Review of Amadeus (1984) by Ally C — 03 Mar 2011

An unashamed, spectacular biopic of the world's most famous composer and a story that one doesn't stop to ask how much of it was the truth or not. The film is narrated by Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) a court composer who both adores and loathes Mozart in equal measure.

Salieri grows up listening to the prodigious talent and yearns to meet the man who has inspired him in his own quest as a composer. When he finally meets him however, the illusion is shattered as we are introduced to Mozart as a vagabond dandy who chases women and who dresses in fancy clothes, betraying the genius of his compostions.

Tom Hulce is outrageous as 'Wolfy' as his wife Constance calls him throughout the film and it is in the crack between his professional and his social life wherein lies the jealousy of Salieri and the disgust of his Mozart's father Leopold.

Milos Forman the director shows the dark and light side of Vienna by its four main locations, the court, the theatre the streets and Mozart's home. In the court he is lauded and tolerated at the same time, in the theatres he is adored, in the streets he is poor and in his home he is loved and then dies.

In Abraham's performance, we see a bitter man jealous of the genius he canot possess but always in awe of that talent and the man the talent lies in. Like Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, the cinematography is beautiful and the scenes set in the theatres of Vienna are sumptuous and emotive.

It is the final scene where Salieri notates Mozart's final piece that the true beauty of the film lies, the ever-trusting Mozart leaving the final part of his legacy to the man who jas done him the most good and bad in the film that is truly Shakespearean in depth and emotion.

A very decent film among the dearth of mid-eighties cinema on offer at the time.