L´uomo dai calzoni corti - Carlo Rustichelli
We proudly present on this CD the world premiere release of Carlo Rustichelli´s score for the 1958 movie L´uomo dai calzoni corti which was directed by former documentary filmmaker Glauco Pellegrini and starred the 10-year-old Edoardo Nevola in the title role as well as prominent actors like Alida Valli, Francisco Rabal, Eduardo De Filippo and Memmo Carotenuto -each of them lending their own distinct personality to the various episodes of the film.
Unfortunately, L´uomo dai calzoni corti (which was later retitled L´amore più bello) has largely been forgotten and neglected nowadays, although it is a quite lovely and touching small picture, half melodrama, half road movie, with echoes of the classic Italian childhood story of Edmondo De Amicis´ late 19th century novel "Cuore" entitled "From the Appenines to the Andes". It also offers a fascinating chronicle of an Italy which at the end of the 1950s had still partly retained its post-war rural character whereas in the large industrial cities in the North the economic boom was already fully under way. The differences of mentality among the people in Northern and Southern Italy are always seen through the keen eyes of a small child who with great courage and hope journeys throughout Italy to find his mother again who had abandoned him.
Edoardo Nevola had been discovered as ºa child actor by the celebrated director Pietro Germi for his superb family drama Il ferroviere in 1956 and he had played there the important part of Sandrino, the young boy who is instrumental in bringing his depressed father back to the bosom of his family. Il ferroviere had been hugely successful in Italian cinemas and Nevola accordingly became one of Italy´s most popular child actors by the end of the 1950s. Glauco Pellegrini even entrusted the leading role of L´uomo dai calzoni corti to him, a task which he accomplished with bravura as his acting is so natural and spontaneous that it makes him a very endearing character for the audience.
The story begins in Sicily where little Salvatore (Nevola), named "Pagnottella" ("small bread-loaf"), is being raised in an orphanage in Caltanisetta where his mother had left him as an infant. When being told that his mother lives in Naples, he decides to go after her and runs away from the orphanage. A chain of picaresque situations follows where Salvatore encounters all kinds of folks.
Still in Sicily, he befriends Estella, the daughter of a fisherman who has a lover she meets secretly, although her parents already have another arranged marriage for her in mind. Salvatore acts as a go-between for the two lovers in the hope that they will take him along, but they flee in a boat at night leaving him behind. Travelling as a stowaway by ferry he gets to the mainland, hops on a train and hitches various rides so that finally a truck driver (Rabal) takes him to Naples where he learns that his mother has apparently moved to Milan. An old puppeteer (De Filippo) persuades the boy to stay with him, help him at the puppet theater and to lend his voice to one of the marionettes. However, as the show is about a mother yearning for her son, Salvatore gets so carried away by the similarity to his own situation that he upsets the show and decides to move on in his quest.
A thief (Carotenuto) in Rome gets a liking for the kid and takes care of him for a while until he himself gets arrested by the police. Another chance encounter with the truck driver Mario leads Salvatore to Milan only to learn that his mother in the meantime has already moved to Venice. Mario and his wife, who don´t have any children and feel lonely themselves, try in vain to propose an adoption to Salvatore. After all these vagaries, he finally arrives in Venice where he indeed finds his mother Carolina (Valli) who at first denies herself because she is now married to a man who has an ailing daughter and who doesn´t know anything about her illegitimate son. By chance, Salvatore overhears their quarrels, realizes who Carolina really is and tries to run away. Ultimately, however, the couple decide to keep him so that from now on he will have a father and a mother.
Carlo Rustichelli who literally scored hundreds of films during his long and illustrious career was one of the most versatile and distinguished Italian film composers firmly rooted in the operatic as well as the folkloristic tradition of his country. His music - even more so than the one by other Italian film composers - always sounded characteristically Italian, he had an inimitable lyrical symphonic style and an immense melodic gift. His work for L´uomo dai calzoni corti harkens back to two of his greatest achievements from the 1950s. Of course, he had already scored Edoardo Nevola´s screen debut Il ferroviere in 1956 and supplied a melancholy main theme for guitar for it which became extremely popular also outside of the movie for which it had been composed. So it is no coincidence at all that a similar main theme for guitar is heard in this later movie to characterize the little Salvatore. Rustichelli´s powerful score for Germi´s epic masterpiece Il cammino della speranza from 1950, that other odyssey of Sicilian workers making their journey throughout the whole length of Italy, has also left its indelible marks on this later composition - not only with regard to the incorporation of Sicilian folk tunes, but above all relating to the glowing passion with which tragic events and situations -for example the inexorable fate which awaits the Sicilian girl Estella or the mother Carolina´s despair after having been confronted with her son- are so movingly and convincingly depicted in musical terms. This is deeply compelling, highly emotional music with which the composer lets us feel his enormous empathy for the characters as well as the tragic implications and turmoils in which they get involved. Quite a lot of these agonizing moments with impassioned outbursts of the full string section can be heard in this score and they all show Rustichelli at the peak of his craft.
The main theme for solo guitar is introduced at first in the film when Salvatore flees from the orphanage hidden in a wooden coffin and with its ascending melodic contour and its lilting rhythm immediately catches the listener´s ear (Tr. 1). In the same way as the boy is indefatigable in his aim to regain his mother, this theme will be constantly reprised with different instrumentations and with all kinds of variations throughout the score. It is a very flexible theme which can capture all kinds of feelings -soaring with joy and the use of the full orchestra in The Horse Carriage (Tr. 2), sorrowful and intimately scored for a few caressing strings in Disappointment and New Hope (Tr. 8) or in a depressive mood in Alone Again (Tr. 13)-, but never gets boring and is the boy´s steady companion on his long and complicated journey throughout Italy.
There are other themes as well: A sad theme intoned by a clarinet which expresses the doubts of the childless couple (Tr. 15) -the truck driver and his wife- and an achingly beautiful and poignant melody we hear for the first time when Salvatore meets his mother and she can´t reveal her identity to him (Tr. 18). The incredibly tender and heartfelt music -which alternates woodwind solos with strings- speaks of the inner feelings of the two persons and how the mother has been trapped within her own world. The same theme will return with feverish intensity in Carolina´s Despair (Tr. 19) to express the emotional turmoil by which the mother is plagued.
In contrast to all these melancholy and sentimental tracks Rustichelli contributes a few short vivacious Gershwinesque interludes for the arrival of the American tourists in Rome (Tr. 10) and for the car ride through the bustling large city of Milan by night (Tr. 14). Quite funny and charming is also the waltz-like music in People of Venice (Tr. 17) when several inhabitants of the city ask each other about the correct place of the address Salvatore is looking for and not one of them seems to know anything about it.
The conclusion of the film is scored against the usual conventions of an emphatic full orchestra ending. After a dramatic orchestral climax when Salvatore at first wants to surrender to the police in Venice, the music for the final reconciliation scene (Tr. 22) instead gets very quiet as if it doesn´t want to disturb the harmony of the newly found family anymore: Only the solo guitar from the beginning delicately intones the main theme again and everything ends poetically on a simple guitar chord.
Rustichelli has written a wonderfully sensitive and romantic score for this rather unknown movie which contains all the typical imprints of his symphonic style and is a pure delight to listen to on its own. May our CD contribute to the rediscovery of this melodic gem by one of the most gifted composers of the Italian cinema.
Besides the regular score program this CD also contains some source music -for example the pianola music heard in the puppeteer´s home, a pianola version of the popular song "Addio Napoli", a Sicilian song sung in a restaurant- in the bonus track section and closes with a suite of alternate takes of the score tracks.
We proudly present on this CD the world premiere release of Carlo Rustichelli´s score for the 1958 movie L´uomo dai calzoni corti which was directed by former documentary filmmaker Glauco Pellegrini and starred the 10-year-old Edoardo Nevola in the title role as well as prominent actors like Alida Valli, Francisco Rabal, Eduardo De Filippo and Memmo Carotenuto -each of them lending their own distinct personality to the various episodes of the film.
Unfortunately, L´uomo dai calzoni corti (which was later retitled L´amore più bello) has largely been forgotten and neglected nowadays, although it is a quite lovely and touching small picture, half melodrama, half road movie, with echoes of the classic Italian childhood story of Edmondo De Amicis´ late 19th century novel "Cuore" entitled "From the Appenines to the Andes". It also offers a fascinating chronicle of an Italy which at the end of the 1950s had still partly retained its post-war rural character whereas in the large industrial cities in the North the economic boom was already fully under way. The differences of mentality among the people in Northern and Southern Italy are always seen through the keen eyes of a small child who with great courage and hope journeys throughout Italy to find his mother again who had abandoned him.
Edoardo Nevola had been discovered as ºa child actor by the celebrated director Pietro Germi for his superb family drama Il ferroviere in 1956 and he had played there the important part of Sandrino, the young boy who is instrumental in bringing his depressed father back to the bosom of his family. Il ferroviere had been hugely successful in Italian cinemas and Nevola accordingly became one of Italy´s most popular child actors by the end of the 1950s. Glauco Pellegrini even entrusted the leading role of L´uomo dai calzoni corti to him, a task which he accomplished with bravura as his acting is so natural and spontaneous that it makes him a very endearing character for the audience.
The story begins in Sicily where little Salvatore (Nevola), named "Pagnottella" ("small bread-loaf"), is being raised in an orphanage in Caltanisetta where his mother had left him as an infant. When being told that his mother lives in Naples, he decides to go after her and runs away from the orphanage. A chain of picaresque situations follows where Salvatore encounters all kinds of folks.
Still in Sicily, he befriends Estella, the daughter of a fisherman who has a lover she meets secretly, although her parents already have another arranged marriage for her in mind. Salvatore acts as a go-between for the two lovers in the hope that they will take him along, but they flee in a boat at night leaving him behind. Travelling as a stowaway by ferry he gets to the mainland, hops on a train and hitches various rides so that finally a truck driver (Rabal) takes him to Naples where he learns that his mother has apparently moved to Milan. An old puppeteer (De Filippo) persuades the boy to stay with him, help him at the puppet theater and to lend his voice to one of the marionettes. However, as the show is about a mother yearning for her son, Salvatore gets so carried away by the similarity to his own situation that he upsets the show and decides to move on in his quest.
A thief (Carotenuto) in Rome gets a liking for the kid and takes care of him for a while until he himself gets arrested by the police. Another chance encounter with the truck driver Mario leads Salvatore to Milan only to learn that his mother in the meantime has already moved to Venice. Mario and his wife, who don´t have any children and feel lonely themselves, try in vain to propose an adoption to Salvatore. After all these vagaries, he finally arrives in Venice where he indeed finds his mother Carolina (Valli) who at first denies herself because she is now married to a man who has an ailing daughter and who doesn´t know anything about her illegitimate son. By chance, Salvatore overhears their quarrels, realizes who Carolina really is and tries to run away. Ultimately, however, the couple decide to keep him so that from now on he will have a father and a mother.
Carlo Rustichelli who literally scored hundreds of films during his long and illustrious career was one of the most versatile and distinguished Italian film composers firmly rooted in the operatic as well as the folkloristic tradition of his country. His music - even more so than the one by other Italian film composers - always sounded characteristically Italian, he had an inimitable lyrical symphonic style and an immense melodic gift. His work for L´uomo dai calzoni corti harkens back to two of his greatest achievements from the 1950s. Of course, he had already scored Edoardo Nevola´s screen debut Il ferroviere in 1956 and supplied a melancholy main theme for guitar for it which became extremely popular also outside of the movie for which it had been composed. So it is no coincidence at all that a similar main theme for guitar is heard in this later movie to characterize the little Salvatore. Rustichelli´s powerful score for Germi´s epic masterpiece Il cammino della speranza from 1950, that other odyssey of Sicilian workers making their journey throughout the whole length of Italy, has also left its indelible marks on this later composition - not only with regard to the incorporation of Sicilian folk tunes, but above all relating to the glowing passion with which tragic events and situations -for example the inexorable fate which awaits the Sicilian girl Estella or the mother Carolina´s despair after having been confronted with her son- are so movingly and convincingly depicted in musical terms. This is deeply compelling, highly emotional music with which the composer lets us feel his enormous empathy for the characters as well as the tragic implications and turmoils in which they get involved. Quite a lot of these agonizing moments with impassioned outbursts of the full string section can be heard in this score and they all show Rustichelli at the peak of his craft.
The main theme for solo guitar is introduced at first in the film when Salvatore flees from the orphanage hidden in a wooden coffin and with its ascending melodic contour and its lilting rhythm immediately catches the listener´s ear (Tr. 1). In the same way as the boy is indefatigable in his aim to regain his mother, this theme will be constantly reprised with different instrumentations and with all kinds of variations throughout the score. It is a very flexible theme which can capture all kinds of feelings -soaring with joy and the use of the full orchestra in The Horse Carriage (Tr. 2), sorrowful and intimately scored for a few caressing strings in Disappointment and New Hope (Tr. 8) or in a depressive mood in Alone Again (Tr. 13)-, but never gets boring and is the boy´s steady companion on his long and complicated journey throughout Italy.
There are other themes as well: A sad theme intoned by a clarinet which expresses the doubts of the childless couple (Tr. 15) -the truck driver and his wife- and an achingly beautiful and poignant melody we hear for the first time when Salvatore meets his mother and she can´t reveal her identity to him (Tr. 18). The incredibly tender and heartfelt music -which alternates woodwind solos with strings- speaks of the inner feelings of the two persons and how the mother has been trapped within her own world. The same theme will return with feverish intensity in Carolina´s Despair (Tr. 19) to express the emotional turmoil by which the mother is plagued.
In contrast to all these melancholy and sentimental tracks Rustichelli contributes a few short vivacious Gershwinesque interludes for the arrival of the American tourists in Rome (Tr. 10) and for the car ride through the bustling large city of Milan by night (Tr. 14). Quite funny and charming is also the waltz-like music in People of Venice (Tr. 17) when several inhabitants of the city ask each other about the correct place of the address Salvatore is looking for and not one of them seems to know anything about it.
The conclusion of the film is scored against the usual conventions of an emphatic full orchestra ending. After a dramatic orchestral climax when Salvatore at first wants to surrender to the police in Venice, the music for the final reconciliation scene (Tr. 22) instead gets very quiet as if it doesn´t want to disturb the harmony of the newly found family anymore: Only the solo guitar from the beginning delicately intones the main theme again and everything ends poetically on a simple guitar chord.
Rustichelli has written a wonderfully sensitive and romantic score for this rather unknown movie which contains all the typical imprints of his symphonic style and is a pure delight to listen to on its own. May our CD contribute to the rediscovery of this melodic gem by one of the most gifted composers of the Italian cinema.
Besides the regular score program this CD also contains some source music -for example the pianola music heard in the puppeteer´s home, a pianola version of the popular song "Addio Napoli", a Sicilian song sung in a restaurant- in the bonus track section and closes with a suite of alternate takes of the score tracks.
