Nino Rotta - Toby Dammit

Sorry for the three year absence guys. Gee has it really been that long? Well I can't say I will be posting regularly anymore but I really wanted to share this album as it is the soundtrack to my favorite Federico Fellini film Toby Dammit.

Toby Dammit is such a wonderful little gem that is relatively obscure. It is a forty minute film made in 1968, is one of three short films adapted from stories by Edgar Allan Poe that were distributed together in Italy as Tre Passi Nel Delirio, in France as Histories Extraordinaires, and in England and the U.S. as Spirits of the Dead. The other two short films are William Wilson and Metzengerstein adapted by Louis Malle and Roger Vadim respectively. Fellini’s film is an adaptation set in contemporary Rome of Poe’s Never Bet the Devil Your Head published in 1841. Poe’s work is a brief comic satire of the transcendentalist movements that were then popular in Europe and America. Fellini’s work takes two elements from Poe’s story: First the plot of a drunk who confronts a mysterious stranger on a bridge and bets him his head; the man fails to see that the stranger is the devil who subsequently wins the bet. Second Fellini takes the name Toby Dammit, Toby being an English slang term for ass in Poe’s time. In short Toby Dammit is a dammed ass.

The soundtrack is what I am sharing with you and it is truly remarkable. It was composed by Nino Rota who composed the scores to most of Felini's films. He also composed the score to the first two Godfather movies. A lot of this score is different variations of the same few themes but they are enchanting themes that mimic the dreamlike quality of the film.

Download Toby Dammit OST