Having heard Riz Ortolani's theme from the very downbeat The Hunting Party (1971) for the first time recently, makes this a good
opportunity to list some other joints I dig from the composer. Despite scoring soundtracks for some notorious films from the world of cinema, his music has often been a universal positive to soundtrack heads like myself.
I Giorni Dell'ira / Day of Anger (1967)
Miami / Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)
Il Ricordo di Serena / Confessions of a Police Captain (1971)
Web of the Spider / Web of the Spider (1971)
Seven Bloodstained Orchids / Seven Bloodstained Orchids (1972)
Cyclone / Cyclone (1978)
Il Corpo di Linda / The Pyjama Girl Case (1977)*
Adulteress Punishment / Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Roma Imperial Rock / Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984)
Fave Ortolani cut will always be Do It To Me off Ruggero Deodato's thoroughly mean-spirited nasty House on the Edge of the Park (1980), which was hilariously titled wrong in the film and its trailer. It's been a disco themed earworm that could have played at Fontaine Khaled's swanky London club back in the day. The song being associated with the most amusing scene from House on the Edge of the Park, before things go very sour for its uppity class party hosts, is probably another reason, too.
* Other than Il Corpo di Linda, the soundtrack to The Pyjama Girl Case is ruined by French singer Amada Lear sounding like a heavily sedated Marlene Dietrich struggling to remain conscious and in tune. If only the much preferred trailer music was included instead as it knocks, before Lear’s awful song plays near the end. No idea if Ortolani was responsible for it, though.
Man, that Do It To Me song is good.
ReplyDeleteAin't it.
ReplyDeleteKind of funny how a song associated with such a violent nasty winds up the folling year recycled in a romantic thriller starring big name bork actors Marcello Mastroianni and Romy Schneider.