Nino Rota

 Federico Fellini, recalling his first chance meeting with composer Nino Rota: "Outside Cinecittà, I noticed a funny little man waiting in the wrong place for the tram. He seemed happily oblivious of everything. I felt compelled... to wait with him... I was certain that the tram would stop in its regular place and we would have to run for it, and he was equally certain it would stop where he was standing... To my surprise, the tram did stop right in front of us."

"He was someone who had a rare quality belonging to the world of intuition. Just like children, simple men, sensitive people, innocent people, he would suddenly say dazzling things. As soon as he arrived, stress disappeared, everything turned into a festive atmosphere; the movie entered a joyful, serene, fantastic period, a new life."

"The most precious collaborator I have ever had, I say it straightaway and don't even have to hesitate, was Nino Rota — between us, immediately, a complete, total, harmony ... He had a geometric imagination, a musical approach worthy of celestial spheres. He thus had no need to see images from my movies. When I asked him about the melodies he had in mind to comment one sequence or another, I clearly realized he was not concerned with images at all. His world was inner, inside himself, and reality had no way to enter it."

The relationship between Fellini and Rota was so strong that even at Fellini's funeral Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife, asked trumpeter Mauro Maur to play Rota's "Improvviso dell'Angelo" in the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome.

Rota's score for Fellini's "8½" (1963) is often cited as one of the factors which makes the film cohesive. His score for Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits" (1965) included a collaboration with Eugene Walter on the song, "Go Milk the Moon" (cut from the final version of the film), and they teamed again for the song "What Is a Youth?," part of Rota's score for Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" (1968).

The American Film Institute ranked Rota's score for "The Godfather" (1972) #5 on their list of the greatest film scores. Rota was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Dramatic Score for his work, but the nomination was rescinded after it was discovered that Rota reused music from the 1958 film "Fortunella." Rota would win the Award two years later for "The Godfather, Part II".

Happy Birthday, Nino Rota!