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AKA:
Le mani sulla città:
Hände über der Stadt (West Germany) (imdb display title)
Hands Over the City (UK) (imdb display title)
Las manos sobre la ciudad (Spain) (imdb display title)
Main basse sur la ville (France) (imdb display title)
Salvatore Giuliano:
Salvatore Giuliano (France) (dubbed version)
Sicilia 1943-60 (Italy) (working title)
Wer erschoß Salvatore G.? (West Germany)
Il caso Mattei:
Der Fall Mattei (West Germany)
El caso Mattei (Spain) (Castilian title)
L'affaire Mattei (France)
O Caso Mattei (Brazil)
The Mattei Affair (undefined)
ROSI PICCIONI: ART TRILOGY
This recording project wants to be a tribute to the artistic collaboration between Piero Piccioni and Francesco Rosi and it is dedicated to three famous and multi award-winning films that are part of the Italian film history and represent the perfect synergy created by the complementary work of director Rosi and composer Piccioni.
LE MANI SULLA CITTA' (aka Hands Over the City),1963, Starring Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone,Guido Alberti, is a fierce denunciation of corruption and eploitation in Italy during the sixties. The story is set in Naples and the main character, Edward Nottola (Steiger) is a man without scruples who thrives within a conflict of interest, being both a property developer and a city councillor. During the demolition of a dilapidated building with just one wall in common with another one, a dramatic collapse takes place in the contiguous building still inhabited, that caused the death of innocents and the serious injury of a child who loses his legs. The scandal broke out and left-wing politicians accuse Nottola immediately of being responsible of that terrible tragedy. Nothing and nobody will stop him. At the end he makes his own way, and he will be elected chief counselor for constructions, with the blessing of the Bishop, and he will start a new exploitation stretching his hands wholly out over the city.
SALVATORE GIULIANO,1962, starring Frank Wolff, Salvo Randone, Frederico Zardi and Pietro Cammarata. The film is based on the circumstance on the morning of July 5th, 1950 near Castelvetrano, where the lifeless body of the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano (Cammarata) is found. The movie winds through a series of flashbacks of the early postwar years in Sicily, of the extraordinary adventures of Giuliano and his demands for Sicilian independence, of his cousin Pisciotta and their gang. Pisciotta and his companions were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment and during the hearing the man recalls the killing of the bandit made by himself. After conviction Gaspare Pisciotta will be poisoned in prison.
IL CASO MATTEI (aka THE MATTEI AFFAIR), 1972, starring Gian Maria Volonte', Luigi Squarzina, Edda Ferronao and Furio Colombo. The film is dedicated to Enrico Mattei (Volonte') who was the chairman of the oil company ENI and who died tragically in a plane crash which occurred in the area of Pavia at the end of October 1962. In the end it appears that the death of Mattei was not accidental, but organized with a bomb attack masked as a plane crash, possibly connected with the fact that he did offer the Arab and African countries conditions of utilization of their oil resources which were more advantageous than those offered by the Anglo-American competitors.
This project which is originally conceived by Jason Piccioni and Claudio Fuiano, derived from an original idea of the Maestro, which was to present the musical works especially SALVATORE GIULIANO and IL CASO MATTEI as two concert suites, structured as two ballet performances. Originally LE MANI SULLA CITTA' was published in a 45 rpm single (currently unavailable) on RCA Label (PME 30-494), and later of LE MANI SULLA CITTA', SALVATORE GIULIANO and IL CASO MATTEI appeared three selections (respectively 4:34, 3:26 and 5:15) on the album (WEA T
68 034): The music by Piero Piccioni for films by Francesco Rosi. Jason Piccioni found well preserved stereo master tapes of all three OSTs in the archives of his father, and personally oversaw the transfer of the LE MANI SULLA CITTA' tapes at the recording studio of Maurizio Majorana (of Marc 4) in Rome. So this dream of recovery and preservation has finally been reborn onto a 75:44 CD that contains the full versions of those three OSTs. For LE MANI SULLA CITTA', Piero Piccioni wrote a recurring and quite macabre theme of tension, that explodes with the powerful action of the bass together with the entire orchestra, highlighting the unhealthy atmosphere generated by the greed of the protagonist, alternating with jazz-lounge music for the more picturesque moments, in contrast to urban decay. For SALVATORE GIULIANO Piero Piccioni wrote very dark and dramatic folk-type music, with input from the marranzano folk, with strong clusters of wind instruments and then ending with a religious atmosphere. IL CASO MATTEI shows Piero Piccioni's incredible versatility in writing electronic music, even anticipating the effects and the sounds of contemporary House and Techno genres. At the end of this long trail of experimental and futuristic sounds which bond perfectly with the images, and all at once with instances of history and life apart from the big-screen, the author returns to his first love, Jazz, Beat, sprinkled with mixed color effects of experimental organ. On Piero Piccioni's website (www.pieropiccioni.com) Francesco Rosi writes: LE MANI SULLA CITTA' -1963 - was even more difficult to tackle [than SALVATORE GIULIANO ] as music had to be applied to concepts as well as actions. Ennio Morricone has told during an interview that this is one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever written. I always listen to it with great emotion. To find Piero at the recording studio and then at the mixdown suite was always a pleasure that I would cherish when making each film, a kind of final gratification. The process and transition between the visual aspects of a movie to that of music is always a magical moment, once this reaches its final goal of completing a work. I have been priviledged to have lived these moments with him. As for seventeen movies that I have directed, I asked Piero Piccioni to score thirteen of them. Piero was the man I needed… We became friends and immediately understood each other also thanks to our mutual love for pure jazz and symphonic music, Stravinkij and Shostakovic. Those essential notes which underline the score for SALVATORE GIULIANO -1962- pinpoint those rare moments in the film which are evoked in the images as a necessity. They are not just a mere sequence to complement them but they are born from Piero' s unique creativity and also from his intelligence in not trying to hide the true, raw emotions which went into making this film.
- Claudio Fuiano & Jason Piccioni
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