Sting to Narrate Documentary About ‘The Godfather’ Composer Nino Rota

Musician and songwriter Sting will narrate Walter Fasano’s documentary “Nino – A Film About Nino Rota,” which is a portrait of “The Godfather” composer Nino Rota. The film will have its world premiere on Sept. 11 in the Open section of the 83rd Venice Film Festival.

Rota, who trained under Ildebrando Pizzetti, Alfredo Casella and Rosario Scalero, encountered cinema early on, eventually composing 150 film scores, including those for Luchino Visconti (“The Leopard,” “Rocco and His Brothers”), Franco Zeffirelli (“Romeo and Juliet”), and Federico Fellini, including “La Strada,” “Nights of Cabiria,” “La Dolce Vita,” “8½” and “Amarcord.”

With Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” he achieved his greatest success, and with “The Godfather Part II,” he became the first Italian composer to win the Academy Award for best original score.

Photographs and archival footage are juxtaposed with insights from interviewees, including Park Chan-wook, Alexandre Desplat and Caterina D’Amico, a first-hand witness to the deep friendship between Rota and her mother, screenwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico.

Rota chose to live in Southern Italy, in Bari, preferring it to his native Milan and Rome, the country’s capital of cinema. It is in Bari that American arranger Vince Mendoza rehearses and conducts a major celebratory concert for the film in the concert hall of the conservatory that Rota directed for nearly 30 years.

Rota did not have an easy relationship with music critics, according to a statement: “His natural affinity for the music of the past was ill-suited to an era when the avant-garde demanded a rejection of traditional forms. Today, Rota reclaims his rightful place among the greatest 20th-century composers, leaving a profound and personal mark on music history.”

“Nino” will be released in Italian theaters later this year by Be Water Film with Adler Entertainment.

The film is produced by Mattia Guerra for Be Water Film, Filippo Sugar and Elisabetta Biganzoli for Sugar Play, and Marco Colombo for Adler Entertainment, together with Marco Morabito and Fasano. Other producing partners include I Diavoli and Rai Documentari.

It is produced with the support of the MIC-DGCA Fund for the Development of Investments in Cinema and Audiovisual Media, and with the support of the Apulia Film Fund of the Apulia Film Commission and the Apulia Region.