One day after renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone allegedly denigrated Quentin Tarantino and his films in an interview with Playboy German, reportedly calling the director a “cretin,” his filmography as “trash,” and knocking the way the director famously recontextualizes previously-written scores, the Academy Award-winning musician has denied the remarks. Via a representative for Morricone, a statement was released. “It has come to my attention that Playboy Germany has come out with an article in which I have stated extremely negative comments about Tarantino and his films,” Morricone said. “I have never expressed any negative statements about the Academy [Awards], Quentin, or his films — and certainly do not consider his films garbage.”
READ MORE: Ennio Morricone Trashes Quentin Tarantino & His Films… Again
Morricone also threatened legal action against the publication which should be interesting if they have audio. Either that or it’s made up, and someone’s career is over. Here’s the full statement from Morricone’s reps.
READ MORE: The 30 Best Film Scores By Ennio Morricone
It has come to my attention that Playboy Germany has come out with an article in which I have stated extremely negative comments about Tarantino and his films, and the Academy. I have never expressed any negative statements about the Academy, Quentin, or his films — and certainly, do not consider his films garbage. I have given a mandate to my lawyer in Italy to take civil and penal action.
I consider Tarantino a great director. I am very fond of my collaboration with him and the relationship we have developed during the time we have spent together. He is courageous and has an enormous personality. I credit our collaboration responsible for getting me an Oscar, which is for sure one of the greatest acknowledgments of my career, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to compose music for his film.
In London, during a press conference in front of Tarantino, I clearly stated that I consider Quentin one of the greatest directors of this time, and I would never speak poorly of the Academy – an important institution that has given to me two of the most important acknowledgments of my career.
Morricone and Tarantino have a relatively long, and rocky history together, although it’s only yielded one full score. Tarantino attempted to have Morricone write the score for “Inglourious Basterds,” but the composer refused, citing a lack of time to properly write the music. Tarantino would use his work regardless, plucking pre-existing pieces of Morricone-written films scores from other movies like “Rabbia e Tarantella” from the 1974 Italian drama “Allonsanfàn” starring Marcello Mastroianni. Tarantino tried once again with “Django Unchained,” but the timing didn’t work out either—though Morricone was able to write one piece of original music for the film (and following the film, Morricone dropped shade on the filmmaker and his use of gratuitous violence). Finally, Morricone wrote the full score to “The Hateful Eight” in 2015 and won his second Academy Award for his efforts (his first, an honorary Oscar), but perhaps ironically, still borrowed old pieces of Morricone score, specifically from John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and “The Exorcist II.”
But these collaborations or attempts were never easy according to Morricone himself. “I wouldn’t like to work with him again, on anything,” Morricone said in 2013. “[He] places music in his films without coherence. You can’t do anything with someone like that.” His thoughts on “Django Unchained”? “To tell the truth, I didn’t care for it,” he said. “Too much blood.”
Morricone would then quickly backpedal, suggesting he was taken out of context (but not entirely denying the remarks either); “I have a great respect for Tarantino, as I have stated several times,” he said shortly thereafter. “In my opinion, the fact that Tarantino chooses different pieces of music from a work in a film makes the pieces not to be always consistent with the entire work.”
Morricone’s recent alleged comments in Playboy Germany— “He calls out of nowhere and then wants to have a finished film score within days. Which is impossible”— echo past statements where the composer has expressed anger and frustration with Tarantino and not giving him enough time to write a score, a running theme in their relationship (“That doesn’t leave me enough time to [write] the music,” Morricone said in 2009 about the timetable for potentially writing the “Inglourious Basterds” score. “Either I start working on it before he stops shooting — after we discuss it together — or I just can’t do it.”)
Morricone’s music defined the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood, Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima, but his legendary work spans six decades and myriad genres. He has written original music for more than 500 film and television productions and has worked with the likes of venerable filmmakers like Dario Argento, William Friedkin, Terrence Malick, John Carpenter, Roman Polanski, Sam Fuller, John Boorman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Brian De Palma, Mike Nichols, Roland Joffé and dozens more.
Tarantino didn’t seem too hurt last time Morricone said something negative and then pulled back on it, and at the very least, the composer’s distaste for QT’s recontextualization seem to be very real.
“He was just saying that he didn’t care for my all-over-the-map approach in the case of ‘Django Unchained’ and some of the other things that I’ve done and whatever,” Tarantino said calling it a “generational thing. But it wasn’t necessarily a criticism of me, per se. It’s just not his cup of tea. He apologized. And he said nothing he needed to apologize about.” [THR]