Film composers Ennio Morricone, Mica Levi, and Delia Derbyshire will be featured in a 2020 retrospective at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.
“The Big Score” will also include music by jazz greats John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Henry Mancini, Duke Ellington, among others.
Ennio Morricone is perhaps best known for his memorable soundtracks with director Sergio Leone, although the festival screenings will feature many of his other artistic collaborations, showing his versatility over the decades, from cult to classic cinema.
“This exciting selection of films takes us from his ground-breaking work on cult spaghetti westerns and giallo thrillers in the 60s and 70s through to his Oscar-nominated scores for classics such as Days of Heaven, The Mission and The Untouchables in the 80s,” said Senior Programmer and curator of The Big Score programme, Niall Greig Fulton.
Films lined up include:
- a 4K restoration of Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966)
- Mario Bava’s Danger Diabolik (1968)
- Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence (1968)
- Dario Argento’s The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
- Terence Malik’s Days of Heaven (1978)
- John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)
- Roland Joffe’s The Mission (1986)
- Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987)
- a 4K restoration of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Mica Levi
Levi’s first score for Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013) earned her the Best Composer accolade at the European Film Awards in 2014 and a nomination for the BAFTA award for Best Film Music in 2015. Her second, Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016), saw her nominated for Best Original Score at the 89th Academy Awards.
Films include:
- Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime (2017)
- Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016)
- Jonathan Glazer’s Glasgow-set Under the Skin (2013)
Sometimes known by her stage name Micachu, Mica Levi is also famous for her experimental pop band, Good Sad Happy Bad with whom she has performed extensively.
Dr Who theme
Delia Derbyshire composed the pivotal electronic arrangement on the theme from Doctor Who, and her trailblazing work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the 1960s was considered a major influence on artists like Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. This strand of The Big Score explores her life and art with a programme of cult classics, experimental work, and documentaries.
Films include:
- Tony Richardson’s Hamlet (1969)
- Joseph Despins’ and William Dumaresq’s Duffer (1972)
- Alan Gibson’s Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
There will also be two programmes of shorts featuring documentaries and a selection of rarely seen experimental films scored by Derbyshire.
Niall Greig Fulton said: “Mixing late-night cult classics, fascinating documentaries and rarely seen experimental collaborations, this timely look at the life and work of the great Delia Derbyshire is a must for all fans of electronic music.”
Jazz Greats
An additional strand to The Big Score will include scores featuring musicians such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Henry Mancini, Duke Ellington, Lalo Schifrin, Bernard Herrmann and Quincy Jones.
Films include:
- Louis Malle’s Lift to the Scaffold (1958)
- Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958)
- Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
- Gilles Groulx’s Le chat dans le sac (1964)
- Richard Brooks’ In Cold Blood (1967)
- Norman Jewison’s The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
- Peter Yates’ Bullitt (1968)
- Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1986)
There will also be a screening of a restored 35mm print of Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World (1963) preserved by the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center from original camera negatives in the Zipporah Films Collection.
Greig Fulton said: “Jazz is famously an innovative, atmospheric art form and over the years it’s been employed many times to truly memorable effect in cinema. This is a golden opportunity to see some of the finest of those films the way they should be seen - on the big screen.”
Orkney Experiment
University of Edinburgh students and Orkney-based Kolekto will also be presenting an experimental archive footage piece Sound from the Edge of the World reflecting daily island life with echoes of the island’s songs, stories and myths.
EIFF will also be showing a special retrospective series at Edinburgh's Filmhouse, screening once a month from January to June, called "Countdown to The Big Score".
The full programme for Countdown to The Big Score will be released in December.
Tickets for The Big Score will go on sale alongside the full EIFF programme on Wednesday 27 May for Filmhouse Members and EIFF Friends with general sale commencing on Friday 29 May.