Amadeus (1984)

 

Amadeus

The first movie of 1984 is “Amadeus”. It was also the big winner of 1984 with eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, so 1984 starts on a high.

In 1823, Antonia Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is a patient in a hospital. He is visited by a priest to whom he tells the tale of how he killed Mozart. Yes, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great composer. His story takes us back to Vienna in the 1770’ies.

At this time Salieri is a court composer at the court of Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones), a sovereign very much interested in music but lacking any talent for it. At this time Mozart (Tom Hulce) arrives in Vienna. He already has a reputation as a prodigy, but he is also an infantile playboy. In an age of wigs, face powder and effeminate men, it takes something to stand out as an obscene playboy.

Salieri immediately recognizes the massive talent of Mozart and is perceptive enough to realize he is himself just an amateur by comparison. Add to this the ease with which Mozart produces his art and the libertine silliness of the man, Salieri is struck by deep envy and anger with God for bestowing such gifts on an undeserving person. Salieri makes it his life mission to bring Mozart down.

Mozart and Salieri are real, historic characters, but the story presented here is entirely fiction. Mozart died young from a mysterious ailment and already in the early nineteenth century, the conspiracy theory were flourishing that Salieri and Mozart were rivals and that it was Salieri who killed Mozart. In reality they were more like colleagues, and it was Mozart who had a thing for conspiracies.

So, if this movie is not about a historic event, what is it then? My understanding is that this is a tale of envy. Of mediocracy and conformity trying to stifle the extraordinary and the beautiful. What better example of talent than the greatest composer ever and the myth of Salieri’s rivalry with him. Director Milos Forman was Czech and had a history of subversive movies challenging the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and it is not a big jump to see Salieri as the communist party supressing the arts in the East.

As a drama, “Amadeus” works, but at a very slow pace. Considering Salieri “just” has to bring Mozart down, he is awfully slow at it, this is a lengthy movie, and it is more about the grief Salieri suffers at his more or less failed attempts at discrediting and marginalizing Mozart. Mozart suffers immensely, but he does not make it easy for himself either. He is a reckless playboy, convinced of his magnificence and spending far too much for his measly income.

The real assets of “Amadeus” are the music and the sets. Oh, Lord! Almost every time there is music, it is Mozart. The volume goes up, it is full orchestra, and it is a Mozart Greatest Hits show. We hear parts of “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovani”, “The Magic Flute” and many of his famous symphonies. I am not very knowledgeable on classical music, but even a heathen like me gets blown away by this music and the arrangement of it does it full honour. This is a movie to listen to in a cinema with a good sound system.

The set is just as magnificent. The illusion of the eighteenth century is perfect, not just on the costumes and the wigs, but using Prague as location was a strike of genius. Some of the scenes were shot in the very theatre where Don Giovanni premiered originally. It has been far too long since my last visit to Prague, but I do remember that eighteenth century vibe. I also did bring home a Don Giovanni puppet on my last visit...

What works less well is the choice of using American English as the spoken language. I know this is not an unusual thing and even Ridley Scott’s recent “Napoleon” did it, but I kept expecting to hear German. This gets really bad with Mozart’s wife Constanze Mozart (Elizabeth Berridge), who otherwise delivers an excellent performance, but her accent is so thick... According to Wikipedia, Mark Hamill was considered as Mozart. That could have been fun.

This is not a bad movie at all, even if it seems to creep along at a slow pace. There is so much to look at and listen to that I do not mind. My only regret is that I never saw it in a cinema.