Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and EMI General Music, presents a completely revised and remastered edition of Ennio Morricone’s classic score for the 1974 French polar directed by Robert Enrico and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Marlène Jobert and Philippe Noiret.
As the United States was brewing its own Watergate scandal, American filmmakers reflected on corrupt politics with the cultivation of the paranoia thriller—movies where singular protagonists come up against vast government conspiracies which they must defeat on their own. Though the idea of innocent bystanders getting caught up in political intrigue goes as far back as Hitchcock, there the government agencies merely mistook the protagonist as an antagonist. In the new paranoia thrillers, the state was the enemy as they were trying to silence the little man. French cinema had its own response to this movement, and Robert Enrico’s Il Segreto (aka Le Secret) may be one of the most intriguing and best examples of this subgenre.
Ennio Morricone composed a fascinating score for Le Secret, and one of its most beautiful and heartbreaking themes (“Dal Mare”) features the wonderful voice of Edda Dell’Orso. The main theme, a melancholic melody suspended over the overlay of the sound of a drop of water and a harp chord, was an innovative idea and a trademark of Morricone in his prolific run of ’70s political thrillers.
Le Secret was originally released on a French 45RPM featuring only two cuts from the score. In 1995, Point Records added five tracks to the soundtrack of Le Foto Proibite di una Signora Per Bene. The complete score was released in 2000 by Screen Trax and that version is long out of print. But while the album is longer than 50 minutes, Le Secret actually has only fifteen minutes of music, so we have chosen to offer first the score originally conceived—and partially unused—by Morricone for the film, in proper order (with the license to offer the extended version of “Dal Mare” at the beginning of the album, as an overture), and the alternate versions as bonus material. Having access to the original master tapes, the sound has been completely restored, including a new mix for the main title overdub. This album has been produced and mastered by Chris Malone, supervised by Claudio Fuiano, and the package includes a 12-page booklet with liner notes by Gergely Hubai discussing the film and score.
"Dark stuff from Morricone – featuring a sweeping set of orchestral themes conducted by Bruno Nicolai, with fairly sombre overtones on most tracks. A few titles feature classic elements – like odd piano, wordless female vocals, and sharp-edged strings – and the overall sound is excellent if you dig Morricone's more serious work" Dustygroove
