[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Hulce didn't work for me, not because he was dislikable (he was meant to be, I know) it was that he didn't feel credible, either as a general representation of Mozart, or as a version of him created in Salieri's mind. It was a cartoonish performance, which if anything actually undermined the true brilliance of Abraham's by making it so easy for us to empathise with Salieri from the beginning.

ah, that. well, like any middlebrow product for mass consumption (millions get spent and millions must be made), a movie like this is not going to be too high on the ambiguity business. take alan alda in crimes and misdemeanors-- he's a fucking douche through and through and we easily identify with the woodly allen character in his hatred of him. is he a cartoon of douchery? he's certainly a stereotype.

as for the cartoonish aspect (i was going to use that word in my original reply to you actually, but avoided it so as not to inject other conversations into this one) i read somewhere that schaffer based his play on some of mozart's letters to his cousin, which were apparently like the babblings of a child; and he was impressed with the contrast between the goofy content of the letters and the music mozart wrote. i really don't mind the mozart-as-a-giant-baby characterization. for me, it works. he was no beethoven.

also regarding mozart's characterization i don't expect historical accuracy from a fiction film. salieri was mozart's friend and pushkin is the one who came up with the idea of making them rivals for dramatic purposes. the thing about killing him with music was an old rumor apparently started by his wife. the thing about the masons in the magic flute and mozart's state of paranoia approaching death are apparently true. bits of truth mixed with ample bullshit make for a good yarn though.

besides-- say that hulce isn't believeable for you (it was actually the casting of the wife that didn't work for me)--the mise en scene is fucking INSANE. it's a massive display of craft and the result is beautiful. the spectacle of sound and sight is not nothing.

i have a friend who used to make avant garde films and got burned on "cultured" movies and now only watches things for the spectacle. and the spectacle, in amadeus, is fucking great. like eating a big greasy giant hollywood hamburger of music and light and sensory msg.

after i first saw this movie i had this chorus going confutatis maledictis in my head for weeks. actually it just returned!

but yeah, f. murray abraham was fucking great in it too, and that's another reason to like this movie.

abraham beat hulce for the best performance oscar btw-- not that i give much credence to the oscars, but it's funny to me that the rivarly continued after the movie was over and the assassin won.

the story is great too of course-- yes, total bullshit and not historically accurate, but that was never the point of schaffer or pushkin anyway.