Nicolas Winding Refn, Daniel Blumberg Set for Sounds Like a Movie Fest
Vintage movies and soundtracks buff Nicolas Winding Refn, Oscar-winning “The Brutalist” composer Daniel Blumberg and music supervisor Mary Ramos — known for her long-standing collaboration with Quentin Tarantino — are among high-caliber guests set to attend Italy’s new Sounds Like a Movie (SLAM) festival dedicated to soundtracks.
The three-day event, featuring live performances, screenings, panels, masterclasses and workshops, is being launched in Milan by Italian label CAM Sugar.
The inaugural SLAM event, to be held Nov. 14-16 at the Triennale Milano museum, is bowing in tandem with the 65th anniversary of CAM Sugar. The label boasts the world’s largest catalog of Italian film soundtracks, with over 2,500 original titles including Nino Rota’s compositions for Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,” their “Morricone Segreto” album drawing on Ennio Morricone’s lesser-known experimental compositions for films and “Eli Roth’s Red Light Disco: Dancefloor Seduction From Italian Sexploitation Cinema” compilation featuring tracks handpicked by Roth that was released earlier this year.
“SLAM is a tangible example of what we are constantly working towards: enhancing not just the deep connection between music and images, but also between the people who carry out this precious cultural endeavor,” said Sugar Group CEO Filippo Sugar in a statement. “We are proud to inaugurate this event that we believe will help make Milan a truly international hub for music and cinema.”
The fest will open with a panel on soundtrack preservation held by Gianluca Farinelli, head of Italy’s venerable Bologna Film Archives film restoration lab. He will chat with Stéphane Lerouge, who curates the Écoutez le Cinéma collection at Universal Music France and CAM Sugar’s Andrea Fabrizii.
Winding Refn will hold an onstage conversation with genre films specialist Manlio Gomarasca. Ramos and Holly Adams, who is Universal Music Group’s head of soundtrack and score, will hold court with Italian journalist Dario Zonta about soundscapes in the “Cinematic World of Ennio Morricone.”
Following a screening of “The Brutalist,” Zonta will also host an onstage conversation with Blumberg about his Oscar-winning score blending experimental pieces with traditional genres like period jazz and soundtracking its finale with the 1978 Italo disco hit “One for You, One for Me” by La Bionda.
Live events at SLAM will comprise concerts by multi-hyphenate Emile Mosseri, who composed the 2021 Oscar-nominated soundtrack for “Minari”; Dustin O’Halloran, winner of an Emmy for his title theme to Prime Video’s “Transparent”; and a set by Italian trance music producer Lorenzo Senni.
Pictured above (from left to right), Nicolas Winding Refn and Daniel Blumberg.
