Power without guilt. Love without doubt. It feels good to be Wolf… doesn’t it?
-Dr. Alezais, “Wolf.”
From the liner notes:
Working with Ennio Morricone and the resultant score was the most gratifying experience I’ve had in a long life of making movies. His extraordinary music has the mystery and integrity of the work of a great composer. But Morricone is very much a film composer. He is unmatched at finding the secrets and the undercurrents of a scene in a film and of its overall story. Working with a true artist is always an enlightening experience. I was very happy working on ‘Wolf‘ with Morricone and I am happy with the result.
-Mike Nichols.
This is a film of the highest level and of great importance for the cinema. The musical score was a very elaborate and complex process. Certain pieces were widely discussed between Mike Nichols and myself with great care and passion, so as to find the creative balance within each piece between the poetic and the primitive, the romantic and the naturalistic. The process of creating this two-fold interpretation composed many intense and passionately creative moments between Mike Nichols and myself.
-Ennio Morricone.
This 2017 Music On Vinyl pressing of Morricone’s 1994 score is part of their excellent Ennio Morricone Classic Soundtrack Series (see image below for the complete collection).
In Mike Nichols‘ 1994 romantic-horror film, “Wolf,” Jack Nicholson stars as Will Randle, a mild-mannered publishing executive who is losing his wife and job to the machinations of his slippery, duplicitous protegé, James Spader, until he is bitten by a wolf one night on a dark back road and begins to act…strangely.
As he begins to transform into the Wolf of the title, he begins a romantic relationship with Michelle Pfeiffer, the daughter of Nicholson’s publishing mogul boss (Christopher Plummer) .
Links:
Listen to Morricone’s score for “Wolf” here:
Watch the trailer for Mike Nichols‘ “Wolf” here:
Watch Nicholson get bitten here:
Watch an excellent Om Puri explain the legend of the Wolf to Nicholson (in one of my favourite scenes) here:
See Nicholson’s transformation (old-school make-up and prosthetics, not CGI) into the Wolf here:
Watch the climactic fight sequence between Nicholson and Spader here:
Discover the story behind the making of “Wolf” here:
Purchase a vinyl copy of Morricone’s “Wolf” at Discogs here:
If you’re in the Greater Toronto Area, say hi to my Filmography podcast co-host, Bjorn, and rent or purchase a copy of “Wolf” at “Toronto’s last great video store” Bay Street Video.
Outside of Toronto, you can find a copy of the Indicator blu-ray on Amazon here:
