Ladies and gentleman, one of the greatest composers of all time
Amadeus is a 1979 stage play written by Peter Shaffer, adapted into a film in 1984. It is based off of an 1897 one-act opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korshakov, Mozart and Salieri, which is in turn based on an 1830 drama of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. This article deals mainly with the film.Taking some liberties with historical accounts, the story is told from the point of view of Antonio Salieri, the court composer for Emperor Joseph II. A devout man, Salieri's faith is shaken when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrives and wins the affections of the court and the audiences. That the boorish Mozart could create such magnificent compositions with seemingly no effort, while Salieri had to struggle to get to where he was, drives him to undermine Mozart any way he can. Sometimes, he even succeeds.A misconception about the story is that it's meant to be taken as fact, but there is also a misconception about this misconception - the story is about the supposed secret history of Salieri and Mozart; so in Real Life Salieri and Mozart were good friends and Salieri was a respected composer, but in this movie Salieri and Mozart are also good friends and Salieri is still a respected composer... as far as everybody else knows, Mozart included. The premise is that the only one who knows the real truth is Salieri, who is far too wallowed up in self-pity to appreciate his lot in life (which is, on the whole, pretty good) but is also enough of a Villain with Good Publicity that by the end he, and only he, really knows the extent of his bastardy (bar the priest he confesses to). In other words, it works on the idea that recorded history is different because it has been duped.Despite the historical inaccuracy, the film is considered absolutely brillant, and is well worth watching for its own sake.Ironically, the greatest legacy of Amadeus was a considerable revival of interest in the life and work of Antonio Salieri.
These works contain examples of:
Academy Award: 1984 Best Picture winner. Milos Forman also won Best Director, and F. Murray Abraham won Best Actor for his turn as Salieri—competing against Tom Hulce's Mozart.
Ambiguously Gay: The Wigmaker when Mozart is buying the three wigs.
Annoying Laugh: Mozart. Some have claimed that was actually how Mozart sounded when he laughed, but there is no evidence to suggest that.
Antagonist In Mourning: Salieri, despite having relished the moment for a long time, seems utterly crushed when Mozart dies. In the opening, where he tries to commit suicide, he's even crying out "Forgive me, Mozart!"
Artistic License - History: Although the movie takes greatArtistic License with Mozart and Salieri's relationship, it is surprisingly accurate on a number of levels. First, meticulous care was put into accurately portraying the period. Second, Mozart was just as annoying in real life: Joseph Haydn once saw him make a hundred enemies at a single party.
Also, one of the film's greatest inaccuracies is Mozart's composition method, stating that he composed entirely in his head and then wrote the music down in a single draft. Although this is untrue (Mozart's sheet music went through numerous revisions, like any other composer), it is more a case of History Marches On, as the single-draft method was perpetrated by historians in the 19th century.
One minor but curious alteration in the movie is the absence of Salieri's wife. The movie portrays him as celibate but secretly lustful towards his students, adding weight to the Director's Cut scene where he tries to take advantage of Constanze but doesn't entirely follow through.
Based on a Great Big Lie: It's widely considered to be an urban legend that Salieri claimed to have killed Mozart; and even if it were true, nobody would have believed him.
Compounded by the fact that part of the movie's tagline is, "...Everything You've Heard Is True".
Bedlam House: The lunatic asylum that Salieri is confined to.
Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the movie, Salieri rediscovers his own spirituality after realizing at the end of his confession that he wasn't Mozart's killer after all, and that he himself never knew that God was setting him up as something better, be it ever so slightly, than just a great composer doomed to live to see his fame and fortune wither away before his eyes: the patron saint of mediocrities.
The Real Life Irony is Salieri went on to teach Beethoven, who did respect his old tutor.
Black Cloak: Salieri disguises himself in one of these to commission the Requiem Mass in D Minor from Mozart. Papa Mozart wore a similar cloak.
Blasphemous Boast: Salieri gives one after he decides that God is taunting him through Mozart.
California Doubling: 18th century Vienna was shot in 1980s Prague - because their roofs don't have lots of satellite dishes that could potentially spoil the shot.
Not so much in the play, in which he expresses contempt towards his wife's frigidity and seduces one of Mozart's students.
Country Matters: Courtesy of Schikaneder, after finding out Mozart had been writing a requiem. He even says it in the PG-rated theatrical cut, unbelievably (though it's been muffled so it's hard to say whether Schikaneder said the C word or "clown").
Schikaneder: Look, you little cunt! Do you know how many people I've hired for you?
Driven by Envy: Salieri, Very much so — as a core driver of the plot.
Dumbass Has a Point: While Emperor Joseph has no ear for music, he knows that a dance is nothing without it and his intervention caused Marriage of Figaro to be premièred.
Enforced Method Acting: While shooting the scene where a dying Mozart dictates the Requiem to Salieri, Tom Hulce deliberately skipped lines so as to make it seem Salieri could not understand what he was being dictated.
From a Certain Point of View: "I confess, I killed you!" Well, Salieri didn't really kill Mozart, but the fact that Mozart was, toward the end of his life, doing two jobs (and overwork was apparently a contributory cause of his death) didn't really help matters, and since one of the jobs was assigned by a disguised Salieri...
A God Am I: Salieri's aspiration to become God's musical messenger in this world. It all goes downhill when he understands that Mozart fits the role much better.
Heroic RROD: Mozart, with encouragement from Salieri, ends up working himself to death.
Historical Villain Upgrade: Salieri. Although he and Mozart were competitors for various professional positions, and Mozart and his father suspected that Salieri and other Italian composers based in Vienna had conspired to hinder his career (leading to the accusations that Salieri had poisoned Mozart, accusations which caused Salieri to have several nervous breakdowns in later life), the two composers actually had a great deal of respect for one another, and Salieri actively helped to bring about the premieres of several of Mozart's later works. By some accounts, Salieri was also present at Mozart's burial, and helped to arrange concerts celebrating Mozart's work following his death.
I Just Want to Be Special: Salieri is tortured every day by reminders that, however good he gets, Mozart will always be better and will always be acclaimed as a genius. Its his frustration and anger at both his shortcomings and his belief that Mozart is wasting his talent that drives him to breaking point.
A big point of the film is that Salieri is special: he's one of the most famous and greatest composers in Europe for his time. The problem is he doesn't think highly of his own talent.
He may be on track, as he sees his works fade into musical history.
Insufferable Genius: Both Mozart and Salieri. Mozart is boorish, rude, infantile, and argumentative against anyone who can't appreciate his work. Salieri is snobbish and pandering, and demonstrates contempt for others. Salieri merely does a better job of hiding his contempt.
Intermission: Usually occurs when the movie is shown on premium cable channels (i.e., HBO, and the like).
In The Style Of: Mozart playing "Vivat Bacchus" in the style of Salieri, punctuated with flatulence.
Ironic Echo: Early on, Salieri looks up at his crucifix as he composes his welcome march for Mozart and says, "Grazie, Signore." Not ten minutes later in the picture, after Mozart performs a variation that will become "Non più andrai", Salieri, sulking at his piano and obviously trying not to lose it, grumbles, "Grazie, Signore."
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mozart may be a jerk, and seem to make fun of and insult everyone despite their respect for him. However he loves his wife and kid as well as his father, and has made about as many celebrity friends as that other Jerkass Genius Lastly he apologizes to Salieri for mocking him before he dies, which actually gives Salieri a My God, What Have I Done? look.
Lonely at the Top: Mozart despite being a musical prodigy is in debt the entire movie, pushes those closest to him away, and while audience loves his work, no one particularly likes Mozart enough to hire him as a teacher.
Man Child: Even without Salieri trying to sabotage him, Mozart had a lot of demons on his own. He was very childish, outspoken, couldn't take criticism, spent more money than he earned, and had severe drinking issues.
My God, What Have I Done?: Salieri apparently starts to have second thoughts about killing Mozart after the latter apologizes to him, and he later apologizes to Mozart, as seen during the opening.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Everyone in the cast spoke with their natural accents. British audiences found it jarring to hear some of the characters sound American and others sound British.
The Other Marty: Meg Tilly was originally cast as Constanze Mozart, however, she tore a knee ligament the day before shooting started, thus being replaced with Elizabeth Berridge.
The Queen's Latin: Averted. Most characters (including the Emperor) speak with American accents, and only a few characters speak with British accents. One character speaks with a German accent, which contrasts comically with his belief in the superiority of Italian and his incessant attempts at it. It appears that many actors were instructed to use their native accents.
Salieri [throwing a crucifix in his fireplace]: "From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able."
Revenge Before Reason: Salieri is so driven by his jealousy that he doesn't see that Mozart is suffering his own demons. Until Salieri attends Don Giovanni, and he realizes exactly what he can do to make Mozart suffer even more...
A Simple Plan: Salieri's plan to both trick Mozart into composing a Requiem and then kill Mozart.
Salieri: 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!
Shout Out: The freckled little boy watching Mozart show off his mad piano skills at the masquerade party is a reference to Ludwig van Beethoven. While the two of them attending the same party is fairly unlikely, Mozart did attend a recital in which young Beethoven perfomed.
Sweet Tooth: Salieri has a thing for candy (may also count as Genius Sweet Tooth and/or a sex substitute, as Salieri was chaste).
Throw the Dog a Bone: Salieri gets one of these when the Emperor yawns during Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, causing it to close after nine performances. Salieri's opera, meanwhile, is loved by the Emperor and Salieri receives a royal commendation as a result.
Toilet Humour: Mozart's sense of humour is rather... lavatorial.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: While by no means pure, Salieri admitted at the end that Mozart (or at least, his music) was so sacred that God himself called him home to Out Gambit Salieri's plot to kill him and steal the last laugh from right under the Most High's nose.
True Art Is Incomprehensible: In-Universe, Mozart is seen struggling against everyone who can't comprehend the operas and music he's creating for them. Most of them — Emperor included — can't recognize good music even when it points them to the Awesome Music tropes page, while the one person who can comprehend — Salieri — is working behind the scenes to sabotage Mozart's efforts. Parodied when Mozart, in a huff after being told that the Emperor has banned ballet in opera, Mozart just removes the music from the ballet scene in The Marriage of Figaro and has the dancers just dance to silence. When the Emperor attends a rehearsal, he asks an aide if this is just a new modern development?
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In reality, Salieri and Mozart had a great deal of respect for each other, attended each others' operas and Salieri ended up teaching one of Mozart's sons.
Also, it is true that Mozart did not know who was commissioning the requiem. The film depicts Salieri commissioning it with the intent of passing the work off as his own. Although Salieri did not actually commission the work, the man who did (Franz von Walsegg) was a known plagiarist who almost certainly had the same intent as Salieri in the film (minus the whole murder thing).
In the play, von Walsegg is revealed to have been the man in the mask - Salieri simply takes advantage of an already freaked-out Mozart. to further his plan.
Visual Pun: After being chastised by the Prince-Archbishop for his conduct, Mozart walks out to see a crowd of admirers applauding him and bows to them. The furious Prince-Archbishop signals for his guards to close the door on Mozart, thereby booting Mozart's ass out of his quarters.
“Well Done Son” Guy: Mozart is both terrified and awed by his imposing father Leopold. He's hoping for the adoration he wants from his father (who never shows any) but unwilling to submit to his demands to leave Vienna. And when Leopold dies, Mozart pumps out Don Giovanni to express his rage and grief. And Salieri is the only one who understands it...
What Could Have Been: Mark Hamill was considered for the role of Mozart (for the film) and he had already played the role on Broadway. He was rejected because the director wanted lesser-known actors.
Kenneth Branagh, Tim Curry and Mel Gibson were among those rejected for the part of Mozart.
Meg Tilly was originally supposed to play Mozart's wife but she injured her leg the day before filming and the part had to be recast. Director Milos Forman did later hire her again for a another period film set in the 18th century, Valmont (based on the novel Dangerous Liaisons).
0 reviews