Nino Rota

Rota's first movie work was for Italy's "white telephone" romances and musicals of the 1930s. In an earthier vein, Rota composed for several of the neorealist directors of the postwar era. His longest professional association (25 years) was with director Federico Fellini, who once described the relationship thusly: "It is a harmonious collaboration that I haven't felt like changing. His music is a kind of drama that is very true for my story and images." Rota's better-known Fellini scores were for La Strada (1954), Il Bidone (1955), Nights of Cabiria (1956), and, perhaps best of all, La Dolce Vita (1961). One of Rota's many stage compositions was for a late-'50s ballet version of La Strada. When director Francis Ford Coppola wanted an authentic Italian "feel" for the music of the Godfather, he knew exactly who to contact: Nino Rota, who won his first-ever Oscar for the now-classic The Godfather score (alas, he was later disqualified because he'd lifted his themes from one of his own earlier film scores). Outside of Godfather, Nino Rota's most popular film composition was the love theme from Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide