaux Sont Avec Eux (4:37)
A la Recherche de la Paix (6:29)

Running Time: 44 minutes 16 seconds

Quartet Records (2015)

Music composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone. Performed by the Roma Sinfionetta. Orchestrations by Ennio Morricone. Recorded and mixed by Marco Streccioni. Album produced by Ennio Morricone and Pascal Meyer. （Movie Music UK)