Cinematopedia
Español
Portrait: Carlo Rustichelli

Carlo Rustichelli

1916–2004 · Italian film composer

Biography

Carlo Rustichelli (born in Carpi, 24 December 1916 - died 13 November 2004) was an Italian film composer whose career ran from the 1940s to around 1990. He wrote roughly 250 film scores, along with arrangements for other productions and music for television, making him one of the most prolific composers of postwar Italian cinema.

Born into a family of music lovers, he earned a piano diploma at the Giovanni Battista Martini Conservatory in Bologna before moving to Rome to study composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. In postwar Rome he met Federico Fellini and, probably through him, Pietro Germi, with whom he wrote his first major score for Gioventù perduta and with whom he is most closely associated. He scored many Germi films across the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, including Divorce Italian Style, whose music helps set the satirical tone of the comedy. His work also ranged across adventure films, sword-and-sandal epics, spaghetti westerns and social drama, with titles such as Kapò and Brancaleone. In 1972 Billy Wilder commissioned him to score Avanti!.

His legacy lies largely in the sound of Italian comedy and in the professionalism with which he handled very different genres. His son Paolo also became a composer.

Key films

  • Divorce Italian Style (1961): Pietro Germi's satirical comedy, whose score helps carry its sharp tone.
  • Kapò (1959): Gillo Pontecorvo's drama about the Holocaust, where the music supports its restraint.
  • My Friends (1975): Mario Monicelli's comedy, one of the best-loved Italian comedies of the 1970s.
  • Brancaleone at the Crusades (1970): medieval comedy in which the score adds to the playful tone.
  • The Railroad Man (1956): Pietro Germi's drama about a railway worker's life.

On Cinematopedia

Divorce Italian Style1961The Birds, the Bees and the Italians1966Avanti!1972Alfredo, Alfredo1972Mamma Roma1962The Four Days of Naples1962Kapò1959Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia1974God Forgives... I Don't!1967The Organizer1963Blood and Black Lace1964For Love and Gold1966

Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.