Amadeus - 1984

This movie begins with the attempted suicide of Antonio Salieri. He's overcome with guilt about the death of Mozart. The movie is told from the viewpoint of his flashbacks as he recounts the awfulness of being second best. The effect is quite brilliant.
Consider a scene from the first half of the movie. Salieri is the court composer of Emperor Joseph II, one of the most powerful men in Europe. He wants to honor Mozart's entrance to the court with a march that he's written. The Emperor insists on playing it himself on the spot, playing badly. Mozart enters and is given the piece. He declines saying that he knows it from one hearing. He sits down and plays it. Then he picks out a piece and improves it. Salieri's efforts have been made to seem small and pitiful.
His anguish is primal and only grows with time. F. Murray Abraham's protrayal is very very good. He won an Oscar for it and it's entirely deserved.
This is a great movie.

Comments

MamaD4 said…
I agree, a great movie...I think my parents rented it and we all watched it on our super-cool VHS player (it had a remote with a 12' cord). The part that I remember the most was one of the last scenes, when Mozart dies and he's so poor that he can't afford a proper grave or a casket, so he's dumped unceremoniously out of the common casket in his shroud. Then they pile on the lime and leave him in the pit. God, that just horrified me! To think that Mozart's remains are in a pauper's grave somewhere. Sorry, but I can't agree on the topic of his music...he is my favorite of classical composers. Sublime, divine, heavenly.
1:01 AM
Peder said…
One of the guys at work told me that he worked at a theater when this movie came out. He told me that Mozart's death and pauper's burial brought many people to sobs. Which I can see. For someone so honored today to have been cast aside so easily is shocking.
The thing about the music is this, I'm not looking for 'sublime' in my music. I'm looking for passion. Tchaikovsky moves me in ways that Mozart never has. Same with many of the other Romantic composers. Different tastes.
7:01 AM
MamaD4 said…
Well, I will agree with you about Tchaikovsky. His music feels much...bigger to me than Mozart's. I didn't cry at the burial scene, it just really disturbed me to the point where I can still see it in my mind's eye. Ewww. A big pit of dead people? I was watching this disturbing documentary about meatpacking on the History Channel night before last. There was a scene of a machine that POOF! whips the entire hide off a cow in about 1.6 seconds...wow. That scene is pretty much stuck in my head too. I may become vegetarian. OK, probably not, but still...
5:15 PM
MamaD4 said…
One last comment. Where in the heck did Tom Hulce GO anyway? Did he get Best Actor that year? He was in "Parenthood" and we haven't seen him since...Hans and I always comment on that whenever we catch part of "Parenthood". In your opinion are there a lot of Oscar-worthy stars that have simply dropped off the face of the earth?
5:18 PM
Peder said…
Hmmm, I just looked at his IMDB page and his career really did disappear after Parenthood. Let me think about the other question...
9:23 PM
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