A child of its time

Rating: 6/10 (2 December 2013)

I know I thought highly of this movie in the past, I remember that our music teacher in school actually recommended to see it. But now that I recently watched it again, I was gravely disappointed by it.
Basically none of the story is historically (the time and circumstances of his death; the relationship between Salieri and Mozart; the relationship between Mozart and his father; the origin of Constanze; Mozart as a drunkard) or musically (most music one hears is clearly recorded using modern instruments; how the conducting is portrayed; how Mozart "dictates" the music to Salieri) true, some of the set decoration and costuming was awful (modern pool table in a home in 1791; obvious electrical candles in quite a few scenes; modern fabrics were used in the opera scenes). If one finds the characters as laid out in the script believable (which I don't) one could probably find the acting to be outstanding, but since I don't believe the story (any more), I cannot subscribe to that any more, either.
What remains is the powerful use of some of Mozart's greatest music, for that I agree with Neville Marriner who has supposedly said that he was happy to see this movie built around the music and not vice versa. This still raises the film above the average level.