Amadeus (film)
Amadeus is a 1984 drama film directed by Milos Forman.
Based on Peter Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the film is based very loosely on
the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers who lived
in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century.
The film
was nominated for 53 awards and received 40, including eight Academy Awards, four
BAFTA Awards, 4 Golden Globes, and a DGA Award. In 1998, Amadeus was ranked the
53rd best American movie by the American Film Institute on its AFI's 100 Years-
100 Movies list. The movie was dropped off the AFI's 10th anniversary edition
of the list in 2007.
Tagline:Amadeus. The man. The music. The magic. The madness. The murder. The mystery. The motion picture.
Music
The
Orchestra: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
The Choruses
Academy Chorus of St Martin In The Fields, conducted by Laszlo
Heltay
Ambrosian Opera Chorus, conducted by John McCarthy
The Choristers
of Westminster Abbey, conducted by Simon Preston
Instrumental soloists
Concerto
for Piano in Eb, K482, performed by Ivan Moravec
Concerto for Piano in D minor,
K466, performed by Imogen Cooper
Adagio in C minor for Glass Harmonica, K617,
performed by Thomas Bloch with The Brussels Virtuosi, conducted by Marc Grauwels
Parody backgrounds
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Caro mio ben by Giuseppe
Giordani
Michele Esposito, soprano
It is well known that Shaffer
took dramatic license in his portrayals of both Mozart and Salieri. There is some
debate, however, as to just how much. Documentary evidence suggests that there
was indeed some antipathy between Mozart and Salieri, but the idea that Salieri
was in fact the instigator of Mozart's demise is not given academic credence.
In fact, while there may have been real rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, there
is also evidence that they enjoyed a relationship marked by mutual respect. For
a historical re-evaluation of this rivalry as represented in the play and the
film, musicologist A. Peter Brown's article "Amadeus and Mozart: Setting
the Record Straight" may be more useful.
In 1985,
the film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including a rare double nomination
for Best Actor – Hulce and Abraham were each nominated for their portrayals
of Mozart and Salieri. The movie won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best
Actor (Abraham), Best Director (Forman), Costume Design (Theodor Pistek), Adapted
Screenplay (Shaffer), Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Sound. The film was
nominated for but did not win Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Editing.
The movie was nominated for six Golden Globes (Hulce and Abraham were nominated together) and won four, including awards to Forman, Abraham, Shaffer, and Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Drama. Jeffrey Jones was nominated for Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Forman also received the Directors Guild of America Award for his work.
In his essay collection The Relativity
of Wrong, Isaac Asimov praised Abraham's depiction of Salieri and voiced his support
for Abraham to receive the Oscar. Abraham won the award for his portrayal of Salieri,
just as Ian McKellen won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Salieri in the 1980
Broadway theatre production.
Cast
F.
Murray Abraham - Antonio Salieri
Tom Hulce - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Elizabeth Berridge - Constanze Mozart
Roy Dotrice
- Leopold Mozart
Simon Callow - Emanuel Schikaneder / Papageno
Christine
Ebersole - Katerina Cavalieri / Costanza
Jeffrey Jones
- Emperor Joseph II
Charles Kay - Count Orsini-Rosenberg
Kenneth McMillan
- Michael Schlumberg (2002 Director's Cut)
Kenny Baker - Parody Commendatore
Lisabeth Bartlett - Papagena
Barbara Bryne - Frau Weber
Martin
Cavina - Young Antonio Salieri (as Martin Cavani)
Roderick Cook - Count Von
Strack
Milan Demjanenko - Karl Mozart
Plot
The film begins as Salieri, as an old man, attempts suicide by slitting his throat while loudly begging forgiveness from a now-deceased Mozart for having been his assassin. Placed in a lunatic asylum for the act, he is visited by a young priest who seeks to take his confession. Salieri is sullen and uninterested. The priest mentions a rumor that Salieri may have murdered Mozart and says that, if true, Salieri must unburden his mortal sins. Salieri remains uninterested until the priest says, "All men are equal in God's eyes." Suddenly, Salieri is hooked: "Are they?" he inquires, and launches into a long "confession" about the relationship between himself and Mozart.
Salieri reminisces about his youth, particularly about his love for music. His music education, however, was all but stopped by his uncultured, unloved father, who choked to death during a meal – "a miracle" that allowed Salieri to pursue his dream of joining the 18th century cultural elite in Vienna, the "city of musicians." Salieri begins his career as a devout, naïve, God-fearing man who believes his success and talent as a composer are God’s rewards for his piety. He is content as the court composer for Austrian Emperor Joseph II, until Mozart explodes onto the scene.
The irreverent, lewd, yet immensely talented Mozart repeatedly humiliates Salieri and belittles his work. When Mozart meets the Emperor for the first time, Salieri presents Mozart with a little "March of Welcome," which he had toiled to create. Upon hearing it, Mozart spontaneously "improves" this piece with minimal effort, transforming Salieri's "trifle" into the "Non più andrai" march from his opera, The Marriage of Figaro.
Salieri smarts at the realization of his own lesser abilities, and reels at the notion of God speaking through the childish, petulant Mozart, whose music he regards as miraculous. Gradually, Salieri’s faith is shaken to pieces. He believes God, through Mozart's genius, is cruelly laughing at his musical mediocrity.
Salieri's struggles with God are intercut with scenes showing Mozart's own trials and tribulations with life in Vienna: pride at the initial reception of his music, anger and disbelief over his subsequent treatment by the Italians of the Emperor's court, happiness with his wife Constanze and his son Wolfgang, and grief at the death of his father Leopold. Mozart becomes more desperate as the family's expenses increase and his commissions decrease, and he begins to sink into himself and his thoughts. When Salieri learns of Mozart's financial straits, he finally sees his chance to avenge himself, using "God's Beloved" as the instrument.
Salieri hatches a complex plot to gain ultimate victory over Mozart and over God. He disguises himself as the spectre of Leopold and "commissions" the young composer to write a requiem mass, with a down payment and the promise of an enormous sum upon completion. Mozart begins to write perhaps his greatest work, the Requiem Mass in D minor, unaware of the true identity of his mysterious patron and his scheme: to kill him when the work was complete. Salieri dreamed of the admiration of his peers and the court as they applauded the magnificent mass of death he had written for Mozart, his friend and colleague. Only Salieri and God would know the truth – that Mozart wrote his own requiem mass, and that God could only watch while Salieri finally received the fame and renown he felt he deserved.
Mozart's financial woes and the eerie likeness of the piece's commissioner to his father drive him to madness as he works on the piece. After Constanze leaves him and takes their son with her, his health quickly begins to fail and he collapses during the premiere performance of The Magic Flute. Salieri takes Mozart home and tricks him into working on the Requiem although Mozart is clearly very ill. Mozart dictates while Salieri transcribes throughout the night and into the next morning, realizing the genius of Mozart's compositions, until Mozart finally asks for a break. As Constanze returns that morning, she tells Salieri to leave, but he protests, saying that he will not abandon Mozart. He even abandons his plan of stealing the requiem having seen the simple genius of it, and credits it to Mozart when Constanze inquires. Constanze locks the manuscript away despite Salieri's objections, but as she goes to wake her husband, Mozart dies. The Requiem is left unfinished, and Salieri is left powerless as Mozart's body is ignominiously hauled out of Vienna for burial in a mass grave.
The film ends as Salieri finishes recounting this woefully tragic and cruelly inhuman story to the visibly shaken young priest. Salieri concludes that God killed Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in even an ounce of his glory, and that he is consigned to be the "patron saint of mediocrity." Salieri absolves the priest of his own mediocrity and blesses his fellow patients as he is taken away in his wheelchair.
Animation
- Comedy - Crime
- Documentary
-
Family - Foreign
Language - Historical
- Horror - Musical
- Political
Recommended- Romance- Science Fiction and Fantasy - Sport Movies -- Thriller - War - Western - Wildlife
A map of where different US films & TV programmes blanket across the USA are
ZANADU - A FUN BASED SITE, WITH SOME FILM RELATED SECTIONS
Flight Las Vegas Nevada - Find a flight to Las Vegas
Cheap flights Beijing - Get your tickets here Fly to Beijing
Bank Interest Rates - A Website on Bank Interest Rates
Car Cheap Insurance - Get Cheap Car Insurance from here
Flights London - Want to fly to or Visit London get your Flight and Hotel place here
Get
your fave music here for your IPOD
Buy DVD Rent DVD Get your DVDs from here