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I know this is off topic but you should do reactions on a few martin short movies some that are underrated are Pure Luck and Three Fugitives along with more popular The Three Amigos and Innerspace and lesser known Captain Ron.
There is some truth to this story, BTW. Many surmise that Mozart was poisoned by someone very jealous of him. Dying at 34 yrs old?? Even people in that period lived longer than that.
If you enjoyed this film, I think you would also like Immortal Beloved It's a biopic on the life and career of Ludwig Van Beethoven as through the eyes of the 3 women with which he had the most passionate love affairs It stars Gary Oldman as Beethoven
The emperor had forbidden ballet in Operas because composers would often add ballet scenes that had nothing to do with the plot and lengthened the duration of operas unnecessarily which the emperor hated. But Mozart's opera was actually a wedding dance as part of the opera plot which is why it was different and why the emperor approved it. FYI, the movie is based off of a play. In reality the relationship between Salieri and Mozart had it's tensions but they ended up as good friends. Salieri was knows for always showcasing talented up and coming composers including Mozart. Salieri was a highly skilled composer as well who had his reputation tarnished and music forgotten due to the rumors...Still a great movie though!
@@applegeepedigree yes but only until recently. His music was forgotten for a long time and really fully came back into performance due to the Amadeus movie. Prior to that you don't his music didn't have a place in performance repertoire as it now.
@JohnJohnson27-cs6ix Yes, really. There were always those who knew and appreciated Salieri's music. But as a conservatory composition major (and as someone who is familiar with various musoc history and competition programs) I can tell you that Salieri and his music is not studied in music departments for composition value or even for his contribution in opera like Mozart or Bach, or Puccini or Brahms, etc are studied and given attention. He is usually mentioned when including contemporaries of Mozart and sometimes mention is made of him as the teacher of other great composers. His music was never "repertoire" but only occasionally programed. It wasn't until after the Amadeus movie that his music and life received heightened awareness and interest. Even then his music wasn't a mainstay in orchestral repertoire. His music is more known now and receives more programming for performance but that's not the same as being repertoire music for orchestra. Ask any orchestral player and they will tell you his music, wonderful as it is dose not have repertoire status in the orchestral preformance realm. Those who are interested in bringing his music to the forefront are the ones studying his music, alonf with other lovers of his music. But classical Academia does not study or promote the study if his music like all the other "greats". In fact, you'd be surprised who and what is not studied. I could go on but I'll stop here.
One more bit of trivia... a very young Kenneth Branagh tested for the Mozart role in England and did very well, but they kept putting off giving him a definite answer. Finally he got mad, and his agent kept him from sending the following telegram (which might have destroyed his career): "THANKS FOR THE WAIT. STOP. GOOD LUCK WITH THE FILM. STOP. WHY DON'T YOU SHOVE IT UP YOUR A** AND DON'T STOP."
I was a 16-year-old drummer in the school band when this movie came out and I was heavily into Rush and heavy metal. We had a class trip to see this movie and I went kicking and screaming. Within 15 minutes, I was enraptured , This is quite frankly a masterpiece
It's quite common for people who are into heavy metal to discover at some point that classical music moves them too. I had a couple of American friends in my University dorm in England who saw this movie and went straight out to buy the Mozart Requiem on cassette, when beforehand all they listened to was rock!
@@soozb15I agree with this. I have loved classical since I was a kid, as my dad loved opera and classical music. As I got older, I found that I loved heavy metal as well. They just work together so well
What I really love about this movie is how Salieri and Mozart are the only two characters who have the ability to see the difference between music that is crowd pleasing and music that will stand the test of time. It creates a dynamic between the two that nobody else can recognize. Salieri's monologue detailing his plan to triumph over God might be the best villain molologue in movie history.
"I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint." Fun Fact: F. Murray Abraham learned to read and conduct music for his role. Location Location Fact: Set in Vienna but filmed in Prague. Only four sets needed to be built: Salieri's (F. Murray Abraham) hospital room, Mozart's (Tom Hulce) apartment, a staircase, and the vaudeville theater. All other locations were found locally. Music Enthusiast Fact: Several professors of music stated, after studying all of the musical keys struck on pianos throughout the film, that not one key is struck incorrectly when compared to what is heard at the exact same moment. In other words, what you see is exactly what you hear. The film ironically helped spark a revival of Salieri's (F. Murray Abraham) music, which had previously languished in obscurity. Method Actor Fact: Tom Hulce said he based Mozart's distinctive, obnoxious laugh on a very famous director he worked with, who laughed in an identical manner. When shooting the scene in which Salieri is writing down the death mass under Mozart's dictation, Tom Hulce was deliberately skipping lines to confuse F. Murray Abraham, in order to achieve the impression that Salieri wasn't able to fully understand the music being dictated. Historical Fact: The script clearly took some artistic liberties, including the plotline of the masked man who comes to Mozart (Tom Hulce) pretending to be his dead father. This was not, as the movie portrays, Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). But in 1791, Austrian Count Franz von Walsegg who had a penchant for commissioning music to pass off as his own at his twice-weekly concerts-approached Mozart and asked for a requiem for his beloved wife, who had died on Valentine's Day. According to a famously censored document in which a teacher near Vienna, Anton Herzog, recorded firsthand accounts of von Walsegg's court, the Count often rewrote these commissioned quartets and other scores in his own hand and didn't give credit to the original composers. His staff musicians often laughed this off because it seemed to amuse the Count, and because the Count was also an amateur musician in his own right. Mozart's "Requiem Mass in D minor," the document alleges, was one such piece. And Mozart really did die later that year, in December, before completing the full mass. Salieri didn't help him complete it though; Austrian composer and possible Mozart student Franz Süssmayr took that on.
I used to hate the question "what's your favorite movie" because there are just too many to choose from and on any given day it might change to any one of a hundred. After seeing this movie, it became the answer i was always comfortable giving.
It's such a difficult question, but I think this may be my favorite movie, also. Interestingly, two of my other favorites are based on real historical figures and events -- to greater and lesser degrees. Those being "Apollo 13" and "Braveheart." Both have wonderful scores by James Horner, who I hope was not envious of the fact that they still can't hold a candle to the music of Wolfgang "Amadeus" Mozart.
Saw this movie (on VHS) for the first time around age 13 and it truly blew my mind. Have subsequently seen it many more times and the scene of Mozart composing the Requiem on his deathbed is still STRAIGHT FIRE
This is the film that put F. Murray Abraham on the map. He's had long string of prestige stage and screen roles since. At 84 he's still acting. You may remember him from Grand Budapest Hotel.
- The original play was first performed at Britain's National Theater and starred Oscar-winning actor Paul Scofield (A Man For All Seasons, 1966) as Salieri and Simon Callow (who plays the actor Schickanader, who commissions The Magic Flute in the film) as Mozart. It transferred to Broadway with Ian McKellen (Yep! Gandalf/Magneto himself) as Salieri, Tim Curry as Mozart, and Jane Seymour as Constanze. McKellen won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (Curry was nominated). - Both F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, with Murray winning. - Milos Forman did not know how he wanted to cast the film. Whether he would use a predominately American cast or a predominantly British cast. Some of the people who auditioned for Mozart include David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Kenneth Branagh. When he was auditioning for the role, which was a lengthy process, Branagh was at the forefront of the British actors if Forman was going to cast Brits. Unfortunately for Branagh, the casting went American. In his autobiography, Branagh writes he received a telegram alerting him to this. He felt compelled to send one back that would read: "Thanks for the wait STOP Good luck with the film STOP Why don't you stick it up your a** and don't STOP" He decided against doing so...but it does make a funny story. - The actor playing Leopold Mozart is Roy Dotrice, who was an excellent character actor. In the 1980s, he was in the main cast of a series called 'Beauty and the Beast' which also starred Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, and one of the main writers of the series was George R.R. Martin. The two became friends and after the series ended, and he completed the first book, Martin asked Dotrice if he would be the narrator for the audiobook of his novel 'A Game of Thrones'. Dotrice narrated all of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' audiobooks, even getting a Guinness Book World record for the most voices for a single audiobook, until his passing in 2017. Dotrice was set to play Grand Maester Pycelle in the HBO series but had to bow out due to his health. However, Dotrice did make two appearances in the series as Wisdom Hallyne the Pyromancer in the episodes "The Ghost of Harrenhall" and "Blackwater". Dotrice also has a daughter who was famous named Karen Dotrice. As a child, Karen played Jane Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. - The facts of the story of Mozart and Salieri are different from the film. You really have to take the entire thing with not a grain, but a fist-sized rock, of salt! If you want an excellent breakdown of what is actually known about the men and the events of the period, I recommend the video by the RU-vid channel History Buffs. It's a 20 minute video that is illuminating. "History Buffs: Amadeus" link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_X_iAGFaE80.html
The movie fudges a lot of historical facts, but it's so well made and gives about as close as we could hope to seeing what Mozart the man was actually like that it's hard to care too much. Some of the big ones: -Mozart and Salieri seem to have gotten along very well and were great admirers of each other's work, if their letters to each other are any indication. The most negative they got was a few high-profile jobs they competed for. -Salieri was a great success in his time, and only fell into obscurity later. This play and film actually caused a serious reappraisal of his work and it's now quite popular again. -Far from being celibate to focus entirely on his music, Salieri was happily married and had eight children. And conversely, he really did have an affair with Caterina Cavalieri, while there's no evidence that Mozart did as well. -Emperor Joseph II was renowned for being highly knowledgeable about music, having had some of the finest available teachers in it as a child, and championed Mozart even when others in his court advised against it. He did once complain that a song had "too many notes," which is what his entire portrayal here seems to be built from. -One that's not the writer's fault is the portrayal of Mozart only writing his music down after perfecting it in his mind. This really was believed to be the case at the time and evidence was only found later that he wrote several drafts like any other composer. -Another that was believed at the time is that Mozart had a pauper's funeral and was dumped into a mass grave. This was due to a misunderstanding of a report that he was put in a "common grave," which actually just meant it wasn't one of the fancy ones that aristocrats got. His funeral was actually just as grand as you would expect for such a famous person.
I'm so glad you mentioned the incredible makeup on Salieri. The makeup artist for this movie was Dick Smith, who was one of the best makeup artists in Hollywood, and he rightfully won an Oscar for his work on this film. He created not only this perfect old-age makeup, but he also did the makeup for The Godfather, Death Becomes Her and the iconic makeup for The Exorcist. And that dictation scene is one of my favorite sequences in any film...gives me chills every time. The actors had little transistor radios in their ears that would cue them with their next line/musical phrase so it would match up with the music in post-production. Though Tom Hulce has said that he occasionally skipped lines on purpose to confuse F. Murray Abraham, to make it seem like Salieri wasn't smart enough to follow along with what Mozart wanted. They also used these to play music in the actors' ears during dialogue scenes, like in the scene where Mozart meets the Emperor, as the pianos were silent. Tom Hulce said that scene was particularly difficult because he was playing a silent piano with the music in his ear, while talking to the actors behind him...and if he lost his place, he couldn't find where he was because the piano didn't make any noise. And to answer your question about his burial, they were burying him in a pauper's grave because he had no money. Though in real life, that did not happen; he was buried in a commoner's grave, which at the time, were unmarked (and apparently were re-used every ten years, which is a wild thought), so his exact burial site is unknown...they know where the cemetery was, but not the exact spot...the site is now a public park in Vienna, and a proper memorial has been placed in the most likely spot where he was buried.
A brilliant film. There are about a hundred theories on how Mozart died, that range from him being ill in different ways, through him being poisoned by somebody, to him taking poison himself. Most prevailing ones are that he was ill in some way that wasn't understood at the time. The premise of the film (and the play it's based on) is that Salieri hated Mozart, while Mozart largely ignored Salieri. Also on a very early rumour that Salieri poisoned Mozart. In reality neither is really true, and though they were fierce rivals, and often didn't get on, they also collaborated on occasion. That said, till the play and film, Salieri's work was mostly forgotten.
Actually, that's a very good point. Until the play/film, I think Salieri's name would mostly have been known to historians. Now, his music is performed probably more than ever since his death. It's pretty good, too.
It was a shame that Tom Hulce was nominated for Best Actor as well, instead of Best Supporting Actor (as he really should have been, Mozart was not the main character) -- they BOTH would have won.
I have loved this movie AND soundtrack for decades. When little I used to pretend to be like Mozart and play my piano music with my eyes closed. Never got to do it upsidedown with crossed hands...but then again...I'm not Mozart!😄💚 So happy you reacted to this musical classic!
That was well worth the wait!!! Outstanding reaction/edit. Right from the very first sounds of the movie, when the screen was still black and the music played, your reaction immediately told us the movie is in good hands! So happy you finally got to see this one!
This won 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor and Director. It moved me to study opera and I went to see them live, about 2 dozen in all. These days they put the English subtitles up for people to read. I've seen "Don Giovanni" and "Marriage of Figaro" as well as a streamed performance of "The Magic Flute". If Salieri had only worked with Mozart in the beginning he could have learned from him and helped Mozart in return to navigate his way through court politics. Salieri robbed himself of any music Mozart would have gone on to create had he lived longer. Of course this is just the supposition by the author of the play.
It is good to know that the life story of the characters in the movie is heavily fictionalized, especially Salieri's character. In real life, he was married and father to several kids, he was a devout Catholic all his life and the beloved teacher of Schubert, Beethoven and even of Mozart's younger son Franz Mozart (who had been a little baby when his father died). The movie is based on a Peter Shaffer play, with Salieri being an unreliable narrator. Still, a fascinating film.
It’s kinda charming to know after watching the movie that Salieri was the one who conducted the first performance of Mozart’s Requiem after Mozart’s death (although it was an unofficial concert)!
A terrific reaction, as usual. Interestingly, I came across the playscript for Amadeus before I actually saw the play, in a little library in Massachusetts (probably in 1981 or 1982). When I read it, I had very much the same kind of reaction we see Salieri have when he reads Mozart's sheet music: I knew instantly that it was a work of genius, and was determined to see it. I saw it on Broadway (not with the original cast, alas), and it was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. Then the film came out, and I was equally thrilled. Now, Peter Shaffer had a long and fascinating relationship with God in his plays: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), Equus (1973), and Amadeus (1979) form, in my mind, a kind of trilogy about how a human lives with the idea of God. All three of these were made into good films (although Amadeus is a GREAT film), and they are all worth seeing. The three actors who played Salieri all won top honors for their performances: Paul Scofield won the Obie for the London performance, Ian McKellen won the Tony for the Broadway performance, and F. Murray Abraham won the Oscar for the film. It is simply a tremendous role, and it brings out the best in an actor.
In the scene where Salieri is "helping" Mozart with Confutatis, Abraham and Hulce didn't know each other's lines so that the confusion and frustration were real.
I loved this film so much. I love the soundtrack. It was so well-acted. I do not care about the artistic license taken to describe Salieri. F Murray Abraham won the Oscar if I am not mistaken which I think is a great twist.
This is one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. I've seen Don Giovanni on stage and it was revelatory. The music vibrated my bones and shook my spirit. Imagine having your soul pulled from your body to hover in the rafters in rapture. You lose yourself. And then it's over. You wake to find yourself imprisoned once more in flesh, alone on the dark, cold street as if you had been pulled from heaven and banished back to mortality. Mozart is at once exhilarating and devastating. I understood Salieri. To understand the genius of Mozart (or anyone with similar gifts) and be unable to express yourself in a like manner is torture.
Nice description. There are those who would say Don Giovanni is the greatest work of musical theatre ever written. (I'm in a constant running argument with a musicologist friend who says I only think that because I don't properly understand Così fan tutte.)
Papageno is a charming character out of this charming and deceptively simple story, and this is one of my favorite moments for him: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ufQxByt7dNM.html This is the whole opera, put into movie form by the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman: the song for Papageno is at about 1:26:10.
@@kck9742 The story structure is messy, motivations and objectives aren't really followed through, and the characters are kind of oddly developed. But there's some silly, really charming fun. And the music!
14:43 Anyone else here who's been a Children Of Bodom fan for ages and having this quote engrained in your head but no idea where it came from? The first time I watched this movie a few years ago I jumped up and shouted "Warheart!?" FYI it's the intro quote used in the song "Warheart" which is also the opening track to "Hatebreeder"...one of the (widely considered) best albums in it's genre and, depending on your taste, maybe even in all of music (for me at least). That album was the first I heard from the band, a completely blind buy because I had money with me and there was a cover of Aces High on it, and it literally and almost single handedly shifted my life on a set path towards music...it made me start to play guitar and warmed me up towards gutteral vocals, and now almost 20 years later I'm fully adept in both these areas and working towards eternal mastery. It's my proudest achievement in life so far and I can trace back to the day it all started with these words "From now on we're enemies...you and I", a sick bass intro and then ~40min of continuous eargasms that put a teenager in utter awe and formed a clear destiny in this directionless 14 year old me
Back in those days, yes, sometimes people of lower class would be buried in an unmarked, "mass" grave (no pun intended). We don't actually know the precise location of Mozart's final resting place. The Lacrimosa movement of his Requiem was, in fact, left unfinished by a little bit. It was completed by a student of his based on some incomplete sketches (if memory serves). Mozart and Salieri were professional contemporaries and certainly knew of and respected each other. Somewhere along the way, rumors began about their rivalry/jealousy. Couple hundred years later, someone capitalized on that conspiracy theory and wrote a play about it, which was the basis for this movie.
F. Murray Abraham was so good he makes everyone else's performance look standing still. The sad thing people think, like most movies, that is it 100% historically accurate and it isn't. Salieri gets character assassinated in this play/movie version.
It's ironic that while the depiction of Salieri is incorrect here most people would not remember who he was otherwise. And some may even look him up to find out his true story.
In the 19th century there was a play called Mozart and Salieri which created the idea that Salieri was secretly jealous of Mozart and plotted against him. The play on which this film was based is using the earlier play as a jumping off point. It may be fiction but it's a brilliant dramatic construct.
You're actually seeing scenes that were not part of the original theatrical release. The whole storyline (@14:00) of him telling Mozart's wife to come back that evening, was cut completely. Salieri just drops the music and walks away (stepping on it) and then it cuts to him putting the crucifix in the fire. Gives quite a different feel to the character.
The actual person who comissioned the Requiem from Mozart was Count Franz von Walsegg, who did have a reputation for passing of famous composers work as his own.
Mark Hamill took over the role on Broadway from Tim Curry- he wanted the film role, and Al Pacino wanted the Salieri role, but director Milos Forman wanted lesser known actors- so the film would stand out more than the celebrity.
I was too young when the movie came out, but my mother watched it in the movie theatre back then. Different then usual when the credits rolled with that amazing 2nd movement of the 20th piano concert the whole audience stayed sitting silently in awe until the very last note.
Deaf musician here. This movie is magnificent! Brings back so many (positive) memories! Spent SIX YEARS in a school orchestra.... 7th grade to 12th grade, and the same teacher taught two elite-level orchestras that combined ALL these grades. So ...2-3 times a year, for six years.... our teacher put this movie on. By senior year most of us hormone-laden teenagers (with all the lewdness this beautiful movie offered us) could RECITE IT word-for-word and pull up scenes (both line-by-line and note by note) at random.... so EVERY trip we took (via bus line) these scenes were acted out. It was beautiful. Two years after that, I finally watched it with actual captions and nearly died laughing at how completely wrong I was about half the lines! Captions weren't a requirement in schools yet, and most TVs (rolled in on carts, early-mid-90s) didnt have the tech required to show captioning! I can hear tone so utterly well, but speech still evades me. The very feel of that opening song (which gets trapped in my brain occasionally) just POUNDS your heart!
Great reaction to one of my all-time favorite films!!! This movie blew my mind when it first came out, even though I knew that it wasn't all factual. To be able to watch a film and have my eardrums caressed by Mozart's music was sublime.
"It takes someone greater than is to humble us, if we are not able to humble ourselves " is a wonderful quote and one I will remember. Thank you! Loved your reaction to this fantastic movie
The main premise of this film is the FICTIONAL story about the antagonistic attitude Salieri had against Mozart. In fact, the Emperor's court composer had a positive attitude toward Mozart and helped him get commissions. This film is completely artistic license for a good drama. In the end. Mozart died of some kind of disease in his 30s.
To this day we don't actually know the primary cause of Mozart's death -- likely a staph infection of some kind. And Salieri was actually Mozart's younger son's music teacher! Franz Xavier, called Wolfgang by his family, was only 4 months old when his father died, but he also became a composer. Karl, the elder of Mozart's two surviving children, was on the business side of music.
Knew you would love this and your reaction did not disappoint! This is an awesome movie all around - the acting, sets, props, costumes, and of course the music. They were only allowed to do this if the music was as Mozart had written it, and the film was shot on location. It really transports the viewer to the time and place and gives great insights into the various characters. The story is of course fiction, but it is believable. Totally deserving of the awards it received.
It's one of the few titles I recommend as being a near perfect film. All the elements are at their very best, from costume, make up, production design, sound, lighting, direction and above all story. It grabs you within 5 minutes and does not let you go. It is a flawed masterpiece and because of its flaws it makes it so intriguing and watchable. If it had been perfect it wouldn't have been half as successful or popular. Along with "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" Milos Forman oversaw 2 of the strongest narrative films ever made and they will stand as examples of how to construct a great film by expert storytelling.
The Salieri opera (the finale of which we briefly see) in the middle of the film is *Axur* - as it is known in its Italian version - and as *Tarare* in the French. It tells the tale of a realm on the Persian Gulf, and of its jealous king's plot to take down his honorable, popular general and steal his wife for the royal harem. There are intrigues aplenty, and at one point the general must disguise himself as a Negro slave, but all comes out justly in the end, with the king discredited and dying by suicide, and the general hailed the new king. Both of the melodies that, at the outset of the movie, Salieri plays for the priest (from his salad days) are found in *Axur.* 🤓
I loved this movie, but to this day I'm a little aggravated by it. F. Murray Abraham gave possibly the best performance in movie history in this film (He did win the Oscar for best actor), but faded into semi obscurity after, simply because he didn't fill the pretty-boy mold (not a Brad Pitt in other words). People can be fickle-pickles.😠
Maybe he never found another role like this, but since *Amadeus,* he's been a constantly-working actor, appearing in well over 100 different productions. Check out his Imdb.
One of my all-time favorite films. When it won the Oscar way back when, my family was completely blown away that a film we all considered to be fantastic actually won! And both actors should have won Best Actor.
30:57 It's a duet between Papageno, a bird catcher and his newfound sweetheart Papagena. They are enchanted with each other and are planning their future family. He's dressed as a bird because it helps him catch other birds for the Queen of the Night, the woman who was singing when Mozart's mother-in-law was scolding him.
This film is a sublime experience. Abraham as Salieri is perfect. His old man makeup was done by Dick Smith, who did Linda Blair’s in the Exorcist and the little boy ghost In Guillermo del Toro’s Devil’s Backbone. Been fortunate enough to get to see it on the big screen, for the first time, last week in NYC. Wish everyone could.
The “bird opera” was The Magic Flute, and there’s a great 1975 Ingmar Bergman movie version if you’re curious: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Y1e-NJpPzYw.htmlsi=pJwoH39NvQqsTlXm
Hey, Chris! This is an extraordinary movie and my all-time favorite. The Director's Cut adds superfluous scenes. The theatrical cut is best. It was originally an 1830 short story called "Mozart and Salieri" written by Alexander Pushkin which was adapted into an 1897 opera also called "Mozart and Salieri" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The 1979 London stage play adaptation was written by Peter Shaffer and debuted at the Royal National Theatre with Paul Scofield as Salieri and Simon Callow as Mozart. Callow played the head of the working class theater company who commissioned Mozart's "Magic Flute" opera in the film. The 1981 Broadway production starred Ian "Gandalf" McKellen as Salieri, Tim "Wadsworth" Curry as Mozart and Jane "Dr. Quinn" Seymour as Constanze. The production won multiple Tony Awards. The 1999 Broadway revival starred David "Poirot" Suchet as Salieri and Michael "Lucian" Sheen as Mozart. This production was similarly lauded. The 1984 film by Milos Forman won multiple Oscars including Best Actor for F. Murray Abraham as Salieri. The play is a fictionalized dramatization but Mozart was a prodigy, a spendthrift and an impractical creative type in life. He is buried in an unknown pauper's grave and is considered the greatest composer who ever lived.
Man, I’d forgotten about this movie! I saw it way back when it first came out, but I was too young to really understand it. Time to see it again, with mature eyes! Thank you, mister!
One of my all-time favorite films--THANK YOU for reacting to it! It won the Best Picture Oscar (are you surprised?) and to this day, the music dictating scene at the end astounds me--Mozart in the full flower of his genius and Salieri completely unable to keep up, unable to understand what he's doing, because he's so far ahead in the musical firmament. It is true that Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave, though I doubt Salieri had anything to do with it. But this portrait of 18th century envy and bitterness is still amazing--and F. Murray Abraham (Salieri) won the Best Actor Oscar that year and said graciously from the stage, "My only regret tonight is that Tom Hulce (Mozart) is not standing by my side." I always thought that showed incredible class. So glad you loved it! I still love it too!
This is my all time favorite movie. Most of this movie is false but there are many gems in here that really did happen. Mozart had debts and had 3 children. Without money for a burial he was put in a Paupers Grave. Thats why he was buried that way.
I understand a classical pianist studied the hand movements in the keyboard scenes and said they match up exactly with the soundtrack. No fake movie piano playing.
I'm about a third of the way throuh this reaction, and so far, my reaction to your reaction is this: I was twelve when my parents insisted that I watch this. In my immature way, I was feeling what you describe. The expansion of my understanding of what both music and film could do was unparalleled. To this day, now that I'm in my 40s, my brothers will ask me to quote a scene, and no matter what it is, I'll have it perfectly. It's truly a masterwork.
I'm not suggesting intent on the part of the writer or director, but viewed through a Christian lens, Salieri's motivational arc is an exquisite portrayal of self-righteousness burning most fiercely against the unrighteous who nevertheless receive the unmerited grace of God. Unable to attack God directly for not receiving their self-righteous offerings, the biblical Cains and King Sauls turn their wrath instead upon those he freely favors.
I saw Amadeus 3 times in the theater in 1984. I believe the film was shown with an intermission back then. Mozart's music was almost another character in the film and audiences fell in love with his music. The soundtrack of the film was the best selling classical album of the year and was a big seller which was unusual for a classical album. CDs were a new thing in the 1980s and the 2 disc CD soundtrack for Amadeus was one of the first CDs I purchased. I still own that CD and play it in 2024. After seeing the film many people discovered Mozart's music leading to Mozart replacing Beethoven as the favorite classical composer in the US.
I like to believe, in Wolfgangs final moments, when they wrote that song and he asked him to stay, Salieri did start feeling guilt and maybe even genuine appreciation for him. All things considered, this is an old man at his wits end recounting this story, he probably misremembered a portion of it.
murray abrahams description f mozart's music is literally the greatest description of music EVER although salierir was a rival , it is ture others were jelaous of his talent, but he did not poison or do that stuff. there was in fact a perons dressed in all black hwo came to mozart's door to comission the requiem, a guy who passed work off as his hown it scard mozart and he thought it was his death coming. and composed the requiem while he was dying. but it is believed he had Rhumatic fever that got too much. and you were right earliy on. this is a story told about a man who was jealous of mozart and also sneile at that oint in his life the emoror really did say something about too many notes however in ralizyt salieri was fine with mozart. after mozart died, he tutored mozart's kids in music composition and they both became decent composoers in their own right. in this day and age, unless you wer eroyalty you got put in a mass grave. 10 years later if mozart lived that long he would have been buried in his own grave as they changed the laws by then. he did die at 35 years old 11 months
Such a brilliant film, it’s not the most accurate of tellings, but I’ll let the beauty of the portrayal let it slide. I wish they could make movies like this again.
I love this movie. So good! I saw it in a packed theater in Dallas when it came out, and when that crucifix scene came, the entire audience let out a collective gasp. Powerful. Thanks for sharing this. 🙂
I have a 3 CD collectors edition of this soundtrack. I bought it when I was a starving student in college back in the 90s, but I couldn’t resist as this is one of my absolute favorite movies. I still listen to the soundtrack regularly when I’m trying to concentrate at work.
While much of this story is fiction, a lot of it is based on fact. Mozart did die while working on a Requiem that was commissioned by a mysterious stranger who wanted to claim it as his own work. Mozart’s wife hired someone to finish the Requiem after her husband died and the movie only uses the first half, which Mozart did complete.
The young maid is Sex and the City alum Cynthia Nixon. The Emperor is played by the same actor as who played the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
You asked if this was how things were done, about the mass grave at the end: Yes. Well, sometimes. That is really how Mozart was buried, but that fact is sometimes used for this narrative of Mozart dying poor und unloved and in shame, that nobody cared about him at the time and this is why he was buried in such a manner. But that isn't true. This procedure, burying people quickly and unceremoniously in mass graves outside the city, was done to prevent diseases from spreading. It depends on the exact time span of course, but in larger cities like Vienna, this was nothing out of the ordinary for the time.
Mozart's dictation scene in his death bed is considered one of the greatest in movie history. And, without having read all the comments, did anyone notice that the servant/spy that Salieri employees is Cynthia Nixon, aka Miranda from Sex and the City?
The point of Peter Schaffer's play and screenplay was a meditation on musical jealousy, it was s device, in reality Mozart and Salieri really did respect one another. It was just that Mozart's work connected with people faster. Over time Salieri's work has been given a reassessment. It's a mystery how certain pieces of music really connected with people. The moral is, just do the best you can amr see what connects.
I mean, it depends what other movies you put on the poll, but Amadeus is a Best Picture winner, so it's no slouch by any means. F. Murray Abraham's performance as Salieri is some of my favorite acting in any movie, hands down, too. His Oscar win was so deserved, in my opinion; very nuanced, and believable. Personally, as a classically-trained pianist working as such my entire life, this movie is "standard" viewing. It's historical fiction for sure, but everyone I know understands this and enjoys it for what it is. Glad you liked it as well!
The scene of the Papageno and Papagena duet is part of "The Magic Flute." If you have the chance, listen to the opera or watch a live recorded video of this amazing opera.
This movie was based on a deathbed confession Salieri made about killing Mozart. Most likely, Mozart died from excessive drinking or a high fever. In reality, the pair got along well. This movie brought Salieri out of the shadows and back into mainstream classic music. He was a talented composer that was overshadowed by an even better composer, Mozart. His wife, being practical, went on to preserve and sell Mozart's work. She became a wealthy woman in a few years after his death. She went onto to remarry in her 40s.
