Amadeus.

Review #1473: Amadeus.

Cast:
F. Murray Abraham (Antonio Salieri), Tom Hulce (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Elizabeth Berridge (Constanze Mozart), Roy Dotrice (Leopold Mozart), Simon Callow (Emanuel Schikaneder), Christine Ebersole (Caterina Cavalieri), Jeffrey Jones (Emperor Joseph II), Charles Kay (Count Orsini-Rosenberg), Kenneth McMillan (Michael Schlumberg), Kenny Baker (Parody Commendatore), Lisabeth Bartlett (Papagena), and Richard Frank (Father Vogler) Directed by Miloš Forman (#1164 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)

Review:
"Director is little bit of everything, little bit of the writer, little bit of an actor, little bit of an editor, little bit of a costume designer. Good director is the director who chooses for this profession people who are better than he is."

Milos Forman directed twelve films (and one documentary segment) in his life, one comprised of life in Czechoslovakia and abroad in the United States, recieving stature in both places through his interesting films, which started with Black Peter (1964) after years spent studying at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alongside writing work in Czech comedies, which served as his genre for the three films he made in his native country (with The Firemen's Ball (1967), the last before he left the country, being considered a key piece of the Czechoslovak New Wave) before he left in 1968 due to changes in the country. His films in America were a mix of adaptations of numerous media or biographical in nature (with measured success), which resulted in successes such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), this film, and Man on the Moon (1999).

The film is adapted from the play of the same name by Peter Shaffer (an English playwright behind works such as Equus that served as writer for the film), which had first been performed in 1979 in London (with a Broadway production in 1980). The play took artistic licence in its depiction of Mozart and Salieri, describing the work as "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". This was not the first play to push forward the myth (or to be more blunt, a lie) involving Salieri having a hand in the death of his supposed rival Mozart (with one key point of anger being at Mozart's boorish behavior while being a genius), with famed Russian poet Alexander Pushkin having composed the play Mozart and Salieri in 1830 (with an opera being done by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 67 years later). The idea that the two composers were such rivals to the point that one of them may very well have wanted to kill the other is absurd, full stop (I am not a history buff by any means, but anything that resembles the reek of conspiracy theory is suspicious). This fundamental point is the first and really only hurdle that stops it from being considered a great film for me. It does have a great design to it in terms of costume design, alongside a great appreciation for music (with Neville Marriner serving as music conductor and supervisor for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra) and a fairly well-rounded cast to go alongside everything (including natural light and location shooting in Prague, most notably in the Count Nositz Theatre, where Mozart had performed in) that is delivered with precision by Forman to make a mostly successful curiousity on the nature of talent and genius. There exists two versions of the film: the original 161 minute film (rated PG) and a three hour (R-rated) version released in 2002 as a Director's Cut that restored scenes cut originally due to not wanting to test the audience's patience too far in run-time (for a project that was hard enough to finance about a period drama).

It proves fitting to have Abraham and Hulce as the leads (as opposed to any of the stars from the play adaptations, which included Ian McKellen and Tim Curry - Forman wanted American leads for the two roles), since they each had experience in the theater just as much as in film. Abraham proves a tremendous presence, one wracked with desire and regret as a self-described "patron saint of mediocrity" that we can all see a little bit in ourselves that makes the most of his time count with gravitas. Hulce (and his occasional dreadful laugh) does just fine with capturing the complciated essence of a troubled genius, eccentric but captivating to see in a pursuit of greatness with tinges of hedonism along the way. Berridge (who won the role after Meg Tilly injured her way out) makes for a quietly driving force to follow along with at times with Hulce with bright spirit. The others in the cast, such as Doctrice and Jones, make for fair impressions in rounding out a period drama with a good deal of importance and distinct pleasure that retains one's attention just as much as when not on Salieri and Mozart alone. On the whole, the film moves at a careful pace within a curious starting point to generate a fairly interesting look upon music and human nature (namely, ambition) that will keep attention for what is needed with music and a game cast and design to make a mix of history and fiction that makes a solid film for its time of over three decades.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.