a better film on Mozart would be hard to make

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2005)

Forman, though he worked in Hollywood,was Polish; and his films often contain traces of the more subtle European art-house sensitivity. The most sensitive of these decisions in case of Amdeus was to invite the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields to play the music in this film. Under the conduction of Sir Neville Mariner, St. Martin's had been definitely the best interpreter of Mozart's music in the 20th c. and their playing just lifts the film to another level.
Having said that, the film is also visually stunning, though it relies heavily on the acting of F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as MOzart to carry it through. And they do carry it through with real aplomb. Especially Salieri comes across as an unforgettable character, though probably because his part is so amazingly well-written, from the brilliant description of the 'Gran Partita' in the beginning to the unbelievable death-bed sequence of Mozart where Salieri takes down whatever Mozart dictates, and what he dictates impromptu is the unfinished Requiem. Again a brilliant thing about this was how Shaffer and Forman constructs this sequence, breaking down the Requiem into its individual parts and lets the music just build up and carry us away. Working with a background score consisting of the best pieces of Mozart has its advantages, and Forman is so very much aware of that, that he consistently uses the music to overwhelm us.