Per le antiche scale

Per le antiche scale (aka  “DOWN THE ANCIENT STAIRCASE”) is a dramatic film of 1975 directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Marcello Mastroianni, Barbara Bouchet, Françoise Fabian, Silvano Tranquilli, Marthe Keller. In Italy, in 1930, Professor Bonaccorsi, renowned psychiatrist, conducts research on madness in the mental hospital where he works as a doctor in Tuscany. He has three lovers: Bianca (his assistant), Carla (wife of a colleague) and Francesca (the wife of the director of the mental hospital). A newcomer, Dr. Anna Bersani is there for a trial period; very soon she opposes to the theories of Bonaccorsi. 

Ennio Morricone has written one of the most beautiful themes of his long and successful career, a romantic motif for flute and orchestra which is alternated with extremely dissonant passages that evoke all the drama of the asylum.