Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Celine Dion Performs Morricone At Oscars

What, Celine Dion warbles along to that awesome theme from the spaghetti westerns? No, sadly she won't be trying to vocalize "wa-wa-wa-wa-waaaaaaah!" Instead Dion will be performing a song with music by Morricone (a theme from "Once Upon A Time In America") and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, who have been hosting tributes to themselves in the last few weeks. The producers of the film wisely thought an epic gangster film didn't need a pop song but now we're getting "I Knew I Loved You" all the same. (Would it have played over the rape scene, I wonder?) A tribute to Morricone could be a great moment at the Oscars, if they compiled a well-edited montage of some of his great work from "The Mission" and "those westerns and "Days Of Heaven" and about a million other movies (perhaps with Jack Black's tribute from "The Holiday" thrown in for good measure). Having Celine Dion sing a pop song -- even one based on a theme from his movies, even one that's really, really good -- has nothing to do with paying tribute to his brilliant work as a film composer and takes time away from what would be a real tribute, which is SHOWING the work that he's done. Dreadful time waster.

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