What links the opening of Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film Raging Bull and the climax of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Godfather film trilogy? The answer is music – specifically Italian opera. Both film sequences use the orchestral Intermezzo from the 1890 hit opera Cavalleria rusticana, by Pietro Mascagni.
The misty, atmospheric, slow-motion opening credits of Raging Bull, with the accompaniment of Mascagni’s music, turns Robert De Niro’s practice sweeps and bounces into artistic choreography – the grace of the boxing movement is stripped of the aggression of the fight.
