Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and Sony EMI Italia, presents a remastered, expanded edition of Academy Award-winning composer Luis Bacalov’s score for Roma Bene, directed by Carlo Lizzani in 1971 and starring Nino Manfredi, Virna Lisi, Philippe Leroy, Irene Papas, Senta Berger and Michèle Mercier. Roma Bene is a satirical comedy featuring a luxurious cast that gives life to a gallery of quirky characters, aimed at portraying the vacuous worldliness, moral misery and societal vices of the time. It depicts a wealthy, consumerist middle class that sacrifices human relationships to profit and personal fulfillment and is condemned to a final, mocking backlash.

For Roma Bene, Luis Bacalov (Quien Sabe?, Django, Summertime Killer) composed a score based on the progressive rock sound that had been bringing him much success in his collaborations with the group Osanna. The songs “Rhythm,” with lyrics by Audrey Nohra Tainton (reused in Fernando di Leo’s Milano Calibro 9), “Don’t Put Me Down” (lyrics by Mack David) and “Down Memory Lane” (lyrics by Susy Carrington) are performed by Riccardo Cocciante with the group Godfather.

The hard-to-find soundtrack album was released on LP in 1971 by Delta Records in Italy and issued on CD in 2004 by the Japanese Avanz label. For this new release, the original stereo album is completed with the original film versions recorded by Bacalov and mixed in mono. Restored and mastered by Chris Malone and supervised by Claudio Fuiano, the package includes liner notes by European film music scholar Bruno Oliver.