should it have been 'Salieri'?

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2004)

This film of Peter Shaffer's play is fairly successful once you get past the clunky opening scenes where Mozart and his intended frolic under the tables and swap indecent puns with each other.
From a very tight stage production, Shaffer opens out the action to include real-life scenes and scenarios rather than the theatrics of the dukes in the chorus. Salieri is the key character here, the title of the film notwithstanding, and is gloriously played by Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham. Curious that Abraham didn't go on to get the meaty roles that should have been there for him.
As Mozart, Tom Hulce is - in the early scenes - an irritating hyena, an overactive child. By the time of the Requiem and the closing scenes his acting talent truly comes to the fore, doing justice to the story and to the wonderful music. Elizabeth Berridge plays his wife Constance very well, while Roy Dotrice is a memorable Leopold (father of Wolfgang Amadeus). Jeffrey Jones is a twitchy Emperor ("too many notes!") and Simon Callow, Charles Kay, and Martin Cavina make their mark in smaller roles.
The true star of this film though, is the music, and you get to hear lots of it, thanks to Sir Neville Marriner and a team of great musicians.