Review by DjBatman
3½ stars out of 4
Before Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful" (the story of a
Jewish kid saved by his father during World War II) there was "Jonah
who lived in the whale", not a big production but still a good film
that showed a similar story. The difference is that Jona Oberski's story
is true. The score to this movie, directed by Roberto Faenza was composed,
orchestrated and conducted by Ennio Morricone, who used Forum Studios
(a Roman studio typically used for soundtrack production) for the recordings.
Morricone choosed to comment the story of young Jona mostly with calm
orchestrations, with two recurrent themes that appear in "Una
allegrezza semplice" and "Canoni per Jonah" and later
return (together or separately) in various moments, especially in the
scenes in which Jona's parents are showed ("La madre", "La
casa"). In track 9 the atmospheres change to a sort of funeral lament
accompaining the prisoners to the camp ("Un treno di disperati");
the most dramatic moments are also represented by another dark, sad piece:
"Tensioni nel campo". There are vocals in two other tracks only,
the title track sung by Susie Lion (with a piano that seems reminiscent
of Nino Rota's "Godfather" theme) and the popular "Gam
Gam" (composed by Elie Bothol) sung by a kid's choir (in Italy this
track has even been rearranged into a dance track). It's probably one of
the lesser known Morricone scores, but I once have found myself crying while listening to "La madre"; and this doesn't happen so often to me.
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