Riz Ortolani

Riz Ortolani
File:Riz Ortolani 1955.jpg Riz Ortolani in 1955
Born	Riziero Ortolani (1926-03-25)25 March 1926 Pesaro, Italy
Died	Rome, Italy
Occupation	Composer

Riziero "Riz" Ortolani (25 March 1926 – 23 January 2014) was an Italian film composer.

Early life

Ortolani was born on 25 March 1926 in Pesaro, Italy. He was married to Katyna Ranieri.

Career

In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a well-known Italian jazz band. He wrote his first score for Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti's 1962 pseudo-documentary Mondo Cane, whose main title-song More earned him a Grammy and was also nominated for an Oscar as Best Song. The success of the soundtrack of Mondo Cane led Ortolani to score films in England and the United States such as The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966), The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968) and Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968). He also scored the 1972 film The Valachi Papers, directed by Terence Young and starring Charles Bronson.

Ortolani scored all or parts of over 200 films, including German westerns like Old Shatterhand (1964) and a long series of Italian giallos, spaghetti westerns, Eurospy films, Exploitation films and mondo films. These include Il Sorpasso (1962), Castle of Blood (1964), Africa Addio (1966), Day of Anger (1967), Anzio (1968), The McKenzie Break (1970), The Hunting Party (1971), A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die (1972), Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), From Hell to Victory (1979), the controversial Ruggero Deodato films Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and The House on the Edge of the Park (1980), and the first series of La Piovra (1984). In later years he scored many films for Italian director Pupi Avati.

His music was used on soundtracks for Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 (1999), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), Drive (2011) and Django Unchained (2012).

In 2013 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Academy.

Death

Ortolani died on 23 January 2014 in Rome, aged 87.

Selected filmography

• Ursus in the Valley of the Lions (1961)
• Mondo Cane (1962)
• Il Sorpasso (1962)
• The Fall of Rome (1963)
• The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963)
• Castle of Blood (1964)
• The 7th Dawn (1964)
• Gunfight at High Noon (1964)
• Old Shatterhand (1964)
• The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
• The Glory Guys (1965)
• Berlin, Appointment for the Spies (1965)
• Red Dragon (1965)
• Lightning Bolt (1965)
• The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)
• Maya (1966)
• Africa Addio (1966)
• Tiffany Memorandum (1967)
• Day of Anger (1967)
• Woman Times Seven (1967)
• The Chastity Belt (1967)
• The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968)
• Bandits in Milan (1968)
• Beyond the Law (1968)
• Anzio (1968)
• The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968)
• The Girl Who Couldn't Say No (1968)
• Emma Hamilton (1968)
• Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968)
• Dead Men Don't Count (1968)
• The Last Roman (1968)
• One on Top of the Other (1969)
• So Sweet... So Perverse (1969)
• The Ravine (1969)
• Chuck Moll (1970)
• A Girl Called Jules (1970)
• The Adventures of Gerard (1970)
• Say Hello to Yesterday (1970)
• The McKenzie Break (1970)
• Madron (1970)
• The Statue (1971)
• Confessions of a Police Captain (1971)
• The Hunting Party (1971)
• Web of the Spider (1971)
• Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)
• The Valachi Papers (1972)
• Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)
• The Dead Are Alive (1972)
• Shadows Unseen (1972)
• Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)
• The Assassin of Rome (1972)
• A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die (1972)
• Dear Parents (1973)
• Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye (1973)
• Hospitals: The White Mafia (1973)
• No, the Case Is Happily Resolved (1973)
• Super Bitch (1973)
• Teresa the Thief (1973)
• Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1973)
• One Russian Summer (1973)
• Counselor at Crime (1973)
• War Goddess (1973)
• How to Kill a Judge (1974)
• Mondo Candido (1975)
• Submission (1976)
• Death Steps in the Dark (1977)
• Casanova & Co. (1977)
• I Am Afraid (1977)
• The Pajama Girl Case (1977)
• Sahara Cross (1977)
• Double Murder (1977)
• Red Rings of Fear (1978)
• First Love (1978)
• Cyclone (1978)
• Tigers in Lipstick (1979)
• The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
• Neapolitan Mystery (1979)
• Mimi (1979)
• From Hell to Victory (1979)
• Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
• House on the Edge of the Park (1980)
• Madhouse (1981)
• Help Me Dream (1981)
• Fantasma d'amore (1981)
• Nessuno è perfetto (1981)
• The Girl from Trieste (1982)
• Zeder (1983)
• The New Gladiators (1984)
• Tuareg – The Desert Warrior (1984)
• Miranda (1985)
• The Inquiry (1986)
• Capriccio (1987)
• Killer Crocodile (1989)
• Gioco al massacro (1989)
• Paprika (1991)
• The Voyeur (1994)
• The Hideout (2007)
• A Second Childhood (2010)

External links

• Riz Ortolani at the Internet Movie Database
• Free scores by Riz Ortolani in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Riz Ortolani at Epdlp (Spanish)