Novecento (1900) [Original Soundtrack]

The commercial release of Ennio Morricone’s score to Bernardo Bertolucci’s period drama Novecento (1900) only runs about 50 minutes — which, for a film that clocks over five hours in its original two-part director’s cut, seems comparatively slight. But in the service of a film that runs through some of the most pivotal, tragic, and harrowing moments of Europe in the first half of the 20th Century, Morricone created a symphonic masterpiece that defers to the film’s historical weight while piercing it with distinct moments of individual characterization. And when Morricone’s trademark flourishes come to the fore — string drones, folk rhythms, yearning brass — it’s clear that Bertolucci isn’t the only one who made an epic here.