Search - Nino Rota :: 8 1/2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Yes, some wonderful music is missing but ...

M. J. Smith | Seattle, WA USA | 03/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The score to Fellini's 8 1/2 is a score I fell in love with ... perhaps sitting thru 3 playings of Juliet of the Spirit and 2 of 8 1/2 as my first introduction to Fellini (in 1966) indicates more than usual fervor. While other films have replaced 8 1/2 as best script, best cinematography, etc., the pairing of Rota's La passerella di addio with Fellini's "march" is still my favorite pairing of music and screen image. Yes, La Saraghina's dance is missing - another brilliant pairing of music and screen image - but ... much as I love the score, I believe that the music and image are so intertwined that one should need to return to the film. The soundtrack alone is a fragment of the total intended effect; delightful in its own right, a stimulus for playing the film images through one's own mind, but not a substitute for the original.(Yes, there are soundtracks I am willing to completely divorce from their play or film. This simply is not one.)"

A classic soundtrack

Kirk | Australia | 03/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nino Rota is, in my mind, the best composer of the latter half of the 19th Century. You don't have to see the films to enjoy the music he composed for them; and much of his classical music has been considerably neglected. The audio to the soundtrack to 8 1/2 is outdated and if you want a version of La Passerella di addio to impress, you're better off with the Riccardo Muti conducted version on Music for Film or the Carla Bley arrangement on the recent Bravo Nino Rota CD by the Australian group the Umbrellas, or the original on Amarcord Nino Rota. Despite there being a wide range of improved interpretations of the main theme, the original soundtrack to 8 1/2 still has major importance to the Rota and Fellini emphusiast. Variations such as L'Harem, and tracks such as Guido E Luisa Nostalgico Swing and E Poi (Valzer) make for a delicious soundtrack, that would become a passion of Elmer Bernstein's. In terms of today's audio quality, you'd be unimpressed. But this is of no deterrance to a collector of classic film scores, a category which 8 1/2 indisputably falls under."

A little orchestra of Hope with Love as its conductor

Galina | Virginia, USA | 04/07/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Nino Rota was a unique composer, perhaps, the greatest melodist of the last century. His magic tunes are sweet and melodius, gentle and rhythmical, melancholic and playful. As with every movie Fellini and Rota had worked together on, "8 1/2", a perfect masterpiece is accompanied by a perfect score which is indelible part of the movie. Every melody either written by Rota for the movie - the main theme, La Passerella, Guido and Luisa's Swing, Carlotta's Gallop, the medley of L'Harem or skillfully adapted by him incredibly charming Gigolettes da "La Danza Delle Libellule" by F. Lehar, Sinfonia Da "La Barbiere di Siviglia" by G. Rossini, "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Sleeping Beauty" by P. Tchaikovsky, and " Flight of the Valkyrie " by R. Wagner reflect every emotion of Guido, the main character, and bring to life his every memory, bitter, sweet, regretful, or embarrassing. The only reason I can't give this CD a perfect score is the very noticeable omission. Undeniably, the greatest, the most memorable track of the whole movie, La Saraghina's Rumba, her lurid dance on the beach is not included in its entirety in the content of the otherwise enjoyable disc. The bits of Rumba can be heard on the track 10, L'Harem. It is better than nothing but it is the big disappointment for me because the beach scene with its music is the most powerful and moving scene for me in the whole movie.

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