Rating of
4/4
Mediocrities everywhere.
memento_mori - wrote on 10/04/13
I'm sure there are extreme Mozart fans out there who agree with just about every way he is displayed on screen, but I'll be honest: I don't care.
I didn't know him personally, neither did I hear anything extraordinary about his character, I was simply floored by Tom Hulce's performance and every comical, ingenious trait of the character.
F. Murray Abraham is one of the few actors who can keep an extremely low and an extremely high profile in their film at the same time. I adored his portrayal of the slowly declining morality and sanity of Antonio Salieri and the way it was written into the story.
They built in the main story as a flashback, often coming back to the now possibly insane Salieri. That gave way to so much more contrast between the old and the new. One of the greatest performances given by an actor, ever.
I'm glad Milos Forman was chosen to direct Amadeus, because he has a sense and style of realism in drama. He knows when people should laugh and cry and which part comes where. It comes across beautifully as well as hauntingly, as we see broken characters endure the fascinations of music all the while. It's just prodigiously crafted.
He may be more appreciated for having directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but I find this to be his masterpiece, almost like every second opera by Mozart.
It's kind of a perspective-changing movie for me, as it manages to enthrall and sicken me at the same time.
It fiendishly and cleverly accounts for so many strategies in the filmmaking genre. Its acting, screenplay, direction, dialogue, characters, editing, costumes, locations, pacing, tone and indisputably its music are a collection of truly amazing cinema.
Chastity, humility, jealousy and rivalry. All the sanctions of our deepest thoughts, all the rises and downfalls of man, demonstrated in one of the most powerful ways possible: Music.
