One of my favorite stories about Mozart concerned his hatred of a popular singer. Seeing that she had a proclivity to drop her head on low notes and raise her chin high and high notes, he deliberately wrote a piece that violently alternated between highs and lows, causing her head to bob up and down like a chicken. He was kinda that way.
You can argue that Salieri is an unreliable narrator in the movie. It’s believed he got dementia and started believing the rumors about him killing Mozart himself.
@@TheJabbate1that's how I saw it. The last year of Salieri's life, he had a nervous breakdown, attempted suicide, and was committed to a mental hospital. There were allegations that Mozart was poisoned and the Mozart and him were bitter rivals, but Salieri denied that and both respected each other. But in the movie- in the end, Salieri just accepts the rumors as truth and creates a story all around it. Anyone who does a cursory search of Salieri would see he had kids. I think this was the director's hint that "Nah, this isn't what happened, just what he believes."
Yes, he taught Schubert and Beethoven. He taught for free, to honor the charity he got as a youth. There was a big birthday of Salieri that Schubert attended, but Beethoven did not, which caused some sore feeling amongst many of Salieri's students. This is not a fair representation of the man, but it is such an amazing story of the tension between virtue and talent.
Accurate part is how they buried him and his dead is most likely kidney failure because bacteria infection , sepsis cures have got better in last 30 years .
Fun Fact: For the death bed scene none of the actors knew each other's lines. Each of them were given an earpiece, musicians dictated terms to the actors and it was done on the fly. That moment of Salieri's frustration of not keeping up, then getting it is the actor getting lost and then getting back on track with the scene. What talent! Also, the scene that always gets me is when Salieri reveals his big plan and the expression on the priest's face is just one of abject horror at the monstrosity of Salieri's blasphemy. He wants to kill Mozart and by doing so humble God himself. Such powerful acting.
If you recall, F. Murray Abraham was in Last Action Hero, and this movie is why Danny said he couldn't be trusted because he killed Mozart (”Who is Moe Zart?").
I went to the North Carolina School of the Arts, Tom Hulce's alma mater. He graduated 5 or 6 years before I attended, but he often came to performances put on. He was Uber-supportive of the school and felt he owed it a debt that he wished to continue fulfilling. Anyway, the first time I met him was us both being in attendance of a series of 1 act plays, literally weeks after Amadeus has been released. He sat near the back (I was up front) and he was introduced as a distinguished Grad during the opening House announcement. Instead of standing and receiving the greeting applause from the attendees, he let out that famous Amadeus cackle. The entire audience gut-laughed and it took 5 mins to halt, so they could start the show. He ended up teaching several classes over my years as a visiting instructor and is really a very cool guy.
@@johannesvalterdivizzini1523 Oh damn, I didn't notice Tom Hulce in Animal House at all. It's so hard to concentrate on anything else with people like John Belushi, Donald Sutherland, Karen Allen, Kevin Bacon and Stephen Furst to see.
I wrote a paper on this film on my music theory class in college. Its themes of dreams, talent, faith, and envy are fleshed out so deeply in this wonderful film. The set up is relatively simple, but the subtext is extensive and it’s executed to perfection. Salieri did teach many better known composers than himself and he did in fact not have a rivalry with Mozart. They weren’t friends, but were friendly and respected each other .
Salieri is also still commonly performed and studied even today. His music is far from dead, he just isn't in the company of composers like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.
Nostalgia Critic hit the nail on the head with this. What we are seeing is what Salieri recalls in his dimentia addled mind. It is his view of Mozart. As such we see truthful observations such as the outlandishly childish behavior, and Salieri’s own demons injected into his observations.
One of my favourite bits of movie trivia... during the night of the Oscars, as the evening progressed it was getting quite evident to people that Amadeus was going for a clean sweep at all the awards for the year. I don't recall who it was, but when the winner of the best score went up and gave their speech, the first words out of their mouth were "I'd like to thank Mozart for not being alive..." 😂😂😂
I remember that too! All I could remember was that it was a music category...so with that in mind I was able to find the exact quote. Maurice Jarre, accepting Best Score for "A Passage to India," brilliantly started his speech : "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year." The audience roared with laughter. You can find the clip on RU-vid, search out "Maurice Jarre winning Original Score for "A Passage to India."
@@amstrad00 Yup, Prince won for best SONG score. Maurice Jarre won for best original score. And the actual line was "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year." Crowd goes wild.
I recall something similar when Return of the King was sweeping the Oscars. The winner of Best Foreign Film (I think for Triplets of Belleville) thanked Return of the King for not qualifying for this award.
Man, I never realized that. I theoretically know enough of Latin, Greek and German to translate all three of the names, but I just never put it together.
Clarifying some of George's points: Salieri taught Mozart's son, Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt. Elizabeth Berridge was around 22 when filming the movie. The only two sons that lived to adulthood did not have any children, so there are no descendants of Mozart alive today. I was surprised to find out Meg Tilly was originally cast as Constanze Mozart. She was such a very bright candle at that time, I'm surprised she burned out so fast. At least she did Valmont.
@@jacksonmay153 Yeah, people have been trying very hard to ascribe any illegitimate children to either of Mozart's sons, but they truly just didn't have any.
Beethoven also studied with Franz Joseph Haydn. He had come to Vienna to study with Mozart but it’s unknown if the two ever actually met, likely due to Mozart’s death in 1791.
@@matthewcastleton2263 As far as I know, Beethoven met Mozart once when he was young and Mozart noticed his talent, but no relation developed beyond that.
F Murray Abraham gives one of the best performances of all time - this movie deserved all the awards it got. Easily in my top 3 of all time, can watch it over and over.
Now here is the question. Do you like the original cut or the extended? Me personally I prefer the original cut, as the extended is well... has too many notes.
@@YukoValis One thing about the extended cut is when I saw the theatrical release I didn't understand why when she returns from the spa she clearly hates Salieri. When I saw the extended cut it was explained.
@@TreantmonksTemple That is honestly a good point. Originally I thought she was upset at the work and Salieri being a representation of said work. Only in the extended did we find out why she had reason to hate him.
@@YukoValis I'd keep about half of the additional material in the Director's Cut - keep the scene after the opera in the dressing room between Salieri and Katherina and the extended scenes with Salieri and Constanza. Overall I prefer the DC, but could take or leave the parts where Mozart's being smeared / looking for work.
@@gp8209 - yeah, the 2 scenes of Mozart wanting teaching gigs at the house with the dogs was really not necessary for the story (although it did punctuate the falling on bad times)
Tom Hulce, mostly known to the time of this film, as a character in Animal House, is amazing in this movie! He was nominated for Best Actor at the 1985 Academy Awards, but lost to Abraham, who played Salieri.
He was also the original Danny Kaffee in the stage premiere of A Few Good Men, AND is the voice, singing and talking, of Quasimodo in Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame".
And the acceptance speech by Abraham in the Oscars was the most heart felt tribute to Hulce: "the only thing missing is to have Tom Hulce standing here right next to me".
I could be mistaken, but I don't think he "lost to" Abraham because Tom would've been nominated for best actor and Abraham for best supporting actor. They wouldn't have been in the same category.
Amadeus was originally a play by Peter Shaffer that premiered in London with Simon Callow playing Mozart (he plays the actor with the theatre company who has him write The Magic Flute). It premiered on Broadway with Ian McKellen (Salieri) and Tim Curry (Mozart), and they were both nominated for Tonys (McKellen won).
Tom Hulce (Mozart) did put int the time and effort to learn the piano, especially Mozart's pieces. He even learned to play that pieace up side down. This is why it's so well played.
Fun fact: That very last laugh that sounds over the darkness as we go to credits had to be plucked out of a take that wasn't used in the film. The intention had been that Tom Hulce would dub it in during an ADR session along with other scenes, but he found that once filming was over and he had let go of the character, the laugh had vanished with him. He could no longer find it, so they had to piece it in from unused footage. And yes, Mozart really did have an awful laugh, described as a hideous giggle in letters of the time. He also had an obscene sense of humor; what you hear in the film just scratches the surface. He was unbeliably juvenile, to the point where he wrote a choral piece called "Lick My Arse Nice and Clean". (I'm not kidding; you can see performances here on YT.) The Confutatis scene (the deathbed composition) was the thing that brought me back to classical music after having lost interest in it. Seeing (and even more importanly, _hearing)_ how each strand of the piece was individually layered into it, every juxtaposition carefully considered, was revelatory. It was like Neo seeing the code; I could hear the structure in the music, and that thrilled me. And then at the end to find that it's really only about 20 seconds worth of finished music makes all of Mozart's music look like handmade cathedrals. Really, that scene should be required viewing in schools, for it's not only the best scene ever written about music, but it's also one of the best about effort, detail, dedication, and partnership. This whole movie, though it's far more authentic than it is accurate, is a wonder, and that scene is the heart of it.
@@ThreadBomb It wasn't, but two elements conspire so Mozart's weird humor stands out: first, he became a musical genius and we (as a society) tend to see these figures as "virtuous", "clean" and "with no malice" . To this day it's been debated if he had just a gross sense of humor or he had a condition where he couldn't help himself... or he really was into some very kinky practices XD. The second element is that most bits of his legend were added after his death, by people that knew him or wanted to clean his image. So, for years, pop culture got an epic story of a musical genius, and (later on) some of his traits came into public light (after his reputation was already built).
"More authentic than accurate" -- that is such a wonderful and appropriate description of this film. Any specific inaccuracies are essentially irrelevant; the film is more about themes and ideals than it is a biography. (And of course it is built around a framework of verified historical events and people.)
The bit about the annoying laugh is an internet rumor. There's no reason to think it's true. I wouldn't call him 'unbelievably juvenile'. He had a wonderful sense of humor and wasn't stuck-up or prissy.
Re: Simone's comment on not being able to draw things how she sees imagines them...now imagine you had practiced and worked your whole life to improve your art, and you suddenly realized not only were you not that good, but this other knucklehead made such beautiful art almost as if on a whim. I love the scene where Mozart meets the emperor. He improves Salieri's welcome March (which is really a Mozart piece) with absolutely zero effort. It's just fun for him.
"Amadeus" won eight Oscars that year. The winner of "Best Original Score" that year was "A Passage to India". As they recieved the prize they commented "I'm so glad that Amadeus wasn't eglible for this category". :)
I just finished the the reaction and wanted to comment that the solemnity and seriousness of current classical concerts in halls is kinda new in the big scheme of time, remember that back in the day this was the form of entertainment of a huge amount of people not only the aristocrats, this was their cinema, their literal concerts so a lot of concert halls (that still exists and are used for classical music in the contemporary way) didnt have seats in front of the stage or they were very easy to remove, they were literal venues and people went crazy, they yelled, they danced, they cried, they requested encores, they booed the parts they didnt like, they asked to repeat the parts they liked, it was a concert like today's rock concerts in many ways. Recently some videos went viral of the Oxford Symphonic Orchestra performing at a rock festival called Truck Festival, it was the orchestra in a concert stage (under the rain actually, they were under the roof of the stage of course) and people in front of them like they were a pop band and the reaction is amazing, they mosh pit to the tune of the orchestra and that energy wasnt that far off of how it was in Mozart's time and Mozart played to that. Of course, there were concerts intended for aristocrats and nobility and composers weren't able to attend to all concerts to direct so of course Mozart had prioirties elsewhere but he was a rockstar in the same way, I dont know, Metallica are rockstar mosh pit included. Then during the Victorian era a lot of things changed in the entertainment space and the way we appreciate classical concert today started to take shape. There is a whole conversation for years now in the classical circles of trying to make an effort to appeal to the public like in the way it was appreciated at some point in time, like literal pop music.
Milos Forman also directed "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (which won all five major Academy Awards) which also dealt with the fine line between genius and insanity. (He also directed "Man on the Moon", the biopic about comedian Andy Kaufman starring Jim Carrey - also about the fine line between genius and insanity.)
One of my favorite stories about Mozart and Salieri is the time they went to see The Magic Flute together. Mozart described in a letter, “He heard and saw with all his attention, and from the overture to the last choir there was not a piece that didn’t elicit a ‘Bravo!’ or ‘Bello!’ out of him.” I love the image of the two of them sitting in a balcony seat. Every time one of Wolfie's favorite passages comes up, he goes "see what I did there?" and cackles, and Salieri responds, "ah, bravo, bello!" with big Italian hand gestures.
Just a note on the burial. Mozart was, essentially, a servant, a composer for hire. He had the burial that most Viennese got at the time. Only if you were noble did you get a memorial, but it wasn't in a communal grave pit, it was a simple single grave with no markings.
Mozart had long since ceased to be a servant; he was a master craftsman, on a social level with painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and architects. Respectably middle class-- and yes, such folk got respectable burials, provided of course they had money. Mozart was broke, but in fact Baron von Swieten paid for a respectable funeral. But that isn't why he was buried outside the city walls. That was done with *everybody* in Vienna at the time, a custom stemming from the days of regular plague outbreaks. The term "common grave" has been misinterpreted as "mass grave," but that is an error. He was buried in an individual grave, but it was a commoner's grave, which by law could be dug up and re-used after ten years, the bones moved to an ossuary. Only the nobility could expect permanent postmortem housing.
Salieri was a great composer, at least in his day. He just had the great, great misfortune of being alive at the same time as Mozart. A bit like Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare (if you don't know Christopher Marlow, that's my point).
I love how they broke out each instrument and put them all together during the Requiem. I think a lot of times we miss all of what's going on in a musical piece then we hear the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
3:09 - "The old age makeup is really good!" - Simone. Makeup legend Dick Smith won an Oscar for his makeup work in this film. Also known for "Death Becomes Her" (1992) "The Hunger" (1983) "Little Big Man" (1970) "The Godfather" (1972) "The Exorcist" (1973) "Scanners" (1981) and SO many more!! The age makeup in this film continues to hold up today as one of the greatest, most subtle, believable age makeups in cinema history.
As a devotee of 18th and 19th-century literature and history, powdered wigs came into fashion for many reasons. Firstly, like all fashions, it was a great way to show off your personal wealth and status. Could you afford a wig, a servant to maintain your wigs/hair, or even the powder itself (some people powdered their own hair)? Practically, wearing wigs meant that you could go easier on maintaining your real hair (i.e. you didn't have to wash and style it every day). Powdering your own hair I think worked kind of like a dry shampoo system would today. The same could be said of everything else they wore: the fabrics someone chose, the cuts of the clothing, the colors or patterns - they were a language that told you everything about someone's class, wealth, and personality that everyone could read at the time.
I saw this movie as a child and remember being so deeply affected by it. It was the first movie I saw that sort of transcended mere entertainment and made me feel and think things beyond excitement or danger or laughter. It awakened me to the idea of art. Even just watching your reaction, it made me tear up again.
You watched the theatrical version of the film, which is genius, really. However, had you seen the extended version, you would have better understood Mozart's wife's reaction to seeing Salieri there. When she went to Salieri to convince him to hire Mozart, he eventually told her that he would do so only if she slept with him. She returned later and undressed in front of Salieri and consented to do it. He did not actually go through with it, realizing that his hatred for Mozart did not extend to her, but the entire event humiliated her. From then on, she hated Salieri and seeing him in their home was obviously a shock.
That scene gives this scene much better context, however, I feel that it removes any remaining bit of likability from Salieri. I prefer the theatrical cut.
Mozart apparently did have an odd laugh, but of course we don't know exactly what it was like. George- in Renaissance England, at least, there were sumptuary laws, which did prohibit certain ranks from certain clothing. Purple, of course, was highly restricted, and there were strictures such as if you were a Baron, you could wear ermine as a trim, but if you were the monarch you could wear a full ermine garment, etc.
I was in my teens when Amadeus came out, and (being a choir nerd) went to see it. About a 6-9 months later, the city's symphony orchestra presented a program of "MOZART! (and a little bit of Scalieri)", which my parents were happy to take me to. Tom Hulce was part of the program. His part, during a break from the music, was to get up and read a letter Mozart had written to his sister. Of course, he drops into character as he's reading. The letter concludes with a particularly catty remark, which he followed with _THE LAUGH._ The whole place broke up.
That collaboration at the end is so good. Salieri finally understanding how Mozart works, how his brain works, yet at that point being sooo wrapped up in his own pettiness and ego to stop and recognize the kinship they actually had.
Elizabeth Berridge (Constanze) was 22 at the time. The had cast Meg Tilly, but she had to quit because of a soccer injury. Cynthia Nixon was just 18. Hats off to your instant recognition. I literally didn’t notice who it was for 20 years.
I loved the ending between Mozart and Saleri. One part is the dictation of notes under scored by the music. As noted a great way to show composition. The other is for a brief moment Saleri was one with Mozart. For that moment Saleri was touched by God.
The portrayal of Mozart and Salieri always reminds me of Spongebob and Squidward. There’s even a thing called Salieri Syndrome that accurately represents the kind of relationship those two characters have with respect to their musicianship.
@32:31 a Ducat contains about 3.5 grams of gold, so 100 ducats is 350 grams of gold. Gold is trading at about 65 USD/gram, so 100 ducats is worth approximately 22, 750 USD.
yes and no. Nowadays we would just be using it for the gold content, but it is different when talking about buying power. From what I found in looking it up, most non-skilled employment got you about 20 a month. Skilled labor 40-50. So he gave Mozart 2-3 months worth of money, and promised another 100 ducats after. That would have been 6 months worth for a single piece of work.
In the past, door knobs/handles and locks were often very ornamental and possibly considered works of art. Thus their placement higher on the door allowed for them to be admired properly.
This film was based on a play of the same title, and as such is a highly and very intentionally fictionalized account of Mozart and Salieri's relationship. It's best viewed as the Othello template cast through the lens of Mozart, rather than a literal Mozart biography. That said, the movie is very authentic in its portrayal of 18th century Viennese society, fashion, musical culture, and court intrigue.
@@Replicaate To my knowledge he never made any such claims. He was institutionalized in 1873 after attempting suicide, that part of the film/play is true, but I don't believe we have any recorded account of him mentioning Mozart at any point after this. The whole Mozart/Salieri rivalry stems from a popular rumor around the time of Mozart's death that he had been secretly poisoned by Salieri in order to regain the Emperor's favor in court. There was really no truth at all in this rumor, though, since while Mozart and Salieri did share a professional rivalry (and sometimes personal, usually on Mozart's end, who made a habit of publicly and loudly criticizing his fellow composers, which made him pretty unpopular) at the end of the day they were two composers working in the same court. They collaborated, shared music, and otherwise mostly acted as colleagues and acquaintances to each other.
It's based in part on a play, one by Alexander Pushkin titled Mozart and Salieri, and that's where the silliness about poisoning comes from. It's also where the opening monologue of the film was lifted from.
Historical note: the basis of this movie was the widespread rumours that Salieri poisoned Mozart, based mostly on the fact that the man died at an unusually young age. Salieri, being the court composer, was well-regarded in his time and did contribute much to the musical landscape, including a well-regarded opera based on Don Quixote. Despite the rumors, there is little to suggest that the two men were anything but colleagues operating under mutual respect and admiration.
To add to this, the persistent rumors of Salieri's involvement weighed heavily on him and contributed to a series of nervous breakdowns in his later years. This movie could very well be depicting one of those breakdowns, where he has convinced himself the rumors are true and confabulated this horrific tale of his own guilt, in a sort of false confession.
@@wolfofthewest8019 I do like this reading but also as someone who's had delusions about being responsible for deaths usually it's pretty clear there's nothing to the claim when it's a delusion. For example my delusion was that I was patient zero for Covid and a single cough snowballed into 7 million deaths for which I was now responsible (a pretty harrowing thing to believe, as I genuinely did in my state). Clearly nothing there. But even if Salieri didn't literally murder Mozart himself he did contribute (in the movie)
@@NTA_Luciana He contributed in the movie, yes -- but the movie isn't purporting to show what *actually* happened, rather it's showing what Salieri *confessed* to happen. Salieri is confabulating (making things up). For example, we know the true identity of the man who anonymously commissioned the Requiem (it was some minor nobleman who wanted to take credit for Mozart's work), but Salieri confesses that it was him. Since we know that's untrue, we should also suspect that Salieri was, in reality, likely guilty of nothing more than being slightly jealous of Mozart and, like most people, disgusted by his juvenile antics.
@@wolfofthewest8019 if the film was a purely subjective fake confession then why does it show things that Salieri wouldn't have known to begin with? Particularly Mozart's domestic life pre-Cynthia Nixon. Like how is he confessing that?
@@wolfofthewest8019 Idk my conception of the film was that the flashbacks are the "real" movie and the confession stuff was just a framing device that sits on top. I didn't consider that the confession aspect would leak back into the flashbacks
Our Sixth Grade Music teacher had us watch this. Cardboard over the TV for the 2 seconds of naughty scene. I’m so glad he did because I rewatch it all the time and it gave me a respect for Classical Music.
In the movie "Last Action Hero", the actor who plays Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is introduced, and the kid says to the Arnold character, "Watch It Jack, He Killed Mozart"
Unfortunately, historians have been very skeptical of that picture for more than a couple of reasons, and it's considered incredibly unlikely that it's her in the photograph
Operas depicted in the film: The first one was Abduction from the Seraglio, which premiered in 1782 and was the first opera Mozart wrote once he moved to Vienna. The second one was Le Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro), which premiered in 1786 and was the first of Mozart’s operas that he collaborated with Lorenzo DaPonte on, who was the librettist. The third one was Don Giovanni (also with DaPonte), which premiered the next year in 1787. The final one was the famous Magic Flute, which premiered the year of Mozart’s death in 1791. The piece that is shown them writing at the end is the famous Mozart Requiem, which was also being written in 1791 but wasn’t finished because of Mozart’s untimely death, likely from tuberculosis. That piece was competed by his colleague Franz Xaver Süssmayr. It premiered the next year in 1792.
This is my all time favorite movie. It has probably the most important lesson for any artist, whether you’re a composer or in my case, a painter: no matter how talented you are, or how celebrated and successful you get, you WILL be surpassed by someone better. Surprisingly, it’s also not as inaccurate as the public perception might have you think. The channel History Buffs has an excellent video about it.
I'm a huge fan of this timeless classic. Top ten for me. Regarding what George said about beethoven being taught by Salieri, Salieri was one of many of Beethoven's teachers in Vienna but his father was his first. When Beethoven was 3 or 4 he'd be woken up at 3am by his drunk father to play piano and if he made a mistake he'd get his knuckles whacked with a stick.
I’d also recommend a film called “Immortal Beloved” about Beethoven and featuring Gary Oldman. It was the film that first brought Oldman to my attention and made him one of my favourite actors.
Fun fact. F. Murray Abraham , Salieri was also Omar in the movie Scarface and he would fly from Miami to Prague to film the scenes. They made both movies the same year even though Amadeus came out a year after.
Salieri's music is actually quite good. Not as good as Mozart, but not far off. According to all accounts, that hyena-like cackle is accurate. One of Mozart's friends described his laugh as "the noise made by scraping a cobblestone down a piano string">
Yup. It was filmed in Prague and most of the emperor's palace interiors and few exteriors were filmed in a small town in eastern Czechia called Kromeriz in the archbishop's chateau. It was cheaper than filming in Vienna. I grew up in Kromeriz and I was a little kid when it was being filmed. The same chateau was used in bunch of other hollywood productions, even one about Beethoven called Immortal Beloved with Isabela Rosselini and Gary Oldman as Beethoven. And I managed to be an extra in that one while I was in high school. FYI Amadeus was one of the few big Hollywood productions filmed in the early 80s while there was still heavy communism in, at the time still called, Czechoslovakia.
Good reaction. BTW, the poster art is referring to the 1979 award winning stage play. It was extremely popular, hence, " Everything you've heard is true." Also, the style of poster art is based on the playbill.
Most people have what you call a mind's eye and can see things in their heads, visualizing whatever they want. Much fewer people have what you call a mind's ear and can hear music and voices in their heads. I have aphantasia, which means my mind's eye is blind and I am unable to visualize things in my head, but I have a very strong mind's ear and can hear music plaing in my head like elivator music everywhere I go. The not-so-great part is that I don't always have control over the playlist. Sometimes the songs get stuck on repeat, and I just can't stop them.
That grand golden opera house still exists. It's known as The National Theater in Prague. I watched a performance of "Don Giovanni" there (where Mozart himself conducted). The movie was actually shot in Prague (not Vienna)--there are many 18th century buildings still standing there.
The title, Amadeus, also ties into the theme of the film, Latin for "beloved of God", or in German he is often referred to as Gottlieb, which has the same meaning. While it is entirely unlikely that Salieri ever historically harmed Mozart, it soon became an urban legend of its time. Pushkin wrote a play, Mozart and Salieri, in 1830 about the gossip that Salieri had killed Mozart, so the story itself has its own kind of history.
The movie was filmed in Prague which at the time was behind the Iron Curtain. I heard a story that on July 4 during filming the entire crew sang the US national anthem for the cast. Mozart's music was masterful and he wrote so much in such a short time. Take a moment to listen to his Requiem some time, absolutely stunning.
Mozart’s last work was his Requiem, the “Lacrimosa” movement in particular was left unfinished. It was actually completed by a former student of his (if I recall). In those days, the lower class sometimes really were buried in a mass grave. We don’t really know the exact final resting place of Mozart. Someone began a rumor about Salieri being jealous, which then turned into legend over the years. This stageplay-turned-movie capitalizes on that conspiracy theory. In fact, Mozart and Salieri were professional contemporaries. For reference, I’m a classically trained pianist/composer. This movie is “standard” in music school when you learn about this period and all the players of the time. Even though it’s historical fiction, it’s beloved by most and enjoyed for what it is. The role of Salieri is some of my absolute favorite acting in any movie. The actor deserved his Oscar he won for that role. And the movie deserves its best picture win of 1984.
I saw it staged in a ramshackle early 19th Century music-hall in London, which was still in the process of being restored. The setting was brilliantly atmospheric, and the fact that most of the cast were actor/musicians who also played the incidental music was extra special. A fantastic production.
Salieri was a sought after teacher. Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Eberl, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart were among the most famous of his pupils.
By design or stroke of luck, this movie came out not long after they finally invented high-quality sound for home video tape. Just a year or two earlier, the music would’ve been about the quality of AM radio, but as it was, the sound for people at home could be almost as good as being in a theater. In fact, this is the kind of movie that made selling someone a “home theater system” possible. Mozart’s father is played by Roy Dotrice, who appeared in the “Beauty and the Beast” TV series with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, and in “The Cutting Edge” as the skating trainer Pamchenko. His daughter played Jane Banks in “Mary Poppins.” 18:31 Good catch. She was 18 when this came out, 14 years before “Sex and the City” even began. 26:51 That’s the thing about Mozart: his music is probably the most “catchy” classical there is. Even if you don’t know the names of the pieces, you probably know half a dozen Mozart songs. Heck, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ is Mozart.
Mozart has many catchy tunes, but the tune to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was pre-existing as a French folk song under the name, "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" (Ah, Mother, If I Could Tell You) when Mozart used it to compose a series of variations.
I saw this in the theater. The music was so powerful and the colorful performances were hypnotic. Needless to say, the movie was very popular and won 8 Oscars including Best Picture.
I have to agree that the scene at the end where Mozart and Salieri were working in his bedroom, is my favorite scene in the movie. To see the creativity just pouring out of Wolfgang is amazing, and tragic at the same time. Thomas Hulce did a great job as W.A. Mozart, almost as good as his role of Pinto in "Animal House". HaHaHaHa. The emperor was played by Jeffrey Jones, the Principal in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". HaHaHaHa.
When I was young and this movie was out and Falco had a hit song called 'Amadeus' playing on the radio, we would substitute the words 'I'm a Danish' and sing: "I'm a Danish, I'm a Danish, I'm...a Danish, I'm a Danish, I'm a Danish, I'm...a Danish, I'm a Danish, I'm a Danish, oh oh oh I'm a Danish. Come on and eat me, I'm a Danish!"
This movie portrays hate and jealousy like most movies portray love and admiration. It's fascinating. I cannot wait until I'm off work to watch this reaction from you guys. In my personal top 10!
13:13 George wondering about the exchange of rings... The exchange of rings in germanic tradition goes back as far as there are written records, to the iron age or late migration era, but there is archaeological evidence that it is even older than that. The ceremonial exchange of rings was not primarily between husband and wife, but between lord and vassal, or in those days rather between a chieftain and his warriors. The ring symbolised a bond of loyalty and friendship, but also a way of binding a subject to a ruler, through honor. The customs can also be traced back to ancient greece and rome, it is likely that the Germanic tibes picked it up from them, but it is clear that the germanics were absolutely obsessed with rings. In Scandinavia, there have been treasure hoards found, dating back to the 4'th century, containing hundreds of kilos(!) Of gold rings, some of them as thick as your finger, and large enough to be worn around the neck. The tradition of wedding rings dates back to the middle-ages in europe.
This movie has been a favorite of mine since my childhood. I saw it in the theater and it completely captivated me. Now true I wasn't that familiar with who Mozart was but the story was just something that was mesmerizing even at a young age. To be gifted is mind-blowing
Just wanted to say I love y'all. Both of you are so excellent together. Your videos are made so much the better by what you each bring to them. I'd watch either of you separately, but together, you're so much fun! Thanks for all the videos!
it opened on Broadway in 1980 with Ian McKellan as Salieri, Tim Curry as Mozart and Jane Seymour as his wife. It won the Tony for Best Play and Actor- McKellan.
Love this movie! I saw it in a packed theater in Dallas when it first came out and when FMA put that crucifix into the fire, the entire audience gasped in shock. I enjoyed rewatching this one with you both! Thank you for sharing it. 🙂 Oh, and there's a 2 volume recording of the soundtrack out there that you can grab. Really good stuff!
Mozart's wife Constanze Weber was a trained Austrian singer from a family of singers and musicians, not the poor dumb nobody portrayed in the movie. She became Mozart's biographer jointly with her second husband. Her mother did not want them together, the opposite of the film, and even threatened to bring the police to get her daughter back from them living together unmarried. Mozart knew the family for years and was actually interested in her older sister Aloysia who was also a famous singer, but she rejected him and was married by the time he moved to Vienna. Mozart died in 1791, leaving debts and placing Constanze in a difficult position. Constanze's business skills came into fruition: she obtained a pension from the emperor, organized profitable memorial concerts, and embarked on a campaign to publish the works of her late husband. These efforts gradually made Constanze financially secure and ultimately, wealthy.
The third Weber sister, Josepha, was the original Queen of the Night; many of Mozart's soprano roles were written for her. She must have had a stupendous voice.
Costanze also worked to get the unfinished Requiem completed, giving it first to Mozart's talented student Aybling, and after he gave up the attempt to Mozart's much less talented student Süßmayr, who is responsible for the version usually performed today. The last part actually by Mozart is the first sixteen bars of the Lacrimosa (heard over the funeral scene).
@@solicitr666another interesting thing is the historical accuracy of the music playing during the her and Mozart’s wedding scene. That is his famous Great Mass in C Minor. The soprano solos in that work were written for Constanza, and she sang them at the premiere of the piece in 1783
My late father in law was able to "hear music just by reading sheets", and he could also write down complete arrangements just by listening. It's pretty usual for musician to be able to pick up some melodies and chords, but he was really next level, very impressive. And he wasn't even a trained musician, just a music lover who had a very good musical education during his years in school.
"Amadeus" = from "loved by God" in Latin. The supreme, deliberate irony being that a film that is really about and from the perspective of Salieri is named for Mozart. Like with Braveheart, there's a bunch of stuff that's true - letters from the time testify to Mozart being childlike, hyperactive, immature, with a scatological sense of humour, and he really was commissioned anonymously to write a requiem (though not by Salieri). And a bunch of stuff that takes great dramatic licence - Salieri was married, with several children, and the real-life "rivalry" between them was, I believe, concocted decades after their deaths from *one* mildly disparaging remark that Salieri wrote about him on *one* occasion; otherwise, history says they were acquainted just fine in life. I note you didn't (appear to) watch the longer Director's Cut, unless the two extra scenes I recall were just cut from this edit (the one where Constanze meets Salieri "after dark", and the one(s) with the barking dogs). Another commenter called them "superfluous"; I thought the former scene gave greater weight to why she was so displeased to find him in their bedchamber, and you could make the superfluity argument for many of the opera scenes. I dunno - something something too many notes. I had the pleasure of watching this in Edinburgh several years ago, with the Scottish Symphony Orchestra playing the music *live* beneath a screening of the film; it remains one of the best nights out I've ever had. Peter Shaffer also did the play "Equus", which is perhaps even more greatly disturbing, albeit doesn't have a film adaptation nearly as good, and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun". For more of the director Milos Forman, I don't think you've covered One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Another multiple Oscar winner, with early starring roles for Jack Nicholson, Christopher Lloyd *and* Danny deVito, a resounding movie. Thanks for all you do! (and then have to edit yourself doing...)
The letters have been misunderstood. The scatological stuff was a family joke, and his letters were written to entertain. If he was really "hyperactive", they would be a mess to read, but they are generally focused and to-the-point. This is just another example of myths that get passed around the classical music community as "knowledge"; ironic considering that many classical fans consider themselves intellectually superior. CineBinge did indeed what the so-called director's cut, which like all such things was really a studio cash-grab. The original theatrical version is what became a classic and won all those awards. The "director's cut" is a weaker movie, suffering from superfluous scenes and poorer pacing.
I actually prefer the Director’s Cut. I think the extra scenes do more to show how much Mozart’s wife loved him and just how slimy Salieri was. Before the Director’s Cut, I was always curious why she got so furious at Salieri for being in their house at the end when she was fond of him the whole movie.
AFAIK, the wig thing is because many of nobility had syphilis and their hair started to fall. So they started wearing wigs and then the rest started emulating them (hopefully just the wigs part, but who knows? :) )
Not really. Wigs became fashionable in the latter part of the 17th century (starting with the court of Louis XIV in France) and continued in style up until the Napoleonic era, largely because the fashion (for both sexes) was for incredibly elaborate, and huge, hairdos that took hours and hours to create- much simpler just to put your hair on on than sit in a chair all day.
@@solicitr666that was after, he’s right original wigs and heavy make up started to be used because of lice, syphilis, and all the poisons that were being discovered and released in products made at the time without knowing it.
In addition to this being a work of fiction, it should be remembered that Salieri is a very biased narrator. This helps explain the omission of such characters as Lorenzo Da Ponte, who would be expected to show up in a more conventional biopic. The make-of DVD featurette for this filmis one of my favorites and is available on this platform.
The Salieri welcome march scene is my fav. The subtlety of having Mozart rewrite it on the fly into one of his famous pieces, "Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso," it handily implies that Salieri could have the gift, but can't go that little extra distance. He is too consumed by jealousy. Mozart has no possessiveness in that moment, only joy. So "making Salieri's music his own" isn't malicious. It's like Johnny Cash owning Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." That song is Cash's now, something NIN said themselves. Music and art should be about collaboration and joy. But because of wealth, patrons (record cos) and so on, it creates jealousy and stratification.
To this day, we don't know exactly what killed Mozart -- some kind of staph infection, likely. But his last days were horrible. He said on his deathbed that he thought he had been poisoned, later retracted that... but the damage was done, and Salieri's reputation suffered as suspicion was cast upon him. He and Mozart were rivals but there doesn't appear to have been any bad blood between them. In fact, Mozart's younger son, Franz Xaver (also called Wolfgang by his family) was taught by Salieri. He had only been 4 months old when his father died, and he was a composer too. The older of Mozart's two surviving children, Karl, became a merchant rather than a musician. Neither of his sons had children, so the Mozart line died with them, sadly.
As a Children of Bodom fan the line "From now on we are enemies...you and I" is more to me than just a cold af quote from this classic of a movie...I jumped up when I heard it in the movie because I only knew it as the opening line to arguably one of (if not THE) best melodic deathmetal album(s) in history (album: Hatebreeder; song: Warheart)
Another movie moment that features Mozart (besides Shawshank mentioned by George) is The Big Lebowski when the Philip S. Hoffman character tells The Dude that Mr. Lebowski has secluded himself in the
Great reaction. Thank you. Bit O' Trivia - Mark Hamill played Wolfgang in the Amadeus play on Broadway. The producers were considering him for the film. However, his schedule conflicted due to working on Return of the Jedi. Mark was an amazing Amadeus. It was like seeing a bit of embryotic Joker he would create later for animated Batman. Beautiful and brilliant as always. Thank you again for all the great reactions and please never stop.
I'm performing the Requiem as a tenor in the choir next month and I cannot express the excitement I feel! This reaction came in perfect timing! I love that you guys focused on the writing of Confutatis! It's my favourite part of the piece, next to the Kyrie and the famous Dies Irae
@@UlimorUdamenta Apparently, Mozart had originally planned some epic ten voice fugue at the end of the Lachrymosa. I can just imagine Sussmayr saying, "nah, I'm good with just an Amen cadence."
@@kojiattwood more like a speculation than a concrete plan. They did find a sketch, but it was suggested by two musicologists that it was meant for the Requiem. Sadly, we will never know.
