Day #15 - Amadeus

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/

Amadeus is quite simply one of the best movies I have ever seen. I have to spread the gospel because I think SO FEW people have seen it and it is truly worth every second. Amadeus is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - the movies begins with him as a young man and follows his career and life through to his death. It is told BRILLIANTLY by the narration of Antonio Salieri - Mozart's contemporary. Mozart is played by Tom Hulce - absolutely fantastic performance from a relative unknown. Salieri is played by the GENIUS F. Murray Abraham. The movie was released in 1984 and won 8 of its 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Lead Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Sound, Best Makeup, Best Writing (Peter Shaffer) and Best Art Direction. UM - why did Tom Hulce not win, you ask? He and F. Murray Abraham were both nominated for Best Actor, a very rare occurance.

The first time I saw this movie, I really liked it. A few months passed and I thought, you know, that movies was REALLY good, so I watched it again and then I was in love. For me, the story as presented by Salieri is just amazing. Salieri was a composer, like Mozart, but did not have the natural talent that Mozart did. All he ever wanted in life was to create beautiful music, and he asked God to allow him to serve Him in this way -even taking a vow of chastity. When Mozart came around, Salieri heard the music he always wanted to write but found Mozart to be immature, a perverted creature. Why, he wondered, would God grant THIS man, of ALL men, the talent he so desperately wanted? He tells God that he will destroy Mozart - and basically sets out to do so by being Mozart's friend to his face, yet manipulating every situation to continually contribute to Mozart's deteriorating sanity - especiallly after Mozart's father dies.

Here are some AMAZING quotes from the movie...

Salieri addressing a crucifix..."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."

Salieri describing Mozart's music..."On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God."

One of the final scenes in the movie is Salieri helping Mozart finish his requiem. Mozart is dicatating to him and Salieri is writing because Mozart is too sick. This is one of, if not the best, scenes in the movie. A bit of trivia - Tom Hulce skipped lines to confuse F. Murray Abraham so that it genuinely looked as though Salieri could not fully understand Mozart's music.