Amadeus (1984)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 160m
Director: Milos Forman
Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Jeffrey Jones, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow
Synopsis:
Relegated to a lunatic asylum, court composer Salieri tells of his secret envy of Mozart, whose vile manners contradicted the sublime nature of his music.
Review:
Superbly filmed and acted by unknowns, which was right, this is as comprehensively satisfying a piece of drama as one could hope to get at the movies. The sequences involving the Serenade and Confutatis are of unbeatable impact in communicating to an unconverted viewer the special power of Mozart's music, but many others do more than justice to the genius without trivializing his output. A Director's Cut appeared in 2002, including about twenty minutes of extra footage, notably a scene in which Constanze offers herself as payment on Salieri's insistence in order to secure a teaching appointment for 'Wolfie'. It added nothing to the impact of the film and served only to make it longer and unwieldy, when the editing is so often designed to make for seamless transitions from one scene to the next (e.g. a crunched up sheet of paper startles a herd of deer).
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 160m
Director: Milos Forman
Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Jeffrey Jones, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow
Synopsis:
Relegated to a lunatic asylum, court composer Salieri tells of his secret envy of Mozart, whose vile manners contradicted the sublime nature of his music.
Review:
Superbly filmed and acted by unknowns, which was right, this is as comprehensively satisfying a piece of drama as one could hope to get at the movies. The sequences involving the Serenade and Confutatis are of unbeatable impact in communicating to an unconverted viewer the special power of Mozart's music, but many others do more than justice to the genius without trivializing his output. A Director's Cut appeared in 2002, including about twenty minutes of extra footage, notably a scene in which Constanze offers herself as payment on Salieri's insistence in order to secure a teaching appointment for 'Wolfie'. It added nothing to the impact of the film and served only to make it longer and unwieldy, when the editing is so often designed to make for seamless transitions from one scene to the next (e.g. a crunched up sheet of paper startles a herd of deer).
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 160m
Director: Milos Forman
Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Jeffrey Jones, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow
Synopsis:
Relegated to a lunatic asylum, court composer Salieri tells of his secret envy of Mozart, whose vile manners contradicted the sublime nature of his music.
Review:
Superbly filmed and acted by unknowns, which was right, this is as comprehensively satisfying a piece of drama as one could hope to get at the movies. The sequences involving the Serenade and Confutatis are of unbeatable impact in communicating to an unconverted viewer the special power of Mozart's music, but many others do more than justice to the genius without trivializing his output. A Director's Cut appeared in 2002, including about twenty minutes of extra footage, notably a scene in which Constanze offers herself as payment on Salieri's insistence in order to secure a teaching appointment for 'Wolfie'. It added nothing to the impact of the film and served only to make it longer and unwieldy, when the editing is so often designed to make for seamless transitions from one scene to the next (e.g. a crunched up sheet of paper startles a herd of deer).