Amadeus (film)
Amadeus is a film drama by the director Miloš Forman from 1984, the theme of which is the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) from the perspective of the Viennese court composer Antonio Salieri (1750–1825). The film is based on the play Amadeus by Peter Shaffer , first performed in 1979 , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The premiere took place on September 6, 1984 in Los Angeles. The cinema release in Germany was on October 26th.
action
The film begins in Vienna in the winter of 1823, 32 years after Mozart's death. Mozart's life is told based on the memories of the old court composer Antonio Salieri . Salieri attempted suicide and has been taken to an asylum. A young priest visits him to hear his confession.
Salieri tells him about his youth and compares it with that of the more successful Mozart; he describes his dream of becoming a great musician and his time at the Viennese court (“Everyone liked me, and I liked myself too - until he appeared”) until Mozart came to Vienna as concertmaster of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg.
At a concert by Mozart, Salieri recognizes his true talent and his own mediocrity. His jealousy grows as God blessed an "obscene child" with divine talent and only gave him, Salieri, the ability to see it.
Mozart introduces himself to Emperor Joseph II . He commissioned him to compose an opera: The Abduction from the Seraglio . At the audience humiliates Mozart Salieri by the fortepiano criticized one of his compositions, attracting ridicule. He changed Salieri's simple march to Non più andrai from Figaro's wedding . Salieri sees himself at an advantage, however, as he knows that key officials of the court are on his side who can make life difficult for Mozart in Vienna, such as the director of the Vienna Court Opera and Count Orsini-Rosenberg .
Mozart marries Constanze Weber . His life is overshadowed by his critical father, who (rightly) accuses him of a dissolute lifestyle and disapproves of his marriage to Constanze. Mozart's guilty conscience and his tense relationship with his father are reflected in the gloomy music he composed for the appearance of the admonishing commander in the opera Don Giovanni . Salieri secretly watches every performance of Mozart's operas in his private box and realizes more and more that Mozart's music is far superior to his.
Mozart's lavish lifestyle struggles for money. Nevertheless, he turned down a post as music teacher to Archduchess Elisabeth , as he would have to submit his works to a commission headed by the envious Count Orsini-Rosenberg.
Without Mozart's knowledge, Constanze went to Salieri in the hope that he would find her husband the job, and presented him with some of his compositions. Salieri looks at it and realizes: “There it was again, the voice of God.” He cannot believe that he has originals in front of him because there are no corrections. He realizes that Mozart simply wrote down the music that he already had in his head and that God had given him. To the sounds of the Great Mass in C minor , he drops the sheet music and leaves the room without a word.
Now Salieri turns against God and swears that he will destroy Mozart as "God's incarnation". He invites Constanze to dinner. She comes to believe that he is out on a sexual adventure and hopes that this will help her husband. When she stands naked in front of Salieri, the latter has a servant throw her out. (This scene is one of several that are only included in the Director's Cut ; it was not seen in the first theatrical version.)
After the death of his father, Mozart feels persecuted. Because Salieri, who learned of Mozart's financial difficulties from a bribed maid, dresses up in the same black costume that Leopold Mozart wore to a masked ball when he visited Vienna. In this guise he commissioned Mozart to compose a requiem and promised him good payment. This increases Mozart's confusion, since the anonymous client seems like a ghost of the dead father. Salieri plans, as an anonymous messenger, to press for the completion of the requiem and then to kill him. At the funeral ceremony for Mozart's funeral, he wants to perform the requiem and pass it off as his composition. So in the end he would still win over God.
When Mozart begins to hang around with Emanuel Schikaneder and his mostly female actors, Constanze travels to Baden for a cure. He is writing his last opera, the Magic Flute . When he collapses during the premiere, Salieri accompanies him home and puts him to bed. Shortly afterwards there is a knock on the door. Mozart believes it is the anonymous messenger who wants to pick up his commissioned work. At the door, however, Schikaneder stands with a few singers and brings him the proceeds of the performance. Salieri lets Mozart believe that it was the messenger who pushed for the completion of the Requiem. Mozart asks Salieri to help him finish the composition and dictates the Confutatis to him .
In the morning Constanze comes back and sees Salieri sleeping. She locks away the score of the requiem and thus thwarted Salieri's plan. When she tries to wake Mozart, she discovers that he has just died. Mozart's body is thrown into a mass grave to the sound of Lacrimosa . Salieri realizes that God would rather let “his darling” Mozart die than give him a small reflection of his skills through the Requiem.
Many years later, his remorse, being the cause of Mozart's delusions, and his untimely death are the cause of his suicide attempt. In addition, it fills him with despair that his music faded in his lifetime, but that Mozart made it immortal. The film ends in Salieri's cell in an insane asylum, where Salieri's priest, who has been taken along after the long story, is consoled with the words that he will pray for him because he is the “patron saint of all mediocre people”. The second movement from Mozart's 20th piano concerto also sounds . Immediately before the end credits, Mozart's characteristic laugh can be heard again.
music
The film includes the following pieces, among others:
| No. | Composer, title, performer | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor , KV 183: 1st movement Allegro con brio, Sir Neville Marriner | 7:52 |
| 2 | Mozart: A Little Night Music - Serenade in G major , KV 525: 1st movement, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 5:41 |
| 3 | Pergolesi: Stabat Mater : Quando Corpus Morietur and Amen, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 4:18 |
| 4th | Mozart: Salieri's March transformed into Non più andrai (from: Marriage of Figaro, KV 492), Simon Preston | 1:48 |
| 5 | Mozart: Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, KV 361 “ Gran Partita ”: 3rd movement Adagio, Sir Neville Marriner | 6:13 |
| 6th | Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio , KV 384: Janissaries Choir, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 4:25 |
| 7th | Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio, KV 384: Turkish Finale, Suzanne Murphy | 1:28 |
| 8th | Mozart: Great Mass in C minor , KV 427: Kyrie, Felicity Lott | 6:29 |
| 9 | Mozart: Concerto for flute, harp and orchestra in C major , KV 299: 2nd movement Andantino, Osian Ellis | 8:34 |
| 10 | Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major , KV 201: 1st movement Allegro moderato, Sir Neville Marriner | 5:43 |
| 11 | Mozart: Adagio in C major for glass harmonica, KV 617A, Brussels Virtuosi and Marc Grauwels and Thomas Bloch | 6:02 |
| 12 | Mozart: Concerto in E flat major KV 365: 3rd movement Rondeaux (Allegro), Imogen Cooper | 7:13 |
| 13 | Mozart: Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola in E flat major , KV 364: 1st movement Allegro maestoso, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Csaba Erdélyi and Levon Chilingirian and Sir Neville Marriner | 13:37 |
| 14th | Mozart: Zaide , KV 344: Aria "rest gently", Felicity Lott | 6:27 |
| 15th | Giordani: Caro mio bene, Michele Esposito | 2:37 |
| 16 | Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major , KV 482: 3rd movement Allegro - Andante, by Ivan Moravec | 11:01 am |
| 17th | Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro : Ecco la marcia (3rd act), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 2:32 |
| 18th | Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro: Ah tutti contenti (4th act), by Sir Neville Marriner | 2:37 |
| 19th | Traditional: Bubak and Hungaricus, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 1:18 |
| 20th | Salieri: Axur : Finale, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 1:11 |
| 21st | Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major , KV 622: 2nd movement in D major, Sir Neville Marriner | 12:19 |
| 22nd | Mozart: Don Giovanni , KV 527: Commander-in-Chief (Act 2), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 6:59 |
| 23 | Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor , KV 466: 1st movement, Allegro, Sir Neville Marriner | 13:30 |
| 24 | Mozart: The Magic Flute , KV 620: Overture, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 6:51 |
| 25th | Mozart: The Magic Flute: Aria of the Queen of the Night (Hell's vengeance boils in my heart), Louisa Kennedy | 2:58 |
| 26th | Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major , KV 450: 3rd movement, Allegro, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 8:17 |
| 27 | Mozart: Requiem , KV 626: Introitus (orchestral introduction), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 1:02 |
| 28 | Mozart: Requiem, KV 626: Dies irae, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 1:52 |
| 29 | Mozart: Requiem, KV 626: Rex tremendae majestatis, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 2:06 |
| 30th | Mozart: Requiem, KV 626: Confutatis, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 2:21 |
| 31 | Mozart: Requiem, KV 626: Lacrimosa, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | 3:47 |
| 32 | Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, KV 466 : 2nd movement Romance, Imogen Cooper | 9:57 |
| all in all: | 166: 38 |
background
- The shooting took place mainly in Czechoslovakia (in Prague and Kroměříž ) as well as in Vienna and for some scenes in the Guermantes Castle near Lagny-sur-Marne , Seine-et-Marne department .
- In the USA it was released on September 19, 1984, in Germany on October 26, 1984. In 2002 the film was released again with a slightly different Director's Cut : In Germany on February 28, 2002, in the USA (in a limited release) on April 5, 2002.
- The film project aroused no interest from the studios in Hollywood because "it was a costume film , it was about classical music , it was set in a distant corner of Europe in a long time ago that was of no interest to anyone and because it was an expensive undertaking" . Shaffer and Forman finally turned to Saul Zaentz , who had already produced Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest .
- Production costs were estimated at around $ 18 million. The film grossed around US $ 51.5 million in cinemas in the United States until 1985, and the re-release in 2002 grossed around US $ 360,000 in US cinemas.
- The music for the film (mainly compositions by Mozart) was recorded by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner . In the booklet for the soundtrack LP he explains: “… One of the good things about Amadeus was that the film was shot around the music - not the other way around as is usually the case.” (“The good thing about Amadeus is that the Film was produced around the music and not, as usual, the other way around. ”) Marriner, who had been approached by Shaffer as an acquaintance before the also recommended Sir Colin Davis , agreed on the condition that not a single note of Mozart's music for the film may be changed.
Cinematic implementation of the play
The following statements are based on the theatrical version from 1984, not on the Director's Cut .
The play Amadeus , which the film follows as closely as possible, has already worked with numerous alienations that are more of a cinematic nature:
- Time manipulation through flashback (narrative situation in the now time of the piece [Salieri's storytelling], the actual piece is a re-enactment of the events described), freeze, time specifications through character text (e.g. to skip periods of time).
- Room manipulation through lightbox (quasi rear projection ) for quick change of location; Headlight focus.
The film retains the narrative situation, the role of the theater audience is taken over by a young priest who has hardly any text and only acts as a cue for Salieri. In the film, the confession in preparation for suicide has turned into confession after a failed suicide attempt. Amadeus was the first film for which Forman deviated from the linear narrative technique and worked with flashbacks .
The camera perspective fulfills two seemingly contradicting tasks:
- Subjective perspective: As in the theater, the camera remains at eye level, it takes (partly recognizable) the perspective of a figure. While Salieri emphasized the subjective perspective in the play by influencing the stage time (freeze, time jumps, change of location), this is illustrated in the film by the camera perspective, which only takes neutral positions in scenes with Salieri (both as narrator and character).
- Theater situation: The camera is movable, but there is only panning from one point of view. Aside from Mozart's immersion in the hustle and bustle of the market, the perspective always remains at eye level with the person in the picture, whether they are lying, sitting or standing or at eye level with a person looking. Plateau shots are filmed from a slight soffit. This and the persistence in one location with the camera moving simulates the theater-goers who are bound to their seat.
In the film too, Salieri remains the regulating authority, who dictates the time and place through his narrative. In the case of major changes, there is a change to the narrative situation, which means that the film remains harmonious and does not have to create meaning through montage ; this can always be done by figurative speech. Salieri's partly off-narration connects the individual action moments and situations.
As with the play, Salieri's reflections are musically illustrated by Mozart's sheet music. In addition, the film uses the possibilities of illustrative music more intensively. The music that fits this point is always played because Salieri reads the notes, because he describes, comments, listens or imagines them. Thus, the music (like the camera) is often subjective: the audience hears the same thing the protagonist hears or imagines to hear. Sometimes music starts before the triggering moment of action, and even more often it sounds well into the next scenes. Scenes are commented on musically, connected or their atmosphere underlined.
Opera performances are staged opulently, the stage situation is recognizable (through curtains at the edge of the picture, stage structures or the like). The perspective is that of the opera audience (i.e. frontal) or that of a certain figure in the auditorium. The space is always present in other ways too: for example, visible doors are almost always necessary so that characters can join or leave a scene. The lack of close-ups shows the figures in the room (often medium shots ), which on the one hand underlines the relationships between the figures, but also emphasizes the respective spatial situation (and the design of the room).
Only two people speak to each other at any given time. There are no overlapping utterances. A character can briefly turn to another and then speak to the first again. Only one speaks at a time. The voiceover also waits for pauses in the text, and Mozart never comments on singing during rehearsals.
Most of the alienation effects of the play are canceled out in the film, which reinforces a theatrical effect through its staging. A listener belonging to the medium appears; backgrounds that are only hinted at in the piece are given a naturalistic look. The tools flashback and (off) narrator are taken from the play.
Reviews
| source | rating |
|---|---|
| Rotten tomatoes | |
| critic |
 
|
| audience |
|
| Metacritic | |
| critic |
|
| audience |
|
| IMDb |
|
The majority of the reviews praised the film as an outstanding work with an almost perfect combination of an excellent script, good acting, brilliant directing and Mozart's music. Some critics were of the opinion that the enjoyment of the opera was a little clouded because the originally German libretti in the film are sung in English.
- The film received an overall rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes . From 70 counted reviews 67 were positive. The overall consensus is: “A lavish, entertaining, powerful film about the life and influence, both positive and negative, of one of Western culture's great artists.” (An exuberant, entertaining, impressive film about life and influence, both positive as well as negatively, one of the greatest artists in Western culture.)
- Hellmuth Karasek wrote in Der Spiegel on October 22, 1984: “The Hollywood Czech Miloš Forman (“ One of them flew over the cuckoo's nest “) Now made a Mozart film. Instead of theatrical effects (Salieri, played by F. Murray Abraham, now confessing to a churchman), the "Amadeus" film successfully relies on cinematic effects: wonderfully conceived scenarios of old Mozart operas, fades in which a nagging mother-in-law is in the coloratura-shattering queen of the night is transformed, and the candlelight of the Josephine Vienna. In contrast to the theater, it is not Salieri but Mozart (Tom Hulce plays him with an irresistible boyish character) who is the absolute star. Sometimes he has a downright punk hairstyle, but his carefree grumbling laugh is always something like a (violin) key to the Mozartian arrogance. Even this opulently enjoyable film does not explain Mozart's music: Or should one really believe that Don Giovanni and Steinernem guest can be derived from an uncontrolled father figure? Freud and celluloid are patient, Mozart can take it: in case of doubt he doesn't give a shit. "
- The writer and music connoisseur Maarten 't Hart does not keep his negative opinion of the film and its originals behind in his Mozart book: “The image conveyed by the play by Shaffer and the film by Miloš Forman bears almost no resemblance to that real Mozart. If you want to get to know him, read his letters and avoid this disgusting crap film and the completely tasteless play. "
Awards
-
won :
- Best movie
- Best Director ( Miloš Forman )
- Best Actor ( F. Murray Abraham )
- Best production design ( Patrizia von Brandenstein , Karel Cerný)
- Best costume design (Theodor Pistek)
- Best Make-up (Paul LeBlanc, Dick Smith )
- Best note (Mark Berger, Thomas Scott , Todd Boekelheide, Christopher Newman )
- Best Adapted Screenplay ( Peter Shaffer )
-
nominated :
- Best Actor ( Tom Hulce )
- Best Cinematography (Miroslav Ondrícek)
- Best Editing (Nena Danevic, Michael Chandler)
Golden Globe Award 1985
-
won :
- Best film - drama
- Best Director (Miloš Forman)
- Best Actor - Drama (F. Murray Abraham)
- Best Screenplay (Peter Shaffer)
-
nominated :
- Best Actor - Drama (Tom Hulce)
- Best Supporting Actor (Jeffrey Jones)
César 1985
LAFCA Awards 1984
-
won :
- Best film - drama
- Best Director (Miloš Forman)
- Best Actor - Drama (F. Murray Abraham)
- Best Screenplay (Peter Shaffer)
American Cinema Editors
- Best Film (Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler)
Casting Society of America
- Best Casting Mary (Goldberg)
Directors Guild of America
- Best Director (Miloš Forman)
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award
- Best Actor - (F. Murray Abraham)
-
won :
- Best Cinematography (Miroslav Ondříček)
- Best Editing (Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler)
- Best Make-Up (Dick Smith and Paul LeBlanc)
- Best note (Mark Berger, Thomas Scott and Christopher Newman)
-
nominated :
- Best Film - Drama (Miloš Forman and Saul Zaentz)
- Best Actor - Drama (F. Murray Abraham)
- Best adapted film script (Peter Shaffer)
- Best costumes (Theodor Pištěk)
- Best production design (Patrizia von Brandstein)
- Best foreign film
- Best Foreign Film Director (Miloš Forman)
- Best Actor - Drama (Tom Hulce)
- Best Foreign Film Director (Miloš Forman)
- Best Actor - Drama (Tom Hulce)
Japan Academy Award
Amanda Award (Norway)
- Best foreign film
Others
In Germany, the film received the golden screen in 1985 for reaching 3 million viewers in 18 months. The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) awarded the film the title “particularly valuable”.
In 2019 the film was included in the National Film Registry .
Director's Cut
In addition to the original cinema version from 1984, a director's cut was released 18 years later , which was also released in theaters in 2002. This contains scenes that elaborate some secondary strands of the plot - for example the bad relationship between Salieri and Mozart's wife Constanze or Mozart's inadequate income opportunities. The Director's Cut is about 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version.
For the German version, the Director's Cut had to be re-dubbed because of the additional scenes. The same voices could be used for Mozart and Constanze, but Salieri's role was completely re-dubbed since the original voice actor Gottfried Kramer had died in 1994. Salieri is voiced by Joachim Höppner in the Director's Cut .
Trivia
- Meg Tilly was originally intended for the role of Constanze . The day before she started shooting, she tore her ligament while playing soccer with children on the street, so she had to be replaced.
- In the film Last Action Hero it is often said that the character played by F. Murray Abraham killed Mozart. This is a reference to his role as Antonio Salieri in the film Amadeus.
literature
- Peter Shaffer: Amadeus (OT: Amadeus ). Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-27063-4 .
- Cornelia Szabó-Knotik: Amadeus. Milos Forman's film as a music-historical phenomenon . ADEVA, Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01728-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan Novak and Miloš Forman: Miloš Forman, Peter Shaffer and Amadeus . In: Theater and Film , Ed .: Robert Knopf, Yale University Press 2005, pp. 258f, English ( preview on Google Books ).
- ↑ Jan Novak and Miloš Forman: Miloš Forman, Peter Shaffer and Amadeus . In: Theater and Film , Ed .: Robert Knopf, Yale University Press 2005, p. 260, English ( preview on Google Books ).
- ↑ Jan Novak and Miloš Forman: Miloš Forman, Peter Shaffer and Amadeus . In: Theater and Film , Ed .: Robert Knopf, Yale University Press 2005, p. 259, English ( preview on Google Books ).
- ↑ Alexander Florin: From the stage to the screen. Crossing media boundaries. (Study term paper 2002, Humboldt University Berlin; PDF; 86 kB), Chapters 3 to 5
- ↑ a b Amadeus at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on August 22, 2016
- ↑ a b Amadeus at Metacritic , accessed on August 22, 2016
- ↑ Amadeus in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Amadeus (1984). on: Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ Hellmuth Karasek: Mother-in-Law of the Night . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1984, pp. 244-246 ( online ).
- ↑ Maarten 't Hart, Mozart and me. German by Gregor Seferens. Piper, 2006, ISBN 978-3-492-04858-3 , p. 50
- ↑ Evaluation of the German film and media evaluation (FBW)
- ^ DVD Amadeus. Director's Cut , 2001, DVD B, min.28.00
Web links
- Amadeus in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Amadeus atrotten tomatoes(English)
- Comparison of the theatrical version and Director's Cut by Amadeus at Schnittberichte.com
- Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus" and its film adaptation by Milos Forman (Malgorzata Kurowska, diploma thesis 1998, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
- From the stage to the screen. Crossing the media boundaries (Alexander Florin, homework 2002, Humboldt University Berlin)