Salieri's Movie

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2013)

The modern has to be reminded that at the time of Mozart's death--at age 36--Mozart would have been regarded as something of a failure. Only a handful of his work had ever been performed in his lifetime. He did die impoverished, he did have a pauper's funeral in a common pauper's grave. He was a vulgar person, given to scatological humor, he was given to drink--and for a small person, alcohol would be more disastrous than for a larger person. (These details are well documented.)
Salieri, on the other hand, was highly successful, acclaimed, and honored by the court for his musical talent.
The canard about Salieri poisoning Mozart has been around since Mozart died.
Salieri asks the question: How could God give someone as vulgar as Mozart genius while he, Salieri, dedicated his life to pious living in thanks for the musical talent God had given him. The viewer starts the movie towards the end of his life and he confesses that he murdered Mozart and as the film unfolds, it turns out that Salieri thinks he killed Mozart by overworking him on "The Requium." (This despite, in reality, Salieri had no hand in Mozart's production of "The Requium"--that is a piece of liberty with reality.) Salieri could not be a genius but he could nurture a genius--or so he thinks in his last delusional days in an insane asylum. And Salieri--in the movie--is aware of the irony that Mozart is a genius lacking in the external trappings of genius, while he--Salieri--is a mediocrity but honored with the trappings of genius.
I thought the movie excellent and worth having in one's private collection. Performances were first rate, theatrical renderings of the Mozart pieces were interesting. To ask whether the details of the film accurately reflect reality is to miss the symbolic and anagogic import the movie asks regarding the nature of creativity.