Oedipus Orca - Una spirale di nebbia - La Orca

After "Il vero e il falso" Digitmovies again pays tribute to the cinema of Eriprando Visconti (1908 -1980), the nephew of the great Luchino Visconti, with the CD release of the scores from his most famous movies: "La orca" and its sequel "Oedipus orca", and "Una spirale di nebbia". "La orca" was shot in 1976 with a very good cast: Michele Placido, Rena Niehaus, Flavio Bucci and Vittorio Mezzogiorno. The movie tells the story of the kidnapping of Alice (played by Niehaus), the daughter of a rich industrialist in Pavia, during the years of terrorism in the Italy of the late ‘70s in Italy. During her captivity days, the girl establishes a morbid love and hate relationship with the youngest of her kidnappers (Placido) until a tragic ending. The movie is full of an unhealthy atmosphere and, with a strong sceanrio underlines the natures of the two main characters and the reversal of the roles when the plot ends with a cold epilogue. Also in 1976 Visconti directed the sequel "Oedipus orca" with the same protagonist again played by Niehaus. In this movie, the girl, strongly marked by the tragic experience of the kidnapping, comes back home, and she is resentful against her father(Gabriele Ferzetti), who did not want to pay for the ransom. She establishes a sexual relationship with a boyfriend by taking on a domineering attitude herself. In this sequel Visconti deepens the metamorphosis of the protagonist’s nature: from vulnerable girl to mature woman, determined about the relationships with the people. But above all the director denounces the bourgeois family by underlining the skill to hide its own vices and to glorify its virtues. Again a family of the upper middle class is the main protagonist of the Visconti movie "Una spirale di nebbia": During a hunt, the wife (Carole Chauvet) of a rich property owner (Marc Porel), is killed by a rifle shot fired off by her husband. During the investigations of the police to discover if it has been a murder or an accident, the relationships among the characters of the “killer’s" family members are examined. The Visconti movie, rich in flashbacks, alternates family dramas with the Giallo plot with a cast full of stars - Flavio Bucci, Eleonora Giorgi, Martine Brochard, Stefano Satta Flores and Corrado Gaipa -, until the unsolved and distressing finale where, one more time, the secret matters of the upper middle classes remain unsolved or are shelved. This double CD set in full stereo and with a total time of 95:47 of material is possible thanks to the help of our friends at Cinevox. On CD 1 we present the complete OST of “Oedipus Orca” by James Dashow: Besides the selected tracks for the original LP album (Cinevox MDF 33/107 - 33:15), about 21 minutes of extra music have now been included. This OST keeps a constant balance between fascinating experimental electronic atmospheres, innovative in 1976 and even today quite extraordinary for their sonorities, mixed with jazzy music with sax performance. From the music score by Federico Monti Arduini for “La orca” two romantic tracks for Moog synthesizer and orchestra performed by Il Guardiano del Faro and issued in 1976 on a now hard to find single (FMA, ZFM 50402) have survived in the archives. But we have also discovered two additional unreleased tracks, one for piano (reprising the main theme) and one for two harpsichords. On CD 2 we present the complete OST (31:28) by Ivan Vandor from “Una spirale di nebbia” (1977), a score where two main themes are alternated with each other in a rarefied atmosphere between romantic, classic and noir. Besides the two tracks of the original 45 rpm single (Cinevox MDF 115) we could use the complete master tapes of the recording sessions. A note for the most careful cinephiles and music lovers: In the movie the “Ouverture” from “Il franco tiratore” ("Der Freischűtz") by Carl Maria von Weber was used as main and end title, and the big hit of Mina “E se domani” played by a solo violin was used as “source” music.