Cinematic Perfection

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2001)

Amadeus is cinematic perfection. I admit I have concluded Amadeus to be my favorite motion picture of all time. Start to finish, this film is filled with so much. I will attempt to name just a few of it's greater elements.
Firstly, after reading a couple of serious, highly regarded and obviously heavily researched biographies of Wolfgang Mozart, I was shocked and pleased to discover that Peter Schaeffer and Milos Forman had clearly not only done mountains of research to perfect their sketch of this man, but these two men interpolated every little known nuance with exquisite perfection. Thanks to them, Mozart is alive as real on the screen as if he were alive passing you by on the avenue today. True, there are historical inaccuracies, but clearly they meant as artistic liberties, taken to create drama and flow (they demonstrate such intimate knowledge of all the little details that they are allowed to skew the big details). The important point is that the composite picture of this man is a brilliant recreation of real life, to the best of anyone's knowledge.
The acting is remarkable. Not only are F. Murray Abraham's rushes unforgettable and poignant, but there are so many apparent accidents with respect to other casting choices. Hulce's uncanny portrayal is exactly as one would have imagined him after reading any of the serious bios, to say nothing of that mad cackle. Tom Hulce, of course, is not a prolific screen actor, but this rare performance is so incredibly strong, it is as if his entire life were tailor-made for it, and his contribution to cinema is as great as any actor's simply with this one role. Roy Dotrice as Leopold Mozart is another seemingly accidental perfection. Leopold is played with the precise mixture of intelligence, love, misery, and pathos to be the composite of how the real man is written about. Once again, it is as if every player had done exhaustive research, conceptualized and made their character's lives part of their own psyche so that they act and react to new situations as if they were that person. As for Jeffrey Jones as the Emperor, he was just wickedly funny. All in all, the acting is simply astounding.
The music of Mozart has been selected for the soundtrack by true masters. The pieces used are dazzling and truly encapsulate that dichotomous sense of bliss and horror that Mozart always strove to capture. The music leaves Mozart-neophytes yearning for more, and long-time Mozart fans cheering their favorites. When I first watched Amadeus, I belonged to the former group. I am now proud to say I belong to the latter, and when I re-screen Amadeus, I do cheer and weep tears of joy, bliss and shiver with terror at the marvelous orchestrations. Salieri's analysis of the music is also fascinating, if subjective.
The choice of Prague as the shooting location was brilliant. Prague in 1983 (when this film was shot) was still part of the Eastern Block of countries and, as such, was untouched and unhindered by the West. It's cobble-stone streets, cathedrals and tenements all still stood as they did in the eighteenth century, (and in all likelihood, as they did in the fifteenth century) without the desecration of Western-style neon signs, modern architecture or other such telling signs of the twentieth century. In other words, it is the perfect character to play eighteenth century Vienna; in a sense, another excellent casting choice. Together with the flawless costume design, and all the perfectly selected character actors and bit players, the deception is complete. We are all hypnotized into believing we have arrived in Vienna c. 1780's.
I love every frame of Amadeus. The plot takes liberties, of course, but that is the very nature of cinema. Besides the above elements, the content is full of rich and substantial themes and sub-themes, leading the audience to further provocation: hatred, anger, mediocrity, the nature of savants, prodigy, beauty, envy, vengeance, the differences between (Salieri's fleeting) form (of fame) and (Mozart's lasting) substance (of fame), and the list continues.