Review of Amadeus (1984) by Sarfaraz A — 13 Oct 2011

AMADEUS (1984).

Directed by Milos Forman.

Starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge.

«His funeral! Imagine it, the cathedral, all Vienna sitting there, his coffin, Mozart's little coffin in the middle, and then, in that silence, music! A divine music bursts out over them all. A great mass of death! Requiem mass for Wolfgang Mozart, composed by his devoted friend, Antonio Salieri! Oh what sublimity, what depth, what passion in the music! Salieri has been touched by God at last. And God is forced to listen! Powerless, powerless to stop it! I, for once in the end, laughing at him! The only thing that worried me was the actual killing. How does one do that? Hmmm? How does one kill a man? It's one thing to dream about it; very different when, when you, when you have to do it with your own hands.».

Amadeus is a Latin name that can be translate to «beloved of God», it's a name Mozart often used as a pen name cause he was actually baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, Theophilus being close to the Greek name Theophilos, which has the same meaning as Amadeus. Milos Forman's film, based on Peter Schaffer's play, may use Amadeus as its title but the film really is more about Antonio Salieri, another composer who lived in Vienna at the same time as Mozart, but the title very much makes sense for this historically inaccurate biographical picture. While Schaffer based his idea on some possible facts, it is more an excuse to work on the theme of rivalry with characters everyone knows.

Antonio Salieri is Emperor Joseph II's court composer. He worked hard to go there, he offered his chastity to God to receive his talent and prays every day the Lord makes to make sure his abilities will stay with him. He hear Mozart is coming to Vienna and is looking forward to see who that man is but his disappointment is obvious when he realizes Mozart is a childish, vulgar, conceited, self-righteous genius. Mozart has gotten the gift from God that Salieri wanted for himself. He prays for justice and fairness but Salieri is a sinner, his envy, his jealousy and his vanity make him undeserving of such a gift.

The film begins with the old Salieri trying to commit suicide. «Mozart! Mozart, forgive your assassin! I confess, I killed you...» He is then taken to a mental hospital where he tells his story to a priest. He explains how Mozart's talent drove him mad but at the same time his absolute fascination for the man's work, which he couldn't deny was an absolute beauty. The film basically shows how Salieri was torn up between his love for Mozart's music and his jealousy. A two-faced man he was, in presence of the composer he would offer him his help and compliment his work, with genuinity, but would conspire against him when he was trying to bring something new. Salieri was simply afraid to realize all the commitments he made to God were worthless cause that little man and his funny wigs would always be better than him. Salieri's confidence dropped and considered himself mediocre simply because he couldn't do what Mozart did, when in fact, Salieri was quite talented himself.

«I heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theater, conferring on all who sat there, perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man to all the world, unstoppable, making my defeat more bitter with every passing bar.».

Those are only elements in the film, not necessarily in real life, cause apparently, even if there might have been a real rivalry between the composers, they had respect for each other and that rivalry was ultimately sane, just like the one we see in any fields of life.

The costumes in the film are amazing, the sets are huge, the period replica is simply impressive. The opera scenes are memorable and what can I say about the music, it's simply marvellous. I'm not even a fan of opera, it actually bugs me, but in this film, it just seems so beautiful, it makes me want to buy tickets. I'm not particularly passionate about classical music but in this film it feels like it really is something that comes from God. There is something grotesque about the film though, Mozart's annoying laugh, the way they eat food, those ridiculous wigs or Emperor Joseph II's ignorance about everything. It seems as if they were looking at that era with a contemptuous look, but at the same time they seem to be fascinated by it, kind of the same way Salieri looks at Mozart in the film.

Other than rivalry the film touches other interesting themes such as guilt and that comes with both the old Salieri who thinks he has killed a messenger of God in Mozart, but also Mozart who didn't go back home to his father after his insistence, who ultimately died. That becomes something major when Salieri exploits it to extort Mozart's talent, which ended up killing him because of a poisoned obsession created by Salieri's envious character.

F. Murray Abraham is amazing as Salieri. He brings a lot of subtlety to the character, his body language, his eyes, his smiles, it's definitely a terrific performance and he did deserve the praise and the Awards that he got from it. Tom Hulce as Mozart showed a lot of potential, I actually wonder why he didn't become a bigger star after that film. He portrays the genius madness of his character with such depth it's just fascinating, even if sometimes it almost seems like he is overdoing it. The rest of the cast is not to be mention really, cause its basically two one-man shows in one film. Except maybe Elizabeth Berridge, who plays Mozart's wife with the right amount of innocence that the part needed. While I'm at it, Jeffrey Jones - mostly known as Ferris Bueller's principal - as the Emperor Joseph II, nails his part perfectly and really does look as ignorant as his character.

Amadeus is a fictitious piece of work on one of the greatest classical composer to ever live, but it maintains some hidden truth. It's an amazing character study which is wonderfully directed by Milos Forman, who understands his characters and film his story as if it was a true epic. With great cinematography, terrific editing, wonderful acting, powerful direction, in-depth writing, Amadeus is what I consider a masterpiece and definitely one of the best films I have ever seen.

«All I wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing... and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn't want me to praise him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?».

Salieri is done telling his story, a man comes him and takes him away, pushing his chair in the middle of those people affected by madness. Salieri is one of them, maybe it was all just a delusion and it didn't really happen that way, maybe he didn't kill Mozart, maybe it really was just like it was in real life and in the end, Salieri is the one telling us a fake story about Mozart, not Milos Forman, not Peter Schaffer. «Mediocrities everywhere... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you all.».