Amadeus Milos Forman

Amadeus is a 1984 American period biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman, and adapted by Peter Shaffer from his 1979 stage play of the same name, in turn inspired by the 1830 play Mozart and Salieri by Alexander Pushkin. Set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, the film is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg. It is described by its writer as a "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". Mozart's music is heard extensively in the soundtrack. The film follows a fictional rivalry between Mozart and Italian composer and teacher to world renowned composers Antonio Salieri at the court of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. The film stars F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart. Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning the award.

Amadeus was released by Orion Pictures on September 19, 1984, thirteen days after its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 6, 1984. Upon release, it received widespread acclaim and was a box office hit, grossing over $90 million. Amadeus was nominated for 53 awards and received 40, including eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), four BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director), and a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film. As of 2024, it was the most recent film to have more than one nomination in the Academy Award for Best Actor category. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it 53rd on its 100 Years... 100 Movies list. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5][6]

In 1823, aged composer Antonio Salieri is committed to a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide, during which he claims that he murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Father Vogler, a Catholic priest, encourages Salieri to confess his sins before God. After the young Vogler fails to recognize him, Salieri plays three old melodies to jog his memory. Vogler cannot recognize the first two (which Salieri wrote), but is relieved to recognize the third (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) at once. Salieri peevishly reveals that Mozart wrote it.

Salieri begins his confession by saying that he grew up hearing stories of Mozart the child prodigy. As a youth, Salieri offered God a deal: if He allowed Salieri to become a famous musician like Mozart, Salieri would offer his faithfulness, chastity, and diligence. His unsupportive father soon dies, which Salieri interprets as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri becomes court composer to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. However, he has enough taste to know that Emperor Joseph has no ear for music, and that his own compositions will not stand the test of time.

When Salieri meets Mozart for the first time, he immediately knows that Mozart is the better composer, but is shocked to learn that Mozart is obscene, immature, and dissolute. Adding to his dismay, he learns that Mozart never needs to pen a second draft of his music (see Mozart's compositional method), implying divine inspiration. Salieri cannot fathom why God would choose a reprobate like Mozart as His earthly instrument. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on Him by destroying Mozart.

Mozart's work is ahead of its time, and he has trouble finding work in Vienna. He spends himself into debt, alarming his wife Constanze. Salieri and Mozart bond over their shared contempt for Emperor Joseph's lack of taste, but for the same reason, Mozart is unimpressed by Salieri's populist work, which causes Salieri great pain.

Mozart boldly adapts the subversive play The Marriage of Figaro into a comedic opera. Salieri rejoices, thinking Mozart's career is ruined, but Mozart stuns Salieri by convincing the Emperor to approve the project. However, to Salieri's equal disbelief, the Emperor finds the opera boring, and it is promptly cancelled. In response, Mozart composes Don Giovanni, a dark, serious opera. Salieri is entranced, but vindictively gets that opera cancelled too. Renouncing Vienna's artistic establishment, Mozart agrees to write The Magic Flute for a commoners' theater.

After watching Don Giovanni five times, Salieri realizes that the dead commander who accuses Giovanni of sin represents Mozart's inferiority complex towards his own father. He concocts a plan to humiliate God. He persuades the unstable Mozart that his late father has risen to commission a Requiem Mass. He plans to kill Mozart, claim the Requiem as his own, and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, forcing God to listen as Salieri is acclaimed. Mozart overworks himself juggling both The Magic Flute and the Requiem. Constanze, who wants him to focus on the Requiem, leaves with their son Karl. Although The Magic Flute is a success, the dying Mozart collapses before he can finish the Requiem.

Desperate to complete his plan, but also desperate for more of Mozart's heavenly music, Salieri begs the bedridden Mozart to keep writing the Requiem. He takes dictation from Mozart, during which he comes to terms with Mozart's superior talent. Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows.

Constanze returns and kicks Salieri out of the apartment before he can steal the Requiem.[a] Due to his debts, Mozart is unceremoniously buried in a pauper's grave.

Back in 1823, Vogler is too shaken to absolve Salieri, who surmises that God would rather destroy His beloved Mozart than allow Salieri to share in the smallest part of Mozart's glory. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, he proclaims himself the patron saint of mediocrities. He loudly absolves the asylum's other patients of their inadequacies as Mozart's laughter rings in the air.

• F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri
  • Martin Cavani as young Salieri
• Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Miroslav Sekera as young Mozart
• Elizabeth Berridge as Constanze Mozart
• Roy Dotrice as Leopold Mozart
• Simon Callow as Emanuel Schikaneder
• Christine Ebersole as Caterina Cavalieri
• Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II
• Charles Kay as Count Orsini-Rosenberg
• Kenneth McMillan as Michael Schlumberger (Director's Cut)
• Kenny Baker as Parody Commendatore
• Lisabeth Bartlett as Papagena
• Barbara Bryne as Frau Weber – Mozart's scandalous landlady and later mother-in-law.
• Roderick Cook as Count von Strack
• Milan Demjanenko as Karl Mozart
• Peter DiGesu as Francesco Salieri
• Michele Esposito as Salieri's student (Director's Cut)
• Richard Frank as Father Vogler
• Patrick Hines as Kapellmeister Giuseppe Bonno
• Nicholas Kepros as Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg
• Philip Lenkowsky as Salieri's Servant
• Herman Meckler as Priest
• Jonathan Moore as Baron van Swieten
• Cynthia Nixon as Lorl, Mozart's maid
• Brian Pettifer as Hospital Attendant
• Vincent Schiavelli as Salieri's Valet
• Douglas Seale as Count Arco – Joseph II's counselor
• Cassie Stuart as Gertrude Schlumberger (Director's Cut)
• John Strauss as Conductor
• Karl-Heinz Teuber as Wig Salesman
• Rita Zohar as Frau Schlumberger (Director's Cut)

Kenneth Branagh writes in his autobiography Beginning that he was one of the finalists for the role of Mozart, but was dropped from consideration when Forman decided to make the film with an American cast.[7] Mark Hamill, who replaced Tim Curry as Mozart towards the end of the stage play's Broadway run, read with many actresses auditioning for the part of Mozart's wife Constanze. However, Forman ultimately decided not to cast him due to his association with the character of Luke Skywalker, feeling that audiences would not believe him as the composer.[8] Meg Tilly was cast as Mozart's wife Constanze, but she tore a ligament in her leg the day before shooting started.[9] She was replaced by Elizabeth Berridge. Simon Callow, who played Mozart in the original London stage production of Amadeus, was cast as Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of The Magic Flute.

The film was shot on location in Prague[10] and Kroměříž.[11] Forman was able to shoot scenes in the Count Nostitz Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito debuted two centuries before.[12] Several other scenes were shot at the Barrandov Studios and Invalidovna building, former "hôtel des invalides", built in 1731–1737.[13]

Forman collaborated with American choreographer Twyla Tharp.[14]

Tom Hulce reportedly used John McEnroe's mood swings as a source of inspiration for his portrayal of Mozart's unpredictable genius. He claimed he did not find Mozart's signature laugh until he downed a bottle of whiskey.[9][15]

Critical reception

Amadeus holds a score of 89% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 154 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Amadeus' liberties with history may rankle some, but the creative marriage of Miloš Forman and Peter Shaffer yields a divinely diabolical myth of genius and mediocrity, buoyed by inspired casting and Mozart's rapturous music."[16]

Giving the film four out of four stars, Roger Ebert acknowledged that it was one of the "riskiest gambles a filmmaker has taken in a long time," but added that "there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach," and ultimately concluded that it was a "magnificent film, full and tender and funny and charming".[17] Ebert later added the film to his Great Movies list.[17] Peter Travers of People magazine said that "Hulce and Abraham share a dual triumph in a film that stands as a provocative and prodigious achievement."[18] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic put it on his list of films worth seeing.[19]

In one negative review, Todd McCarthy of Variety said that despite "great material and themes to work with, and such top talent involved," the "stature and power the work possessed onstage have been noticeably diminished" in the film adaptation.[20] The film's many historical inaccuracies have attracted criticism from music historians.[21][22]

Box office

The film grossed $52 million in the United States and Canada[2] and by November 1985, while still in theatres overseas, had grossed over $90 million worldwide to date.[3]

Accolades

The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning eight (including Best Picture). At the end of the Oscar ceremony, Laurence Olivier came on stage to present the Oscar for Best Picture. As Olivier thanked the academy for inviting him, he was already opening the envelope. Instead of announcing the nominees, he simply read, "The winner for this is Amadeus." An AMPAS official quickly went onstage to confirm the winner and signalled that all was well before Olivier then presented the award to producer Saul Zaentz. Olivier (in his 78th year) had been ill for many years, and it was because of mild dementia that he forgot to read the nominees.[23] Zaentz then thanked Olivier, saying it was an honour to receive the award from him,[24] before mentioning the other nominees in his acceptance speech: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story. Maurice Jarre won Best Original Music Score for his scoring of A Passage to India. In his acceptance speech for the award, Jarre remarked "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year".[25]

The film along with The English Patient, The Hurt Locker, The Artist, and Birdman are the only Best Picture winners never to enter the weekend box office top 5 after rankings began being recorded in 1982.[26][27][28][29] The film peaked at No. 6 during its 8th weekend in theaters. Saul Zaentz produced both Amadeus and The English Patient.

From the beginning, writer Peter Shaffer and director Miloš Forman both were open about their desire to create entertaining drama only loosely based on reality, calling the work a "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri".[44]

The idea of animosity between Mozart and Salieri was popularized by Alexander Pushkin in 1830 in his play Mozart and Salieri. In it, Salieri murders Mozart on stage. The play was made into the opera Mozart and Salieri by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 67 years later,[44] which in turn had its first screen adaptation by silent-film director Victor Tourjansky in 1914.[45]

Another significant departure in the film is the portrayal of Salieri as a pious loner trapped in a vow of chastity when in reality he was a married family man with eight children and at least one mistress.[22]

Mozart was indeed commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass by an anonymous benefactor. In reality, the patron turned out to be Count Franz von Walsegg, who was grieving after the death of his wife.[46]

Amadeus premiered in 1984 as a PG-rated movie with a running time of 161 minutes. Director Miloš Forman later introduced an R-rated version with nearly 20 minutes of restored footage, which was released by the studios as a Director's Cut on September 24, 2002.[47] Since 2024, the Director's Cut has been the only available version of the film, as the producers modified the original film negative to include the additional footage, although the producers have promised to re-release the theatrical edition at an unspecified future date.[48]

It is not clear whether the Director's Cut represents Forman's actual artistic vision. Forman defended the 20 minutes of cuts in his 1993 autobiography Turnaround,[49] and repeated his defense in the 1995 supplemental material for Pioneer's deluxe LaserDisc. The Director's Cut has come under severe criticism, in part because it displaced the theatrical edition, instead of complementing it. Rian Johnson argued that the Director's Cut "is bizarrely a sort of inverse master class in editing: It shows exactly why the cuts were made in the first place & how they made the film work."[50] Roger Ebert noted that the cut was part of a broader wave of directors’ cuts on home video, which he characterized as a “mixed blessing."[51] The A.V. Club's Tasha Robinson noted that most of the additional sequences were either redundant or unnecessary, and broke up the "lively flow between scenes" that marked the theatrical edition's "superb[]" editing."[52]

On the other hand, critics have recognized the merits of some of the additional scenes. Ebert and Robinson agreed that the added scenes better explained Constanze's hatred for Salieri, although Robinson questioned whether that subplot actually needed a topless scene.[51][52] Foreign Policy's Jordan Hoffmann added that the subplot featuring Christine Ebersole as a Salieri-favored singer who sleeps with Mozart, was "splendid."[53]

More broadly, while promoting the Director's Cut, Forman argued that the unlimited running time of home video provided a better environment for the deleted scenes:

When you finish a film, before the first paying audience sees it, you don't have any idea. You don't know if you made a success or a flop when it comes to the box office. And in the '80s, with MTV on the scene, we are having a three-hour film about classical music, with long names and wigs and costumes. Don't forget that no major studio wanted to finance the film, for these reasons. So we said, "Well, we don't want to be pushing the audience's patience too far". Whatever was not directly connected to the plot, I just cut it out. But it was a mutual decision [to limit the running time]. I wanted the best life for the film myself... Well, once we are re-releasing it on DVD, it doesn't matter if it is two hours and 40 minutes long, or three hours long. So why don't we do the version as it was written in the script?[54]

In 2024, Saul Zaentz Co. announced that in conjunction with the Academy Film Archive and Teatro Della Pace Film, it had completed a 4K restoration of Amadeus (including the theatrical cut) to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary. The restorers noted that Paul Zaentz, Saul's nephew and successor, personally preferred the theatrical edition to the director's cut. The producers announced that a restored version of the theatrical edition will be made available on home video.[48]

Film credits

• Music conducted and supervised by Neville Marriner
• Music coordinator: John Strauss
• Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner
• Choruses
  • Academy Chorus of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by László Heltay
  • Ambrosian Opera Chorus, conducted by John McCarthy
  • The Choristers of Westminster Abbey, conducted by Simon Preston
• Instrumental soloists
  • Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482: Ivan Moravec
  • Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: Imogen Cooper
  • Adagio in C minor for Glass Harmonica, K. 617: Thomas Bloch with The Brussels Virtuosi, conducted by Marc Grauwels
• Parody backgrounds: San Francisco Symphony Chorus
• "Caro mio ben" by Giuseppe Giordani: Michele Esposito, soprano

Original soundtrack recording

The soundtrack album[55] reached No. 1 in the Billboard Classical Albums Chart, No. 56 in the Billboard Popular Albums Chart, has sold over 6.5 million copies and received thirteen gold discs, making it one of the most popular classical music recordings of all time.[56] It won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 1984.[57]

• Disc 1

1. Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183, 1st movement
2. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater: "Quando corpus morietur" and "Amen"
3. Early 18th Century Gypsy Music: Bubak and Hungaricus
4. Mozart: Serenade for Winds in B-flat major, K. 361, 3rd movement
5. Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio, K. 384, Turkish Finale
6. Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201, 1st movement
7. Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major, K. 365, 3rd movement
8. Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K. 427, Kyrie
9. Mozart: Symphonie Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364, 1st movement
10. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-Flat, K. 450, 3rd movement

• Disc 2

1. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482, 3rd movement
2. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, Act III, "Ecco la Marcia"
3. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, Act IV, "Ah, tutti contenti"
4. Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527, Act II, Commendatore scene
5. Mozart: Zaide, K. 344, Aria, "Ruhe sanft"
6. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Introitus (orchestral introduction)
7. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Dies irae
8. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Rex tremendae majestatis
9. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Confutatis
10. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Lacrimosa
11. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, 2nd movement

All tracks on the album were performed specifically for the film. According to the film commentary by Forman and Schaffer, Marriner agreed to score the film if Mozart's music was completely unchanged from the original scores. Marriner did add some notes to Salieri's music that are noticeable at the beginning of the film, as Salieri begins his confession.

The aria "Ruhe sanft" from the opera Zaide does not appear in the film.

Charts

More Music from the Original Soundtrack

In 1985 an additional album with the title More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus was issued containing further selections of music that were not included in the original soundtrack release.[71]

1. Mozart: The Magic Flute, K. 620, Overture
2. Mozart: The Magic Flute, K. 620, act 2, Queen of the Night aria
3. Mozart: Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477
4. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, 1st movement
5. Antonio Salieri: Axur, re d'Ormus, Finale
6. Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G major), K. 525, 1st movement, arranged for woodwind octet by Graham Sheen
7. Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299, 2nd movement
8. Mozart: Six German Dances (Nos. 1–3), K. 509
9. Giuseppe Giordani: "Caro mio ben"
10. Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio, K. 384, Chorus of the Janissaries (Arr.) and "Ich möchte wohl der Kaiser sein" ("Ein deutsches Kriegslied"), K. 539 (Arr.)

The Masonic Funeral Music was originally intended to play over the closing credits, but was replaced in the film by the second movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor[72] (included on the Original Soundtrack Recording).

Director's Cut soundtrack

In 2002, to coincide with the release of the Director's Cut of the film, the soundtrack was remastered with 24-bit encoding and reissued with the title Special Edition: The Director's Cut – Newly Remastered Original Soundtrack Recording on two 24-karat gold CDs.[73] It contains most of the music from the previous two releases, but with the following differences.

The following pieces were added for this release:

• Salieri's March of Welcome turned into "Non più andrai" from The Marriage of Figaro (includes dialogue from the film)
• Adagio in C minor for Glass Harmonica, K. 617 (from a new 2001 recording)

The following pieces, previously released on More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus, were not included:

• Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477
• Six German Dances (Nos. 1–3), K. 509

A TV series adaptation of the original Shaffer play starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany will air on Sky TV in late 2024.[74]

The pink wig worn by Mozart in the movie can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the Acadian Museum at the University of Moncton. The wig was created by Paul LeBlanc. LeBlanc won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for this movie in 1985.[75]

1. ^ A deleted scene, included in the director's cut, shows that to further humiliate Mozart before God, Salieri encouraged Constanze to offer him sexual favors in exchange for helping Mozart's career. In the end, the chaste Salieri cannot bring himself to break his vows (nor would he want to help Mozart's career). Although Constanze is partially nude at this point, Salieri calls in his attendant to show her out. The episode earns Salieri Constanze's eternal hatred. When she kicks Salieri out of the apartment at the end of the film, she bitterly remarks that she does not have a servant to evict him.
2. ^ Tied with Albert Finney for Under the Volcano.
3. ^ Posthumous nomination.

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• Amadeus at IMDb
• Amadeus at the TCM Movie Database
• Amadeus at AllMovie
• Amadeus at Rotten Tomatoes
• Amadeus at Box Office Mojo
• Analysis of Amadeus – the play and the film
• Amadeus script
• Amadeus at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films