Title: La
corta notte delle bambole di vetro (Short night of glass dolls)
Year: 1971
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Happy Friday the 13th! There have
been many literary and film adaptations about a person waking up in a paralyzed
state and being mistaken for a corpse. 1971’s La corta notte delle bambole di vetro is one of them, this time
taking place in Prague. A man is waiting for an autopsy fully realizing what’s
happening to him, trying simultaneously figure out how he ended up there. For
this chilling premise Maestro Morricone provided one of his most oppressive
film scores.
As with
many horror scores, this one opens with a beautiful theme that contrasts with
the other material. This time the opening and bookend cues are a romantic
waltz, Valzer, with the chromatic
vocal solo by Edda dell’Orso and a minimal piano/string arrangement backing it.
Its unexpected harmonies and sublime orchestration are just a bliss to hear and an
eventual salvation from the nightmares.
That’s where
the listenable material ends for the following 40 minutes or so. The listener
is transported into nightmare territory with Emmetrentatre which doesn’t hold back even the slightest bit. It
consists of nauseating string writing that could make someone physically ill.
In a brilliant but disturbing Morriconean fashion that’s not all: the strings
are combined to sighing voices that sound like a giant orgy. This is a cue you
can’t play if there’s a possibility to get caught listening to it. Yet somehow
the effect is so powerful, you just have to admire the creativity behind it.
For instance the cue sends shivers down my spine when it reaches a ‘climax’ in
which the orchestra drops out for a moment and only a bare heartbeat and sighs
are left.
After that
shocker Notte e bambole offers a more
slow-paced version of the same idea, but there’s still tension building up
steadily which results in dramatic, atonal string harmonies. Those reappear in
many cues afterwards offering the only identifying thematic thread the score
has. The film’s title mentions glass dolls, so there’s a brilliant element of
shards of glass tinkling together in Brividi
di archi supported only by high strings. Unfortunately the score’s middle
portion has mostly pretty uninteresting underscore with wandering atonal
strings. A nice little addition is Edda’s ghostly voice at the end of Oppressione. Other exception is Oppressione di mostri, which is the
score’s only stab at light action writing, in which intensive swirling strings
are combined to fast-paced piano playing with entertaining results.
The score
starts to pick up its pace again in Bambole
di vetro, in which a simple opening gets more and more twisted and
distorted finally being joined by a solitary female voice sighing of agony or
pleasure. After a pause the aforementioned string ‘theme’ enters in its most
dramatic form eventually cooling down to barely audible strings with underlying
electronic effects. Finally everything comes back a full circle ending in an
orchestral crescendo. The following two cues reprise some moments from their predecessor.
Irrealtà e follia in particular is
another effective horror cue, which borrows the opening of track 10 but then
lands on a chilling sustained chord on top of which a ghostly voice is singing
and strings are playing in a manner that reminds me of crawling insects. The
last moment of horror, Sospiri di morte consists
of just a heartbeat sound, electric effects resembling some hospital equipment
and a heavily breathing voice that goes on for 4 straight minutes. After a
pause the beat slows down and the breathing gets fainter finally leaving just
the electric sounds left. It’s a descriptive cue but too long and unpleasant to
really enjoy.
Maestro’s
score for this film is highly disturbing, ugly and thoroughly unpleasant
experience. Undoubtedly it was something the film needed and benefited from.
Nevertheless it surely makes your hair stand up in many places and makes you
question whether to leave the light on tonight or not.
Rating: ***
Tracklist:
1. Valzer
(02:23) *****
2. Emmetrentatre
(04:07) *****
3. Notte e
bambole (02:32) ****
4. Brividi
di archi (04:41) ***
5. Oppressione
(03:09) ***
6. Depressione
(01:18) **
7. Oppressione
di mostri (01:20) *****
8. Incoscientemente
(02:07) **
9. Incubi solitari
(01:43) ***
10. Bambole
di vetro (06:48) ****
11. Il bisturi
(02:38) ***
12.
Irrealtà e follia (02:08) ****
13. Sospiri
di morte (04:41) **
14. Valzer
(#2) (02:50) *****
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