Divine.

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2009)

Never before (with the exception of Apocalypse Now) have I watched a film one day, woken up the next with a new, urging interest to watch it again; this happened to me with Milos Forman's brilliant adaption of Peter Shaffer's play, 'Amadeus'. Brilliantly paced the film runs for 180 minutes (Director's Cut version) and is full of detail (you'll never see a film film so exquisitely ornate with fantastical costumes and production design - it's like a baroque twist between Stanley Kubrick's 1975 'Barry Lyndon' and a wildly imaginative "anything goes" style), dizzying narrative depths and extravagant cinematic power. The character studies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) makes both for career-defining performances, the spiraling relationship between them makes for a dynamic pace that keeps upping the drama towards the powerfully dramatic climax. The music of Mozart feels like the final third main character, so beautifully edited to the masterfully shot scenes by Miroslav Ondricek (the elegant gliding through the corridors, the flaring candle-lights, the crane-shots in the opera... it's truly the finest piece of cinematography ever), the film will reveal new artistic elements "simply" in its grand beauty. Importantly, the film is not about Mozart, it's about Salieri and his Mozart and his God, and through several viewings it reveals new sides in the tales of greed, guilt and faith, and it's psychological and darkly painted drama simply enhances more and more as years go by.