La ragazza di Bube. Carlo Rustichelli

Set in a small Italian village in the 1940s, the film tells the story of a woman, Mara (Claudia Cardinale) who falls in love with a complete stranger (George Chakiris). The stranger turns out to have killed a fascist policeman during World War II and is sent to jail for 14 years. The woman pines for the convict and waits out his sentence, spurning the love of a writer (Marc Michel) who wants to marry her. Carlo Rustichelli holds film composers of the past in high esteem and considers their scores invaluable. He sincerely admires Miklós Rózsa (a unique composer!) and knew him personally when his Hungarian colleague spent a while in Rome back in ‘58, while working on BEN-HUR. LA RAGAZZA DI BUBE opens with a theme for trombone, setting a melancholy mood which perfectly suited the movie and returns later in the film performed by solo guitar. This method of writing two motifs – a sentimental theme and a more dramatic theme – is one of Carlo Rustichelli’s trademarks, and can be found in most of his scores.