After graduating from Rome’s Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia with a degree in composition, Ennio Morricone found himself in a condition familiar to many of those who study the creative arts: educated, talented, and broke. He took odd jobs playing trumpet on the street and writing music for comedy shows to make ends meet. When he agreed to perform one such piece of gig-work miscellanea, writing a score for a movie, he had no idea he was about to become an icon of 20th-century pop culture—as evidenced by his choice to be credited under a fake name. After hearing Morricone’s early film work, the Italian director Sergio Leone sought the composer out and introduced him to the films of Akira Kurosawa. The result was the first Leone-Morricone collaboration, a sun-bleached 1964 remake of Kurosawa’s 1961 film, Yojimbo, called A Fistful of Dollars. The operatic style Morricone brought to the score has been copied and riffed off so frequently that it now seems cliche. For the time, it was revolutionary. As Morricone kept working with Leone throughout his trilogy of Dollars-westerns, he became one of the most beloved (and prolific) musicians in pop culture, going on to work with Terrence Malick, Gillo Pontecorvo, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. Although Morricone’s work in film sometimes earned him scorn from his contemporaries, other creatives such as composer John Zorn have claimed his music belongs in the same category as J.S. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. Morricone, who died in July 2020, did one of his final scores at age 87 for 2015’s The Hateful Eight. By then his work had been sampled by The Simpsons, The Sopranos, the Ramones, and Metallica. Although he preferred to think of himself as a European composer rather than a Hollywood hired gun (Morricone never made the move to California and always mixed his concert pieces along with his film scores when he presented them live), he eventually came to see his work in film as something other than a way to pay bills. “At first I thought that music applied to cinema was humiliating,” Morricone says in the interview that anchors Ennio, Giuseppe Tornatore‘s new documentary exploring roughly 35 of the 500-plus films he worked on in his six-decade career. “Then, little by little, no.” Ennio opens April 19, but Saturday ticket-holders for the 2 and 5 p.m. screenings are invited to enjoy a wine and chocolate reception presented between showings by the Italian Cultural Society of Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. on April 20 at AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. silver.afi.com. $8–$13. —Will Lennon
Saturday: Being in a Place—Special Screenings at National Gallery of Art
It may be odd to recommend a film or a series based on a venue but if you’ve ever attended a screening at the National Gallery of Art, particularly one without any previous knowledge of the film, you’ll understand why we’re recommending this. Being in a Place is a 2022, 60-minute documentary about Margaret Tait, a Scottish filmmaker who lived from 1918 to 1999 and didn’t get her flowers until the 2000s. The experimental director is still unknown to most and films like this attempt to shine a light on her work. These types of screenings are a great way to expose more people to more artists but what makes it even better is filmmaker Luke Fowler will be present for a post-watching conversation. Whether you like or loathe what you see, you can interrogate the creator. Another reason NGA programming is so excellent? The shorts screened before the main attraction. Saturday’s event features another work of Fowler, his newest from 2023, 9-minute short N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild) about German composer Brunhild Ferrari. You’re not going to see anything like this even at AFI Silver or Alamo Drafthouse. You’re also not going to find a better price. With a barrier to entry so low, it’s criminal to pass up expanding your film knowledge at programs like this. Being in a Place screens at 2 p.m. on April 20 at the National Gallery of Art, 6th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. nga.gov. Free. —Brandon Wetherbee
Ongoing: Creating in Abstraction at Gallery B
Through April 27, Morton Fine Art brings a pop-up exhibit of contemporary art to Bethesda’s Gallery B, a public gallery managed by Bethesda Urban Partnership. Titled Creating in Abstraction: A Pop-up Project Group Exhibition of 11 Global Contemporary Artists, the exhibit is part of Morton Fine Art’s trademarked *a pop-up project, which since 2010 has served as what the website describes as a “mobile gallery component which hosts temporary curated exhibitions nationally.” While the artwork is for sale, admission is free and open to the public. Present at the opening reception was founder Amy Morton, who notes that this show is her gallery’s first return to the Bethesda space since COVID. Her enthusiasm for art is contagious, evidenced by the tirelessness with which she spoke with guests about the pieces on display. That spirit of accessibility and joy permeates the exhibit, making it worth a visit even by those unfamiliar with—or unsure about—contemporary art. There’s enough on display to interest and engage without overwhelming. The 25 pieces on view range widely in style and media, from a sculpture and graphite drawings by Nigerian-born Osi Audu to Jaz Graf’s Sutra series, delicate wall-hangings woven from paper, cloth, and the remnants of Theravada Buddhist nuns’ robes. Highlights of Creating in Abstraction include Katherine Tzu–Lan Mann’s richly colored, geometric yet naturalistic “Ewer” and “Palm Summit,” as well as Rosemary Feit Covey’s textured, layered snapshots of the natural world, particularly “Moths – Broken Flight.” Creating in Abstraction runs through April 27 at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. Thursday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. mortonfineart.com. Free. —Allison R. Shely
Ongoing: Maureen Minehan at Multiple Exposures Gallery
Keep your expectations in check when visiting Maureen Minehan’s exhibit at Multiple Exposures Gallery. Her images include a bevy of lovely landscapes, but don’t expect them to comprise a deep dive into a specific place. At least she’s honest about that: The exhibit’s title, There and Back, refers to what Minehan calls the “familiar terrain” that “escapes notice” as vacationers drive between the Washington area and the Delaware and Maryland shore. To create her works, Minehan takes photographs, then digitally blends them with watercolors she paints, providing a layer of texture. Despite her consistent technique, the images vary in their look, sometimes dramatically. Some images she made at the destination—at the meeting of ocean and sand—look more like pastel-hued paintings than photographs. Others have the rough look of Polaroid transfer prints, including a high-contrast image of railroad tracks alongside a receding line of telephone poles. Others capture an enveloping fog that turns buildings and trees into near apparitions. However, it’s with a series of isolated buildings that Minehan’s modifications prove most memorable. In several images, she captures structures seemingly bathed in sharp sunlight, even as their surroundings exude a gloomy darkness; in one, an asymmetrical, off-white building provides added intrigue from its eccentric geometry. With such images, we may not be lingering very long, but at least we have been presented with a glimpse of something worthwhile. Maureen Minehan’s There and Back runs through May 19 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. Daily, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. multipleexposuresgallery.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson
Next Thursday: Oneohtrix Point Never at Howard Theatre
There may not seem to be much overlap between the detached coolness of the Weeknd and the frenetic anxiety of the Safdie brothers’ films, but one exists, and his name is Daniel Lopatin. Lopatin, who performs and creates under the moniker Oneohtrix Point Never (OPN), constructs sample-heavy, synthesizer-forward compositions that conjure a sense of tuneful existential dread. For anyone who was able to withstand the excruciating Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie “comedy” The Curse on Showtime, Lopatin helped make the viewing experience that much more uncomfortable thanks to his (and John Medeski) pins and needles–inducing score. On the other end of the spectrum, Lopatin also had a hand in producing the Weeknd’s 2020 hit album, After Hours, and was the musical director for the superstar’s 2021 halftime show, making the country’s biggest stage a bit more bizarre in the process. Outside of his collaborations, Lopatin has been regularly producing some of the most singular electronic music made today and comes to the Howard Theater to promote OPN’s 2023 album, Again. Oneohtrix Point Never play at 8 p.m. on April 25 at Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW. thehowardtheatre.com. $35–$55. —Matt Siblo
