Keep in mind "Amadeus" is an allegorical play about genius. It's nothing like the historical Mozart and Salieri. Salieri was highly successful and wouldn't have been threatened by Mozart. In fact he helped Mozart. Salieri introduced Mozart to Lorenzo Da Ponte, the genius who wrote the librettos to "Cosi Fan Tutte," "Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni." There may have been some rivalry, but from what we know the relationship between these two men was professional and cordial. And Mozart was not some kind of impoverished outcast as he's depicted in the movie -- he was famous, highly respected and lived in a luxury flat in one of Vienna's best neighborhoods. He made plenty of money -- he was just a profligate spender. Europe's most famous composer of the time (not mentioned in the movie) was Josef Haydn, employed by the Esterhazy princes not far from Vienna. Haydn, a towering genius, told Mozart's father his son was the greatest composer known to him. Mozart and Haydn traded musical ideas, inspired each other, even purportedly played string quartets together. If he'd lived, Mozart was in line for one of the best musical jobs in Vienna -- Kapellmeister (director of music) at St. Stephen's Cathedral. Meanwhile, Salieri was not a bad composer, he was a very good one. He invented some operatic devices and conventions that are still part of the tradition today. Most of Salieri's work just belongs to a style that was eclipsed by later opera composers and isn't played much today. Interestingly "Amadeus" actually sparked interest in Salieri's operas and several of them have had revival productions since the movie came out. Maybe Salieri's greatest achievement was to hire the brilliant Venetian poet da Ponte to write librettos for the royal opera in Vienna. Da Ponte wrote the libretto to "Cosi" for Salieri but Salieri was too busy to write the music and handed the project off to Mozart. The rest is history. I'm not being at all critical of "Amadeus,' which is a wonderful play and movie. But it's nothing like how it actually happened.
It's such a pity, so many films do this, retell the old rags-to-riches tale, which so frequently has nothing to do with the subject's actual life...Oh well, at least we have his music.
@@alicedwonderland7733 I know and we'd seen him struggling with it the night before, and thanking God for it . Only for that creature to pull it apart and give us five better versions at the drop of a hat . I love the way Mozart bowed to the wrong people
For those who are criticising the emperor, not many amateurs can just practise a new melody and then play it quite well the second time. I thought he was quite good for an amateur. Edit: This comment was just an observation. There is no need to take it seriously.
Totally agree. I don't know for certain, but I think that he didn't even really start learning music until his 30s. Hard for anyone by that age, especially classical music.
The emperor was actually the best sight reader of the time. He was also a musical genius and in sight reading could read the most difficult full orchestral scores with amazing perfection. But then who wants to spoil the fun of a good movie with the facts.
Philosophically said: Saliéri did put his talent and skill to work in the most prestigious of places. Mozart was a true lover of creating music and an artist at heart. Saliéri let his vanity get in the way, thats why he felt slighted instead of supported. An anger of his own making.
@@alex6677 he got laughed at so yeah.. some prodigies can’t understand feelings and they feel really bad about it not just prodigies mostly highly intelligent people
I've never seen a man hate and adore at the very same time as well as Salieri did in this movie. You could see the contempt and jealousy he has for Mozart practically making his music sound like first grade level. But also look in complete awe, amazement and dare I say love as well. You could see that he liked the Mozart arrangement of his piece but couldn't admit it. He seemed to hate himself for loving Mozart's genius.
RossBayCult You just seamlessly nailed it my man, the various conflicting and competing emotions that swirled about and roiled within Salieri/F Murray Abraham. Love/Hate, Veneration/Vindictive Jealousy, Genuine Admiration/Gross Abhorrence, as such contradictions would basically define the deep, tempestuous ambivalence that throbbed and pulsed its way through Salieri in this movie (in how he was flawlessly and magnificently depicted by F Murray Abraham). Though in the end the jealousy and bitterness got the better of that cinematic Salieri, sadly enough, despite his undying love and admiration for all those timeless and transcendent masterpieces attributable to Mozart. Any ways, what a fascinating character study.
RossBayCult That rivalry is pure fiction. Salieri and Mozart were good friends. When Mozart died he helped Costanza with their younger son's education and to propagate and sell Mozart's music. At the end Costanza died wealthy at the ripe age of 80. Franz Xaver became a sort of successful composer, teacher and pianist on his own right, but could never scape the shadow of his father, whom he never met. He never married and died leaving no progeny.
A superbly expressed 'bullseye' interpretation of one of the deliciously awkward (and subtly intense) scenes in the movie. Very nicely said RossBayCult.
RossBayCult i was in the Movie he was not like this in reality the same for Mozarts father they were much more cultivated than that - Salieri never hated Mozart - and Hollywood needs to mock Jesus (very important) so you should not confuse it with historic truth
Great cinematography and acting. We've all been there, where we felt like everything was closing in on us in a social setting. Feeling dread and embarrassment with no were to go.
The thing is, it's obvious that Mozart isn't trying to insult Salieri; he only cares about the music and making it the best it can be. He's even rather solicitous about it in his own way.
The emperor is portrayed as a bit of a bumbling fool, but he's also shown to be able to impressively sight read music written by a seasoned court composer and play it reasonably well within a minute. Exactly how many heads of state living today can accomplish that?
At the time the nobility in Europe was often trained in music. Especially young noble women were expected to to play the piano proficiently. The king of Prussia, Frederick William, was a very fine cellist and Mozart wrote difficult quartet parts for him to play.
He doesn´t have "bad" sight reading, he just isn´t up to the level of the guys momentarily surounding him... Which are almost exclusively musicians, and don´t additionally have to rule over Austria, Hungary, czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, north Italy, Spain, Portugal, middle America, south America and the Philipines all at the same time...
Hurray! Someone has noticed the 'elephant in the room' beside me. Actually, the image is horizontally squeed by a factor of two. It was intended to be displayed in the Cinemascope ratio of 21:9 (1:2.33)
Well, Mozart didn't intentionally pawn Salieri, but just wanted to help out a fellow musician with his simple, little ditty. The Scherzo at the end was just the camel, that broke the straw's back...
I love how clearly Salieri's body language expresses his disdain and jealously of Mozart but also how it clearly shows his awestruck and love for Mozart's music. He can't stand Mozart because he wishes he had equal talent.
"He can't stand Mozart because he wishes he had equal talent." Wrong. He can't stand that such a buffoon and infantile clown is blessed with such talent and that God must either have made a terrible mistake or is openly mocking him. I'm amazed how some of you completely miss the *real reason* for Salieri's hate - his relationship with God and his belief that God is wise and just to those who work hard and live virtuous lives. His whole image of the world and the God he believes in is turned upside down. *That* is the reason. As for Salieri admiring Mozart's music, that's because he is the only one who actually understands its brilliance. In fact it even appears as if Mozart himself doesn't understand it but how it's "just there" which annoys Salieri even more because this is further evidence God mocks him. Neither the emperor not anybody else understands Mozart's music and to them he is just "the latest talent" who is there to entertain the royal court. What Salieri can't make sense of is how somebody so clueless to their own talent and how somebody so utterly at odds with how God himself and all that he stands for can even exist. Reductionist thinking. It will be the end of us. Brings bad politicians into power and fosters the most menial and simplistic thinking. Bad for us all. And none of this happened in reality so what's you point?
@@theirondukew.8522 - First of all, none of what you blathered on about contradicted the original statement. He didn't miss anything. Secondly, he was admiring the way the actor's body language communicated the feelings. There was never a claim that it was real. So, to quote you - "what's your point" in shitting over a simple and not all that controversial statement?
What is missed in this movie by those that see it is that the buffoonery, the slack jawed apelike qualities of the Mozart that are in the mind of Salieri. These portrayals are the product of Salieri's skewed perceptions of a rival. After all, he, Salieri, is narrating the movie and we are seeing the caricature of Mozart he is perceiving, not the actual man. The outlandish costumes, the inane giggle, the childish behavior are all products of Salieri's mind's eye.
Wow Stephen! That casts a whole angle on it all I never considered, a brilliant observation! It's not very often a movie of such depth and meaning comes along.
You said that well. We are all prisoners of our perceptions and Salieri's jealousies and desires were twisting his mind. Just like so many these days of political strife and absolutism.
actually salieri was very professional and did not harbor any great resentment towards mozart. the whole story of his jealousness no.1, isn’t really accurate because during this time he was one of the most successful music tutors and conductors at his time and no.2 only when mozart was dead did his music really get popular. the whole rivalry thing was caused when mozart on the death of his bed wrote to his dad blaming the italian musicians and then claiming in his delirium he had been poisoned. this was popularized by salieri and mozart an opera that was created long after his dead. sad how people see this movie and don’t really know the truth of their relationship which was quite cordial and in fact salieri was supportive and sent many letters to mozart in earnest respect
@@kjellfagerheim6789 To be fair, the movie was giving a small theme in basic chord progression done in the classical era style. Then they took that theme and made it Mozartian, to demonstrate the basic classical concepts into arpeggiated (rolling cords) as well as using typical Mozart and many other composers method of doubling an octave motif, and then adding some syncopation: temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent in music caused typically by stressing the weak beat.... used in dances... and this piece was actually modeled off the Marriage of Figaro song called Non più andrai. You shall go no more. It was to demonstrate the techniques Mozart used to liven up his music compared to dryer classical pieces could be. Almost everything that happened in the movie, never happened in real life other than the main points: Mozart was a composer... he was commissioned to write an Opera for the Austrian Vienna court theater which was the Abduction from the Seraglio. The sequences of the operas and his music was correct. His wife's name, father's name, friends name including Schikaneder (an opera house owner) with whom partnered with Mozart for the Sing Spiel called the Magic flute. Very bone basics were correct... everything else was fantasy fiction. And even more non-fiction was also left out: we never get to see Hayden to whom was Mozart's apprentice, we never see other musicians he worked with such as the famous Clarinetist Anton Stadler with whom he collaborated to write a clarinet concerto, we never see or hear of his sister Nannerl, the visit shortly after his first son is born he and his wife go to Salzburg to visit his dad or sister and they play the incomplete Mass in C minor. Mozart's other tours to Baden and to Prague and many other places during this adult period of his life. Lots of historical stuff is left out. And we can piece them together with all his and other family members' letters that have been published today. His younger years are also very interesting, and taken altogether would make for a very dramatic movie without all the fiction in this movie.
@@devolve42 Wow! I have noticed that as well! Although, Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham did act in other movies/series/parts since then. I watched this movie at a proper movie theater, discounted ($1, at that time) price for a whole week, and wept, every time, at the piano tune played during credits. 2 Academy Awards, for best costuming (I nearly got myself a tricorn hat custom made for me because of this movie!), and music editing (fine tying in scene to scene with music!), but this movie should have won many more awards.
@@devolve42 Well, in the director's commentary on "The Name of the Rose", the director goes out of his way to say that after winning the Oscar, F. Murray declared he was going to be hell on directors in retaliation of yrs of having to submit to them. He'd constantly argue, show up late to the set and was basically a diva which really pissed off Sean Connery. I'm sure that won Abraham no friends in Hollywood. Hulce did a few more things (ie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and that movie about Stalin's projectionist) but turned to producing and has been pretty successful at it. Jeffrey Jones was doing just fine (Ferris Bueller, The Hunt for Red October and yes Howard the Duck) until his, ah, exotic sexual tastes became public and landed him in jail.
He also went into the role having no piano skills and learned to play all the music so that he could fake-play it for filming (sort of like lip-synch but with a keyboard). He performed it flawlessly.
(without comparing the two) Prince said something similar. He said "I am music. I feel music. When I walk around, I hear brand new things. You're almost cursed. You're not even its maker, you're just there to bring it forth. You know, 'Can't I go to sleep?' No. You can't."
Adam Gillespie now add that he was literally emperor of half Europe and still could play the piano despite the fact he began lessons when he was in his mid 30’s
I know, it is depicted as if the people around him are humouring "his majesty" because they have to but while I would not be super impressed to hear someone play like that upon seeing the sheet music (for a piece of this difficulty) for the first time, I would still acknowledge that they must be a decent pianist.
Concerning Mozart's laugh: One described it as a light, lilting laugh that drifted across the room, while another described it as "metal scraping glass".
Due to shooting schedules he shot the last scenes in the sanitarium first. His performance is the most memorable of any actor who won an Academy Award for supporting role.
What I like most of all is the depiction of the emperor. Joseph II as a monarch of the age of enlightenment really tried hard to do away with all the useless court rituallling and flattering, which was quite new in that age. Most of us won't recognize this because it looks very much like we are used to see monarchs today.
Played by Jeffrey Jones. Great character actor in the 80's 90's. A Tim Burton reliable who's downfall was alcohol and underage boys. Too bad as he always first rate regardless of his role.
He might be an enlightened monarch , but there´s always something slightly odd about him: a bit too mechanical, like a robot or an 18th century automaton. Great performance by Jeffrey Jones anyway - also loved his Crismwell in Ed Wood (1994).
toward the end his style was changing a bit..... not only was he starting to dabble into more chromaticism and dissonance but he was also writing more for instruments like the clarinet (basset horn). Even if he had gone another 5-10 years his output would have been enormous.
Technically, he was Emperor, not King -- but, yes, I agree. I couldn't read notes and play a ditty if my life depended on it, so kudos to him indeed. (And I like how the actor (Jeffrey Jones) let the Emperor have the catchphrase "well, there it is".) 😂
Tom Hulce, the actor who plays Mozart was later the speaking and singing voice of Quasimodo in Disney's incredibly good 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', for those who didn't know.
I’ve always enjoyed the looks on everyone’s faces when Mozart completely breathes life into Salieri’s March! “And the rest is just the same isn’t it?” How humiliating..,I love it!
Drosophila Melanogaster because it would flop today. People won’t pay money today to see anything that doesn’t have a Jedi, a comic book character, or tons of CGI.
For those who might be thinking that this is a movie about the actual Mozart and Salieri, the reality was completely different. We have plenty of letters sent by Mozart to his wife and others, showing that he admired Salieri very much. In one of such letters, Mozart says that he so much hoped that Salieri would come and see his new opera. In another, Mozart was raving about Salieri being in the audience for the premiere of the Magic Flute , and praising enthusiastically each section. The truth is, Mozart and Salieri came from a musical tradition for which it was expected not just for composers, but also for musicians in general, to be given a melody or a bass line and come up with a full composition on the spot. Nowadays we call that improvising. So, it would have been quite normal for Mozart to take a Salieri's piece and develop it in a different way, or for Salieri to do the same with one of Mozart's compositions. But surely not to take the piss out of each other, but to please each other and to talk music. At the beginning of Mozart's career, both him and his father occasionally complained that the success of established composers such as Salieri made it difficult for young Mozart, and presumably other young composers and musicians, to land big jobs. That first period inspired some writers, well after Mozart's time, to create operas, and more recently movies, which depicts Mozart and Salieri as enemies. But in reality, once Mozart became established, which did not take long, it seems the two of them respected each other quite a lot. They even wrote a cantata together and Salieri taught composition to Mozart's son. Actually, Salieri also taught Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and many others. For free.. He only charged for lessons if the student was rich, because he was poor as a young musician, and someone helped him out, so he felt he needed to give back. Not quite the jealous, mediocre musician depicted in the movie?
I'll go one Further. Much big deal is made of Mozart not having second copies of his work. Ask Bach. Composers who had to check their work. He used to call them Chevaliars de Kavalier. "Knights of the Piano." He used to knock his stuff out in one go.
Of course not. This is an american movie for an american public, if it were anywhere near the truth, it wouldn´t be relatable at all, and flop. The plot of this movie, as well of any Avengers movie, could be written by a 3-year-old, Hollywood makes just THE child-movies every child would love to see, but for which the budget never existed...
The movie shows a bitter rivalry in the beginning, but ends with Salieri furiously helping Mozart compose his Requiem as he lay dying in his bed, which was fairly accurate. Salieri even finished Mozart's Requiem (Mozart himself only completing the first movement, but leaving notes for the next 8) at the request of Mozarts widow.
@@Lv-nq9qz "but ends with Salieri furiously helping Mozart compose his Requiem as he lay dying in his bed, which was fairly accurate" That is a fairly inaccurate description of BOTH the movie and the actual relationship between Mozart and Salieri ;) In real life, the only collaboration between Mozart and Salieri was a set of Cantate. In the fictional movie, Salieri tries to have Mozart compose a requiem so to steal the result. You can read more here: www.requiemsurvey.org/composers.php?id=559
I read he had done a fruit of the loom underwear commercial before he got this part...he was a struggling actor for a long time...he was perfect for the part.
"I actually composed some variations on a melody of yours...a funny little tune, but it yielded some good things." Boys and girls, this is called 'foreshadowing.'
I love how the dichotomy between competence and genius is portrayed in this piece. It illustrates to the layman how complex and layered Mozart’s music really was.
If there was an audience for better music there'd be better music. People get the music they deserve. If you want smarter music you're no longer with the main stream so you need to make an effort to find it yourself. It's out thee. Just not popular or "successful".
This scene is very interesting but something that’s not often pointed out is the fact that although Salieri’s march is simpler than Mozart’s transformation of it in Non piu andrai, it’s actually much more appropriate to his audience. Salieri certainly intended for the Emperor to play it or at least study it, and with his skill level not being that great as is evident from the clip, giving him a modest but quite pleasant piece for him to be able to play to satisfaction is the best move rather than something vivid but likely to cause only frustration and embarrassment. It’s not simply Mozart humiliating Salieri here by being a “more skillful composer”. While being technically good, Mozart shows how little sense he has in society just through his playing, parallel the rest of the scene. Just thought I’d share this viewpoint to those of you who may not have interpreted this part of the scene this way, even though it only cements what we already know from the rest of the scene of course.
Very well your analysis...... Its not his fault he was far too prodigious for his own good... One becomes too advanced in technicality and forgoes simplicity... Less sometimes is more perhaps..
I actually think the original had a bit of tension in it that was appropriate for commemorating the arrival at court of an artistic genius. It was perfectly unresolved.
except that had not been written just yet, but I bet wolfie could play it with the best of them. he could dplay anything and then he would probably take angel of death and improve it somehow lol
I love how the Emperor just tosses out "my sister Antoinette." It makes you feel bad for him; he had no idea what was coming―either for her or for himself.
@@slavemonkey5063 Marie lost her head , but by this time she had been estranged from the Austrian court. Joseph tried hard to reform Austria and Hungary but suffered from a very stubborn nobility and arrogance from the Hungarians and Prussians. He died a natural death (of TB) but it was disappointment and heartbreak that really killed him. This stubborn reactionary element of Austria would lead to its decline as a power, with Napoleon and then Prussia advancing their societies and stomping on the Austrians. By the time of WW1 the Austrians had finally tried reviving Joseph's reforms but it was too late and they are now a small shell of what they used to be while the Germans and French are literally leading Europe.
No wonder Austria went to war, it's not just the ideological reason as most mention but imagine having a sister you grew up with and they kill her, you'd feel pretty bad especially if you have power answerable to your rage. And besides the funny thing is that it was France that declared war on Europe including Austria first.
That's one way of looking at it, but I'm sure Salieri saw it differently. I mean, it's like, I'm not defiling your comment, I'm just completing it (for you).
Since the variation by Mozart was not a march anymore, he can impossibly have completed a march. He completed a variation in completely different style based on the melody of a Salieri's march.
I like how the Emperor gave a little startled "jump" when Mozart laughs at the very end. (You can see his hands holding the music in that final frame.) I wonder if that was scripted, or if the actor was genuinely startled.
However, even with Mozart and Salieri's rivalry for certain jobs, there is very little evidence that the relationship between the two composers was at all acrimonious beyond this, especially after 1785 or so, when Mozart had become established in Vienna. Rather, they appeared to usually see each other as friends and colleagues, and supported each other's work. For example, when Salieri was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788, he revived Figaro instead of bringing out a new opera of his own, and when he went to the coronation festivities for Leopold II in 1790, Salieri had no fewer than three Mozart masses in his luggage. Salieri and Mozart even composed a cantata for voice and piano together, called Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia, which celebrated the return to stage of the singer Nancy Storace" Läs mer
Dystop Misantrop nice Intel. Im happy people are doing research and not having some misguided hatred for Salieri simply because Hollywood put their spin on it.
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He had to be a prick to Mozart to establish his character in Last Action Hero.
The play upon which this film is based is in turn based on the story of Cain and Abel. It is only passively influenced by the lives of Mozart and Salieri.
Now, this is...improvisation. Mozart knew and appreciated the power of improvisation! You don't have to follow the score, note-for-note, all the time, you can create new things, new patterns, explore new territories. To all musicians, don't be afraid to try new things on the piano. Don't just 'follow the notes' all the time. Through this, you also learn the power of composition.
Saw this at the theater when it opened. Loved it and have seen it many times since. This is my favorite scene in movie filled with memorable scenes. Thanks for posting!
@Alexander Arsov, except for that one scene where...I can't exactly remember what it was about. Just kidding--agreed, that movie was awesome and earned every award it received.
One really human aspect I miss in the comments: There are hundred thousands of musicians on our planet in REAL life doing everything to be great musicians, really everything (Salieri). And there are geniuses that have just got it (Mozart). It`s brutal and extremely tragic for the Salieris. I am really sorry for them.
what if (and hear me out) there's no real difference btw the quality of the music between the "Salieris" and "Mozarts"? what if it isn't "brutal" so much as "random fuckery"??
There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn, nonetheless, for the latter. Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Address to the Faculty" (from the game Alpha Centauri)
@@op3129 I do not follow you. You posit the "what if" but it fails because there is a very noticeable difference between Mozart's music and Salieri's. At the same time, Salieri was a master of the craft and wrote excellent music. This movie downplayed Salieri's mastery and made him appear trivial. He was not. He was, however, a musician of his time. His music reflects his time. Mozart, on the other hand, wrote music that continues to appeal to most listeners today. Even though it is in the classical style it still impacts the modern listener is surprising ways. Nothing random about it. Mozart understood music and it was very much part of him. It flowed from him in ways that most of us can never understand. That "talent" though was more a curse than a blessing. It should also be mentioned that Salieri and Mozart were not enemies even though they were sometimes rivals. Salieri did recognize Mozart's genius and helped Mozart when help was needed. Salieri did invite Mozart to have his music performed at subscription concerts with him when Mozart was unable to secure such concerts on his own. This was one way of helping with finances.
Well yes I agree somewhat with you, prodigy talent is somewhat frowned upon in the modern school system. Lets say a saxophone prodigy joins a marching band, he obviously gets put in to a "section" and the way the system works is the one who learns the quickest/plays the best/leads the best gets the position of "Section Leader". You'd think the prodigy would get it, but the prodigy learns so fast that there is nothing else to learn, and just gets it from the beginning. The band teacher has no idea what to do with him so he gives the title to someone else who isn't a prodigy and learns at a slower pace. Yeah, I know the system is screwed up. I've seen it happen many of times throughout my band career.
funniest parts of scene -------------------------------------------- 1:40 blocked out 1:48 peeking through guards 3:35 how everyone stops smiling and stares at him smiling 6:03 the smile and how the other guy plays along with everything the director says 6:55 salieris joke 7:03-7:15 mozarts descripton XD 7:15 the dudes laugh and the directors stern "shut up" glare XD 8:14 his fake smile 8:26 "that doesnt really work does it?" 8:56 how everyone crowds around the room 9:04 how salieri looks around nervously 9:29 dun dun dun 9:31 the emporor jumps when he laughs 9:32 salieris face
Richie Beck Impossible. Mozart was merely a musician who played at courts and he wasn't of "royal lineage" . The royal families all intermarried between themselves - mostly for ulterior reasons such a military alliances and beneficial trade. As talented as he was during his own time Mozart was but an "entertainer" for the royal courts and no emperor would have allowed his daughter to marry a "commoner" which is what Mozart was to them. He neither had any political influence nor any great wealth which might have enticed the emperor to consider him. The royal families took the marrying with their own kind to extremes (which led to inbreeding and nasty illnesses). In the highly unlikely event this still happened somehow... well, Marie Antoinette gets disowned by her own family and if she's lucky her husband will just be banned from performing at the Austrian court. Not sure he would have made much of an impression in "Italy" (not a country per se until 1861) considering they were highly critical of any non-Italian calling himself an artist of any kind or whether the equally arrogant French would have been much kinder. A different turn of events? Indeed, because Mozart might have left a significantly smaller imprint in history and Marie Antoinette would probably have been forgotten completely. She is know for losing her head you know as much as the Titanic is famous for her sinking.
@@McLarenMercedes - I don't think Riche ever suggested that such a marriage, as suggested by a naive child (my cousin and I, at that age, were flummoxed when our parents told us that cousins couldn't get married), was a realistic possibility. He's just mentioning that her eventually marriage path cost her her head.
Anyone who’s ever struggled with composition, this movie is so perfect for you. ThereMs having natural talent and working your ass off, and feeling pretty great about yourself, but when you meet a true prodigy, it’s profoundly beautiful and shameful. You realize there’s levels to everything. One of my favorite movies ever, and I’m a DIY punk dude.
I read somewhere that Prince saw this movie about a thousand times, and I could understand why. He could easily empathize with Mozart and Rick James was just like Salieri.
I don't know which interpretation is better Mozart's or Salieri's. On the one hand Mozart's interpretation is riddled with pretentiousness, and Salieri's version is simple and modest. They are both excellent in their own unique way.
The Salieri original is trite. Mozart turns it into the captivating march from the finale of Act 2 of "Marriage of Figaro". Schaffer, the playwright, planned it that way.
The opera mozart composed as a result of this fictitious meeting is called “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and is definitely worth listening to. AND...my understanding is that Franz Orsini-Rosenberg really liked (and supported) Mozart.
@@vincentmutel7313 not irony, it's Rule 1 on a job interview (ie, don't be smarter that the Boss....you'll get your turn when you're the Boss). Salieri was a working Musician. Mozart up staged him & made an enemy. What really happened? Lesson = even a genius can't get away with being a smart ass.
Mozart was made to appear very over-the-top in this film, but Mozart actually did this stuff. The role of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte was created for da Ponte's mistress Adriana Farrerese del Bene, who apparently was very full of herself. She had a habit of dropping her chin on low notes and throwing back her head on high ones. Mozart filled her showpiece aria "Come scoglio" with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make Ferrarese's head "bob like a chicken" onstage.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had a music history teacher who talked about how Mozart was super childish like this and one time was asked to write a piece for a duke or something he didn't like, so he wrote out the entire thing, entered the duke's office, and threw all the sheet music everywhere and walked out. If that's true, this is my favorite person in all of human history.
I love the smaller details that did with Mozart. I know this film isn't 100% fact, so I'm not speaking historically, but in terms of the movie they made Amadeus into this sort of "classical rockstar" during his era. He's extremely relaxed and far more casual than he should be around those who are more "regal" than he is. Even his fashion sense and wigs are far out there in comparison. People react to his music like older people reacted to rock music back in the day, saying it's too loud or it has too much going on for a pleasant song. Mozart is a party animal from the 1700s
One of the best films of the 80's and another masterpiece by Milos Forman. He just had an incredible knack for perfect casting, tight stories, great lighting and master's sense of TEMPO in directing his actors for great editing. All his films ooze that special feeling, whether it's Cukoo's Nest, Man on the Moon or Amadeus... they just flow perfectly and hold your attention all the way through. It's a shame so many films today are caught up in CGI and impossible stunts with break neck editing. To me the slower the film the more savory. As I side note: In the 90's I was working a temp job in Tower Record's classical department and who came to the register but... Tom Hulce. He plopped down a ton of CD's and after entering the last one into the register, I told him the amount which was something like $370. He playfully said, "That's too much." I quickly swiped his American Express Card and shot back: "That's too bad." We both laughed. He was super nice.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Keep in mind "Amadeus" is an allegorical play about genius. It's nothing like the historical Mozart and Salieri.
Salieri was highly successful and wouldn't have been threatened by Mozart. In fact he helped Mozart. Salieri introduced Mozart to Lorenzo Da Ponte, the genius who wrote the librettos to "Cosi Fan Tutte," "Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni."
There may have been some rivalry, but from what we know the relationship between these two men was professional and cordial.
And Mozart was not some kind of impoverished outcast as he's depicted in the movie -- he was famous, highly respected and lived in a luxury flat in one of Vienna's best neighborhoods. He made plenty of money -- he was just a profligate spender.
Europe's most famous composer of the time (not mentioned in the movie) was Josef Haydn, employed by the Esterhazy princes not far from Vienna. Haydn, a towering genius, told Mozart's father his son was the greatest composer known to him. Mozart and Haydn traded musical ideas, inspired each other, even purportedly played string quartets together.
If he'd lived, Mozart was in line for one of the best musical jobs in Vienna -- Kapellmeister (director of music) at St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Meanwhile, Salieri was not a bad composer, he was a very good one. He invented some operatic devices and conventions that are still part of the tradition today.
Most of Salieri's work just belongs to a style that was eclipsed by later opera composers and isn't played much today. Interestingly "Amadeus" actually sparked interest in Salieri's operas and several of them have had revival productions since the movie came out.
Maybe Salieri's greatest achievement was to hire the brilliant Venetian poet da Ponte to write librettos for the royal opera in Vienna. Da Ponte wrote the libretto to "Cosi" for Salieri but Salieri was too busy to write the music and handed the project off to Mozart. The rest is history.
I'm not being at all critical of "Amadeus,' which is a wonderful play and movie. But it's nothing like how it actually happened.
Not to mention that Mozart and Salieri actually had a fond and long friendship. Salieri even taught Mozart's son.
Everybody knows it was Handel who poisoned Mozart before fleeing to Great Britain to live next door to Jimi Hendrix
Thanks for the wonderful information. I love getting little tidbits of enlightenment.
@@CorsetGrace I believe he also taught young Beethoven and Schubert and so he could not have been the hack they make him out to be in the movie.
It's such a pity, so many films do this, retell the old rags-to-riches tale, which so frequently has nothing to do with the subject's actual life...Oh well, at least we have his music.
“The rest is just same isn’t it?”
Someone just died inside.
That was so funny . Murray is SOME actor
Imagine you just composed something you're proud of and freakin' Mozart comes it and turns it into dust, then blows it out the window.
@@alicedwonderland7733 I know and we'd seen him struggling with it the night before, and thanking God for it . Only for that creature to pull it apart and give us five better versions at the drop of a hat . I love the way Mozart bowed to the wrong people
@@martmanana7269 he deserved the Oscar a hundred times over for this performance.
What a nasty comment... And then they go on portraying Salieri as the evil one.
When the remix turns out to be better than the original.
Wasn't it a student piece to begin with?
Good comment
Remix? What remix?
@@barrigudo00 Oy. 🤦♀️
R/woooooosh
actually mozart played og from marriage of Figaro.
For those who are criticising the emperor, not many amateurs can just practise a new melody and then play it quite well the second time. I thought he was quite good for an amateur.
Edit: This comment was just an observation. There is no need to take it seriously.
I agree with you :) 😃 but it's funny to see him playing not well
Totally agree. I don't know for certain, but I think that he didn't even really start learning music until his 30s. Hard for anyone by that age, especially classical music.
The emperor was actually the best sight reader of the time. He was also a musical genius and in sight reading could read the most difficult full orchestral scores with amazing perfection. But then who wants to spoil the fun of a good movie with the facts.
@@polenc7167 valid fact.
@@oilersridersbluejays Isn't it fun to make a great man into a buffoon. Serves him right for not being a dope like the rest of us.
To Salieri, he was being humiliated. To Mozart, he was just helping make a piece work.
both side's
Philosophically said: Saliéri did put his talent and skill to work in the most prestigious of places. Mozart was a true lover of creating music and an artist at heart. Saliéri let his vanity get in the way, thats why he felt slighted instead of supported. An anger of his own making.
They probably never met in the real world.
@@OphiuchiChannel They were friends in real life.
@@alex6677 he got laughed at so yeah.. some prodigies can’t understand feelings and they feel really bad about it not just prodigies mostly highly intelligent people
"May I play it when he comes in?"
Salieri's head: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Salieri: You do me too much honor!
"the rest are the same, isn't it ?"
Salieri head: explode on jealousy and anger
Salieri: fake smile left the room
Ok we need Amadeus Abridged now I guess
I feel like Mozart and Salieri had some inspiration for SpongeBob and Squidward from the episode 'The Paper'! 😂
I love the chubby guy. he's always on the verge of doing something to inadvertently embarass the director
I like his laugh. And he looks like Bach 😃
He looks like the dude from the “what the fuck am I reading” meme
I thought that the chubby guy was a useless tool who was too afraid of speaking his mind and offending the others
Rosenberg.
He wants to like Mozart but the director won't let him.
I've never seen a man hate and adore at the very same time as well as Salieri did in this movie. You could see the contempt and jealousy he has for Mozart practically making his music sound like first grade level. But also look in complete awe, amazement and dare I say love as well. You could see that he liked the Mozart arrangement of his piece but couldn't admit it. He seemed to hate himself for loving Mozart's genius.
RossBayCult You just seamlessly nailed it my man, the various conflicting and competing emotions that swirled about and roiled within Salieri/F Murray Abraham. Love/Hate, Veneration/Vindictive Jealousy, Genuine Admiration/Gross Abhorrence, as such contradictions would basically define the deep, tempestuous ambivalence that throbbed and pulsed its way through Salieri in this movie (in how he was flawlessly and magnificently depicted by F Murray Abraham). Though in the end the jealousy and bitterness got the better of that cinematic Salieri, sadly enough, despite his undying love and admiration for all those timeless and transcendent masterpieces attributable to Mozart. Any ways, what a fascinating character study.
RossBayCult That rivalry is pure fiction. Salieri and Mozart were good friends. When Mozart died he helped Costanza with their younger son's education and to propagate and sell Mozart's music. At the end Costanza died wealthy at the ripe age of 80. Franz Xaver became a sort of successful composer, teacher and pianist on his own right, but could never scape the shadow of his father, whom he never met. He never married and died leaving no progeny.
A superbly expressed 'bullseye' interpretation of one of the deliciously awkward (and subtly intense) scenes in the movie. Very nicely said RossBayCult.
I think you nailed that perfectly!
RossBayCult i was in the Movie he was not like this in reality the same for Mozarts father they were much more cultivated than that - Salieri never hated Mozart - and Hollywood needs to mock Jesus (very important) so you should not confuse it with historic truth
The slow zoom on Salieri’s face, growing with emasculation, then a cut to Mozart’s cheery, prideful grin - what a perfect film.
The last frame of the video was the best.
Great cinematography and acting. We've all been there, where we felt like everything was closing in on us in a social setting. Feeling dread and embarrassment with no were to go.
Grrrrrazie Signore!!!
I love how the Emperor jumps at the end when Mozart laughs.
And it makes me wonder if it was acted or real. :)
Well spotted!
The Iron Historian Ohh well even you noticed it, Emperor Joseph 2 must have got a shock of his life with that laugh. I almost fell of my chair.
Was more of a twitch...but hysterical just the same!
I've seen this movie 100 times and I have never noticed that. Good catch.
The thing is, it's obvious that Mozart isn't trying to insult Salieri; he only cares about the music and making it the best it can be. He's even rather solicitous about it in his own way.
Actually Mozart was very fond of Salieri.
@O R Leck mich im Arsch
No, he was like this on purpose, naturally playful
embustero71 nine!
Yes but any great musician would know it would be embarassing for the court composer to do that.
I would know, I am a great musician. 😅
The emperor is portrayed as a bit of a bumbling fool, but he's also shown to be able to impressively sight read music written by a seasoned court composer and play it reasonably well within a minute. Exactly how many heads of state living today can accomplish that?
None that I know of offhand. I'm wondering if Nixon could have.
At the time the nobility in Europe was often trained in music. Especially young noble women were expected to to play the piano proficiently. The king of Prussia, Frederick William, was a very fine cellist and Mozart wrote difficult quartet parts for him to play.
@@Briguy1027 Not a piano, but Bill Clinton on sax.
@@ianwhitchurch864 Yeah I remember Clinton playing the sax, but I also remember Nixon on the piano.
Well, the Internet says that there is at least one with a fighting chance, Emmanuel Macron of France.
The emperor's "bad" sight reading still sounds much better than when I try to sight read
He doesn´t have "bad" sight reading, he just isn´t up to the level of the guys momentarily surounding him... Which are almost exclusively musicians, and don´t additionally have to rule over Austria, Hungary, czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, north Italy, Spain, Portugal, middle America, south America and the Philipines all at the same time...
The aspect ratio doesn't quite work, does it?
Hurray! Someone has noticed the 'elephant in the room' beside me. Actually, the image is horizontally squeed by a factor of two. It was intended to be displayed in the Cinemascope ratio of 21:9 (1:2.33)
Ferris Bueler was up to his shenanigans again.
Too many pixels, I think...
People were skinnier back then
Well, there it is.
"Well, what do you have for me today?" - I love the portrayal of the Emperor of Austria as an affable Radio Shack manager.
"The rest is just the same, isn't it?" What a line and such an unintended insult.
So, you assume it was unintended....
@@JohnLloydScharf I assume that it was intended.
I've gone through two conservatory degrees. Those insults are always intended. And they happen all the time :)
Well, Mozart didn't intentionally pawn Salieri, but just wanted to help out a fellow musician with his simple, little ditty. The Scherzo at the end was just the camel, that broke the straw's back...
Oh, that passive-aggressive Wolfie!
"A funny little piece but it yielded some good things" hahaha musicians throwing shade
+Kassie Stepanova lol!
now they got bad blood
Mozart didn't realize what he was doing. He knew he was the best and only wanted to help.
nikki and remy of that age
Buuuuuuuuurn!!
I can't believe why Tom Hulce never won an Academy Award for his outstanding portrayal of Mozart
Abraham won it.
Hulce was nominated and Abraham said in his acceptance speech that Hulce should be standing there beside him as he stood at the podium.
he was nominated for this film
@@SheboyganLager Those are the words of someone who has nothing to prove. Bravo, bravo.
@@CurtHowland Indeed !
I love how clearly Salieri's body language expresses his disdain and jealously of Mozart but also how it clearly shows his awestruck and love for Mozart's music. He can't stand Mozart because he wishes he had equal talent.
Facts
"He can't stand Mozart because he wishes he had equal talent."
Wrong. He can't stand that such a buffoon and infantile clown is blessed with such talent and that God must either have made a terrible mistake or is openly mocking him. I'm amazed how some of you completely miss the *real reason* for Salieri's hate - his relationship with God and his belief that God is wise and just to those who work hard and live virtuous lives. His whole image of the world and the God he believes in is turned upside down. *That* is the reason.
As for Salieri admiring Mozart's music, that's because he is the only one who actually understands its brilliance. In fact it even appears as if Mozart himself doesn't understand it but how it's "just there" which annoys Salieri even more because this is further evidence God mocks him. Neither the emperor not anybody else understands Mozart's music and to them he is just "the latest talent" who is there to entertain the royal court.
What Salieri can't make sense of is how somebody so clueless to their own talent and how somebody so utterly at odds with how God himself and all that he stands for can even exist.
Reductionist thinking. It will be the end of us. Brings bad politicians into power and fosters the most menial and simplistic thinking. Bad for us all.
And none of this happened in reality so what's you point?
TheIronDuke W. Okay first of all i now have beef with salieri and second of all SHUT THE FUCK UP
@@theirondukew.8522 - First of all, none of what you blathered on about contradicted the original statement. He didn't miss anything.
Secondly, he was admiring the way the actor's body language communicated the feelings. There was never a claim that it was real. So, to quote you - "what's your point" in shitting over a simple and not all that controversial statement?
@@theirondukew.8522 well put, Salieri states that in his narrative.
What is missed in this movie by those that see it is that the buffoonery, the slack jawed apelike qualities of the Mozart that are in the mind of Salieri. These portrayals are the product of Salieri's skewed perceptions of a rival. After all, he, Salieri, is narrating the movie and we are seeing the caricature of Mozart he is perceiving, not the actual man. The outlandish costumes, the inane giggle, the childish behavior are all products of Salieri's mind's eye.
I hadn't thought of it that way, despite having seen this movie for the first time some 30 years ago.
Wow Stephen! That casts a whole angle on it all I never considered, a brilliant observation! It's not very often a movie of such depth and meaning comes along.
Great observation. I'll watch it again with that in mind.Thank you!
You said that well. We are all prisoners of our perceptions and Salieri's jealousies and desires were twisting his mind. Just like so many these days of political strife and absolutism.
actually salieri was very professional and did not harbor any great resentment towards mozart. the whole story of his jealousness no.1, isn’t really accurate because during this time he was one of the most successful music tutors and conductors at his time and no.2 only when mozart was dead did his music really get popular. the whole rivalry thing was caused when mozart on the death of his bed wrote to his dad blaming the italian musicians and then claiming in his delirium he had been poisoned. this was popularized by salieri and mozart an opera that was created long after his dead. sad how people see this movie and don’t really know the truth of their relationship which was quite cordial and in fact salieri was supportive and sent many letters to mozart in earnest respect
And meanwhile, Milos Forman's aspect ratio is also defiled.
Oh good ... cause I thought I was having a flashback.
I had to angle my phone so I could nearly see the back
Aspect Ratio would be a great name for a goth band...
When you thought your single was fire and some nigga just comes up and remixes the fuck out of it.
Kev Urbie And than blasts it in front of your own fans
u got me cryin kid lol
8 years later ts had me dying
Salieri spends ages trying to get it right and Mozart nails it one go and makes it even better. I love this scene.
Ha! Exactly. "that doesn't really work does it?". Mozart was just playing around! 😄
Then again, Salieri was composing to accompany the Emperor's skill. Mozart wasn't and that's why it sounds better.
@@BasfarThijsje Actually no. Since he didn't know that the Emperor would ask him to be the one to play it. Sorry.
You are wrong...! This movie is false.....!
@@kjellfagerheim6789 To be fair, the movie was giving a small theme in basic chord progression done in the classical era style. Then they took that theme and made it Mozartian, to demonstrate the basic classical concepts into arpeggiated (rolling cords) as well as using typical Mozart and many other composers method of doubling an octave motif, and then adding some syncopation: temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent in music caused typically by stressing the weak beat.... used in dances... and this piece was actually modeled off the Marriage of Figaro song called Non più andrai. You shall go no more.
It was to demonstrate the techniques Mozart used to liven up his music compared to dryer classical pieces could be.
Almost everything that happened in the movie, never happened in real life other than the main points: Mozart was a composer... he was commissioned to write an Opera for the Austrian Vienna court theater which was the Abduction from the Seraglio.
The sequences of the operas and his music was correct.
His wife's name, father's name, friends name including Schikaneder (an opera house owner) with whom partnered with Mozart for the Sing Spiel called the Magic flute.
Very bone basics were correct... everything else was fantasy fiction.
And even more non-fiction was also left out: we never get to see Hayden to whom was Mozart's apprentice, we never see other musicians he worked with such as the famous Clarinetist Anton Stadler with whom he collaborated to write a clarinet concerto, we never see or hear of his sister Nannerl, the visit shortly after his first son is born he and his wife go to Salzburg to visit his dad or sister and they play the incomplete Mass in C minor. Mozart's other tours to Baden and to Prague and many other places during this adult period of his life. Lots of historical stuff is left out. And we can piece them together with all his and other family members' letters that have been published today.
His younger years are also very interesting, and taken altogether would make for a very dramatic movie without all the fiction in this movie.
Still one of the best movies out there and hands down, the best laugh in movie history.
Mozart: Spongebob
Salieri: Squidward
LOLz
Hahaha yes!
*=
LOL, CAN'T BE UNHEARD NOW. XD
hahaha
Upon reflection, Amadeus was one of the finest movies I've had the pleasure of viewing in my seventy years; and an avid movie watcher!
Pretty impressed with his majesty to be able to play the piece after a couple of solid tries.
Tom Hulce was miraculous in this role. He played the fool, the intense genius, and the arrogant prick with equal genius. He was sensational.
everyone in this movie saw their acting career die, and I have no idea why.
@@devolve42 Wow! I have noticed that as well! Although, Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham did act in other movies/series/parts since then. I watched this movie at a proper movie theater, discounted ($1, at that time) price for a whole week, and wept, every time, at the piano tune played during credits. 2 Academy Awards, for best costuming (I nearly got myself a tricorn hat custom made for me because of this movie!), and music editing (fine tying in scene to scene with music!), but this movie should have won many more awards.
@@devolve42 Well, in the director's commentary on "The Name of the Rose", the director goes out of his way to say that after winning the Oscar, F. Murray declared he was going to be hell on directors in retaliation of yrs of having to submit to them. He'd constantly argue, show up late to the set and was basically a diva which really pissed off Sean Connery. I'm sure that won Abraham no friends in Hollywood. Hulce did a few more things (ie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and that movie about Stalin's projectionist) but turned to producing and has been pretty successful at it. Jeffrey Jones was doing just fine (Ferris Bueller, The Hunt for Red October and yes Howard the Duck) until his, ah, exotic sexual tastes became public and landed him in jail.
@@bahhumbug9824 Thanks for that! Very interesting tidbit about Abraham
He also went into the role having no piano skills and learned to play all the music so that he could fake-play it for filming (sort of like lip-synch but with a keyboard). He performed it flawlessly.
This movie is so good that I forgot that they were acting
Thank you
@@valentenaupton2805 yeah it is the truth
Totally! The subtle dynamic between the characters makes you totally forget these are actors!
@@emmagrove6491 thanks!😁
Absolutely brilliant movie.. One of my all time favorites.
I love how the last Mozart laugh scares jump the emperor
Mozart said he drank because he couldn't make the music in his head stop.
He was afflicted by constantly hearing melodies, waltzes and cadences.
(without comparing the two) Prince said something similar. He said "I am music. I feel music. When I walk around, I hear brand new things. You're almost cursed. You're not even its maker, you're just there to bring it forth. You know, 'Can't I go to sleep?' No. You can't."
Imagine all the melodies he did not let out
Micheal Jackson said the same. He could not sleep because of it, and become addict of sleep medication.
That sounds like obsession.
Disaster in disguise
If that dude was literally sight reading then he is really good for an amateur
Since his status guarantuees him some education, one can assume, that he had piano lessons - whether he's talented or not.
Adam Gillespie now add that he was literally emperor of half Europe and still could play the piano despite the fact he began lessons when he was in his mid 30’s
I know, it is depicted as if the people around him are humouring "his majesty" because they have to but while I would not be super impressed to hear someone play like that upon seeing the sheet music (for a piece of this difficulty) for the first time, I would still acknowledge that they must be a decent pianist.
Im so bad at sightreading
That dude was a movie actor.
Mozart unwittingly tried to save Marie-Antoinette's head at 6 years of age🤣🤣🤣
Concerning Mozart's laugh: One described it as a light, lilting laugh that drifted across the room, while another described it as "metal scraping glass".
F. Murray Abraham, who did win the Academy Award for his role, is just amazing in this role, particularly as the senior Antonio Salieri.
F. Him? Who did you want to win?
Due to shooting schedules he shot the last scenes in the sanitarium first. His performance is the most memorable of any actor who won an Academy Award for supporting role.
I love F. Murray! He always seems to light up any character he plays. His take on Salieri was brilliant.
I got to see him live in the stage version. Very different, much more humorous. Great play.
He was filming both simultaneously, shuttling back and forth.
-Name a German virtue
-Love
-Of course we know nothing about love in Italy
-No I don't think you do, Sir.
Brilliant
I always liked mister Bono's giggle after he calls Italian opera rubbish.
At least the food is better than german, german food is grotesque.
@@felipewerner6670 What is grotesque about beer, steak, sausages, bread and potatoes?
@@Kalenz1234 I love me some good Bratwurst, but there's no comparison to pizza and pasta, sorry...
I would have said punctuality was the most German virtue.
What I like most of all is the depiction of the emperor. Joseph II as a monarch of the age of enlightenment really tried hard to do away with all the useless court rituallling and flattering, which was quite new in that age. Most of us won't recognize this because it looks very much like we are used to see monarchs today.
Arno Luyendijk brilliant comment
And I like how the actor actually looks like the real doppleganger of the real Emperor.
Arno Luyendijk My thoughts exactly. 👍
Played by Jeffrey Jones. Great character actor in the 80's 90's. A Tim Burton reliable who's downfall was alcohol and underage boys. Too bad as he always first rate regardless of his role.
He might be an enlightened monarch , but there´s always something slightly odd about him: a bit too mechanical, like a robot or an 18th century automaton. Great performance by Jeffrey Jones anyway - also loved his Crismwell in Ed Wood (1994).
Tom Hulce's performance is unbelievable and perfection
Simon Callow did better.
Not bad for a Faber graduate.
Personally I preferred his performance as Quasimodo.
I think Scatman Crothers could have been a better mozart.
@Thomas Roman Great story!
Mozart died aged only 35! What did we miss, if only he had lived longer.
Perhaps working with Beethoven.
I thought he was 32 but... Whatever
Well, had he kept his pistol in his holster perhaps we would have seen what could have happened.
@@cloudstreets1396 he didn't die of typhoid fever?
toward the end his style was changing a bit..... not only was he starting to dabble into more chromaticism and dissonance but he was also writing more for instruments like the clarinet (basset horn). Even if he had gone another 5-10 years his output would have been enormous.
Not a bad sight reading effort by the king, both hands and no wrong notes within 3 tries. Actually quite good.
Technically, he was Emperor, not King -- but, yes, I agree. I couldn't read notes and play a ditty if my life depended on it, so kudos to him indeed. (And I like how the actor (Jeffrey Jones) let the Emperor have the catchphrase "well, there it is".) 😂
@@danielvanr.8681 He was King of Bohemia and Hungary
he is an actor ffs,
he is probably not even playing what you hear in the background
It's a character in a movie. People can feel emotions for the characters in a movie, a book. You must be fun at parties
I love how the king is played by the same actor that played the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Secretly saying Bueller while playing the piano.
Hehe I was thinking exactly the same right now 😆
@@astralsapien8727 correct.
Emperor, not king.
I love that Amadeus is the guy who took out the grocery clerk in Animal House
Tom Hulce, the actor who plays Mozart was later the speaking and singing voice of Quasimodo in Disney's incredibly good 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', for those who didn't know.
The laugh at the end was perfect.
F Murray Abraham is one of the best screen actors I've ever seen.
He says a lot in this scene without saying much, which is masterful.
Indeed
A great actor who deserves more work.
Heck, yeah! 😎👍
When I saw Silence of the Lambs I thought Murray would have played a fantastic Hannibal Lecter. He should have gotten more chances to show his talent.
“Tempo!” “Lightly, then STRONGLY.” 😂
"Funny little tune, but yielded some good things." - ouch.
That, combined with "The rest is just the same isn't it". Double ouch.
I thought he said "Funny little tune, but healed it some good things."
"Will you marry me, yes or no?" It would have been better for Marie Antoinette if she had...
But now she has no head
Captain obvious PFFFFT
@@lukedavis5727 Fitting username lol
Agreed! Lol
And better for Mozart as well. Think of the music we all missed out on with his untimely death.
I’ve always enjoyed the looks on everyone’s faces when Mozart completely breathes life into Salieri’s March! “And the rest is just the same isn’t it?” How humiliating..,I love it!
Why on Earth, don't we get one movie a year ... just one ... a year, like this one.
Hollywood, I'm I asking for too much?
Drosophila Melanogaster because it would flop today. People won’t pay money today to see anything that doesn’t have a Jedi, a comic book character, or tons of CGI.
If movies this good came out that often, then movies this good wouldn't be as special.
What, you don't like CATS?
Bwa HA HA HA HA HA!!!!
Amy Thomasson fudge star wars and marvel
Drosophila Melanogaster Watch more movies, they’re out there
That laugh still cracks me up, even decades later.
Same here.
I came up with that laugh. I do it at parties and love the reaction. If you have the guts, try it!
Same here, doing it in RL to annoy people is even more fun haha.
Idk why but i laugh at almost everything idk why tho
Me too ..
He's very good actor .. anyway ...
Does the real mozart laugh like that ??????
For those who might be thinking that this is a movie about the actual Mozart and Salieri, the reality was completely different.
We have plenty of letters sent by Mozart to his wife and others, showing that he admired Salieri very much. In one of such letters, Mozart says that he so much hoped that Salieri would come and see his new opera. In another, Mozart was raving about Salieri being in the audience for the premiere of the Magic Flute , and praising enthusiastically each section.
The truth is, Mozart and Salieri came from a musical tradition for which it was expected not just for composers, but also for musicians in general, to be given a melody or a bass line and come up with a full composition on the spot. Nowadays we call that improvising.
So, it would have been quite normal for Mozart to take a Salieri's piece and develop it in a different way, or for Salieri to do the same with one of Mozart's compositions. But surely not to take the piss out of each other, but to please each other and to talk music.
At the beginning of Mozart's career, both him and his father occasionally complained that the success of established composers such as Salieri made it difficult for young Mozart, and presumably other young composers and musicians, to land big jobs.
That first period inspired some writers, well after Mozart's time, to create operas, and more recently movies, which depicts Mozart and Salieri as enemies.
But in reality, once Mozart became established, which did not take long, it seems the two of them respected each other quite a lot. They even wrote a cantata together and Salieri taught composition to Mozart's son.
Actually, Salieri also taught Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and many others. For free.. He only charged for lessons if the student was rich, because he was poor as a young musician, and someone helped him out, so he felt he needed to give back.
Not quite the jealous, mediocre musician depicted in the movie?
I'll go one Further. Much big deal is made of Mozart not having second copies of his work. Ask Bach. Composers who had to check their work. He used to call them Chevaliars de Kavalier. "Knights of the Piano." He used to knock his stuff out in one go.
Of course not. This is an american movie for an american public, if it were anywhere near the truth, it wouldn´t be relatable at all, and flop. The plot of this movie, as well of any Avengers movie, could be written by a 3-year-old, Hollywood makes just THE child-movies every child would love to see, but for which the budget never existed...
The movie shows a bitter rivalry in the beginning, but ends with Salieri furiously helping Mozart compose his Requiem as he lay dying in his bed, which was fairly accurate. Salieri even finished Mozart's Requiem (Mozart himself only completing the first movement, but leaving notes for the next 8) at the request of Mozarts widow.
@@Lv-nq9qz "but ends with Salieri furiously helping Mozart compose his Requiem as he lay dying in his bed, which was fairly accurate" That is a fairly inaccurate description of BOTH the movie and the actual relationship between Mozart and Salieri ;) In real life, the only collaboration between Mozart and Salieri was a set of Cantate. In the fictional movie, Salieri tries to have Mozart compose a requiem so to steal the result. You can read more here: www.requiemsurvey.org/composers.php?id=559
F. Murray Abraham was brilliant in this film.
So was Tom Hulce. Every bit as good IMO as Abraham.
In every film I've watched......
I read he had done a fruit of the loom underwear commercial before he got this part...he was a struggling actor for a long time...he was perfect for the part.
Cause he's a fucking pro there's a lot of character actors that don't get as much attention as the stars but are often far better
@@rontiemens2553 The vacuous emperor should have got an Oscar too.
"I actually composed some variations on a melody of yours...a funny little tune, but it yielded some good things." Boys and girls, this is called 'foreshadowing.'
I love how the dichotomy between competence and genius is portrayed in this piece.
It illustrates to the layman how complex and layered Mozart’s music really was.
"The rest is just the same, isn't it"? That saying perfectly describes most of today's music.
@Delon Duvenage What's stopping you?
@Delon Duvenage PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DENIGRATING "MUSIC OF THE DAY," FOR CENTURIES.
Neva' eh's Natas it describes most music, period, you bitter fossil.
@@lowellcalavera6045 WELL, WHAT AN UGLY REMARK....
If there was an audience for better music there'd be better music. People get the music they deserve. If you want smarter music you're no longer with the main stream so you need to make an effort to find it yourself. It's out thee. Just not popular or "successful".
This movie is a pure masterpiece
I played this scene to a group of students. At the end, one kid was like, "So which one was Mozart?"
🤣🤣🤣
Hello from royal County Meath Ireland 🇮🇪 which one is Mozart 🤣
@@royalhilltararanger3947 The correct answer is neither. It is a film 😄
😂😂😂
Classic
4:57 did we....?
"Slowly gives him the stare"..
That part always cracked me up
Me too lol
This scene is very interesting but something that’s not often pointed out is the fact that although Salieri’s march is simpler than Mozart’s transformation of it in Non piu andrai, it’s actually much more appropriate to his audience. Salieri certainly intended for the Emperor to play it or at least study it, and with his skill level not being that great as is evident from the clip, giving him a modest but quite pleasant piece for him to be able to play to satisfaction is the best move rather than something vivid but likely to cause only frustration and embarrassment. It’s not simply Mozart humiliating Salieri here by being a “more skillful composer”. While being technically good, Mozart shows how little sense he has in society just through his playing, parallel the rest of the scene. Just thought I’d share this viewpoint to those of you who may not have interpreted this part of the scene this way, even though it only cements what we already know from the rest of the scene of course.
Very well your analysis......
Its not his fault he was far too prodigious for his own good...
One becomes too advanced in technicality and forgoes simplicity...
Less sometimes is more perhaps..
@@michaelwordlaw2605 Quite brainy but totally plausible. I buy it.
very good analysis, an example of his non-beginner friendly pieces would be the piano sonata k545, which he intended to be for “beginners”
But the emperor wasnt suppost to play it right? He just asked if he could. I think Salieri was suppost to perform the march.
Salieri couldn't openly insult the Emperor by pointing out to Mozart that it was intentionally simple so he to play it.
"Bring in Herr Bueller, but slowly, slowly. I need a minute to practice"
Well played, Sir.
😁😁😁😁👍👍👍👍
Pianoforte: "duh duh duhn."
Mozart: "bahahahaha!"
Still cracks me up every time!
@dbltrplx makes me laugh too. Every single time.
Wait you Are me
Oh dear god there’s twos of you!!!!🙀
Egon Music it’s actually a harpsichord, not a pianoforte/fortepiano.
Especially because you can see Habsburg flinch haha
"The familiarity of the superior embitters--because it cannot be returned." --Nietzsche
Haters gonna hate
I actually think the original had a bit of tension in it that was appropriate for commemorating the arrival at court of an artistic genius. It was perfectly unresolved.
I love at toward the end when the guys outside the room hear the nex music and look in the room like "whoah"
except that had not been written just yet, but I bet wolfie could play it with the best of them. he could dplay anything
and then he would probably take angel of death and improve it somehow lol
Yeah, you know it's great music when people start huddling around just to hear it.
I love how the Emperor just tosses out "my sister Antoinette." It makes you feel bad for him; he had no idea what was coming―either for her or for himself.
this isnt the real emperor this is an actor from a motion picture
Joseph didn't get the chop, as his sister did. He died of TB.
@@slavemonkey5063 Marie lost her head , but by this time she had been estranged from the Austrian court. Joseph tried hard to reform Austria and Hungary but suffered from a very stubborn nobility and arrogance from the Hungarians and Prussians. He died a natural death (of TB) but it was disappointment and heartbreak that really killed him. This stubborn reactionary element of Austria would lead to its decline as a power, with Napoleon and then Prussia advancing their societies and stomping on the Austrians. By the time of WW1 the Austrians had finally tried reviving Joseph's reforms but it was too late and they are now a small shell of what they used to be while the Germans and French are literally leading Europe.
He didn't say he was.
No wonder Austria went to war, it's not just the ideological reason as most mention but imagine having a sister you grew up with and they kill her, you'd feel pretty bad especially if you have power answerable to your rage. And besides the funny thing is that it was France that declared war on Europe including Austria first.
Amadeus didn't defile Salierei's march, he completed it.
That's one way of looking at it, but I'm sure Salieri saw it differently.
I mean, it's like, I'm not defiling your comment, I'm just completing it (for you).
Since the variation by Mozart was not a march anymore, he can impossibly have completed a march. He completed a variation in completely different style based on the melody of a Salieri's march.
@@u.v.s.5583 "too many notes"
@@MusicTennis There you have it! Too many notes. (Yawns) We think we will turn in and have a nap now.
@@mydogskips2 Yeah, it's still incredibly condescending. Just like those tumblristas who "fix" other artist's work.
From a musical note he did a concert! ^,^ This is for me the best movie ever made.
I love this scene because it captures Mozart's character perfectly. He got himself into a lot of trouble on many occasions just by being himself.
I like how the Emperor gave a little startled "jump" when Mozart laughs at the very end. (You can see his hands holding the music in that final frame.) I wonder if that was scripted, or if the actor was genuinely startled.
Genuinely, in my opinion......
I noticed that too. In the emperor's defence, that is a most unsettling laugh! :)
However, even with Mozart and Salieri's rivalry for certain jobs, there is very little evidence that the relationship between the two composers was at all acrimonious beyond this, especially after 1785 or so, when Mozart had become established in Vienna. Rather, they appeared to usually see each other as friends and colleagues, and supported each other's work. For example, when Salieri was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788, he revived Figaro instead of bringing out a new opera of his own, and when he went to the coronation festivities for Leopold II in 1790, Salieri had no fewer than three Mozart masses in his luggage. Salieri and Mozart even composed a cantata for voice and piano together, called Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia, which celebrated the return to stage of the singer Nancy Storace"
Läs mer
Dystop Misantrop nice Intel. Im happy people are doing research and not having some misguided hatred for Salieri simply because Hollywood put their spin on it.
He had to be a prick to Mozart to establish his character in Last Action Hero.
That is extremely interesting. Thank you.
The play upon which this film is based is in turn based on the story of Cain and Abel. It is only passively influenced by the lives of Mozart and Salieri.
Hard to say really. It is possible that the two had a "falling out" and Sal decided to hatch his plot to "do in" Mozart.
Now, this is...improvisation. Mozart knew and appreciated the power of improvisation! You don't have to follow the score, note-for-note, all the time, you can create new things, new patterns, explore new territories. To all musicians, don't be afraid to try new things on the piano. Don't just 'follow the notes' all the time. Through this, you also learn the power of composition.
So, this is the second time one of Salieri's "funny little" tunes yielded some good things.
Saw this at the theater when it opened. Loved it and have seen it many times since. This is my favorite scene in movie filled with memorable scenes. Thanks for posting!
Unforgettable scene from a film that contains not a single forgettable scene. :-)
Agreed! One of my favorite scenes in the movie.
@Alexander Arsov, except for that one scene where...I can't exactly remember what it was about. Just kidding--agreed, that movie was awesome and earned every award it received.
I love this movie so much. F. Murray Abraham's performance still gives me goosebumps.
One really human aspect I miss in the comments:
There are hundred thousands of musicians on our planet in REAL life doing everything to be great musicians, really everything (Salieri).
And there are geniuses that have just got it (Mozart).
It`s brutal and extremely tragic for the Salieris. I am really sorry for them.
what if (and hear me out) there's no real difference btw the quality of the music between the "Salieris" and "Mozarts"?
what if it isn't "brutal" so much as "random fuckery"??
There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn, nonetheless, for the latter.
Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Address to the Faculty"
(from the game Alpha Centauri)
@@leandrotami "Well, there 'tiz !!"
. : .
@@op3129 I do not follow you. You posit the "what if" but it fails because there is a very noticeable difference between Mozart's music and Salieri's. At the same time, Salieri was a master of the craft and wrote excellent music. This movie downplayed Salieri's mastery and made him appear trivial. He was not. He was, however, a musician of his time. His music reflects his time. Mozart, on the other hand, wrote music that continues to appeal to most listeners today. Even though it is in the classical style it still impacts the modern listener is surprising ways. Nothing random about it.
Mozart understood music and it was very much part of him. It flowed from him in ways that most of us can never understand. That "talent" though was more a curse than a blessing.
It should also be mentioned that Salieri and Mozart were not enemies even though they were sometimes rivals. Salieri did recognize Mozart's genius and helped Mozart when help was needed. Salieri did invite Mozart to have his music performed at subscription concerts with him when Mozart was unable to secure such concerts on his own. This was one way of helping with finances.
Well yes I agree somewhat with you, prodigy talent is somewhat frowned upon in the modern school system. Lets say a saxophone prodigy joins a marching band, he obviously gets put in to a "section" and the way the system works is the one who learns the quickest/plays the best/leads the best gets the position of "Section Leader". You'd think the prodigy would get it, but the prodigy learns so fast that there is nothing else to learn, and just gets it from the beginning. The band teacher has no idea what to do with him so he gives the title to someone else who isn't a prodigy and learns at a slower pace. Yeah, I know the system is screwed up. I've seen it happen many of times throughout my band career.
funniest parts of scene
--------------------------------------------
1:40 blocked out
1:48 peeking through guards
3:35 how everyone stops smiling and stares at him smiling
6:03 the smile and how the other guy plays along with everything the director says
6:55 salieris joke
7:03-7:15 mozarts descripton XD
7:15 the dudes laugh and the directors stern "shut up" glare XD
8:14 his fake smile
8:26 "that doesnt really work does it?"
8:56 how everyone crowds around the room
9:04 how salieri looks around nervously
9:29 dun dun dun
9:31 the emporor jumps when he laughs
9:32 salieris face
Hahaha I love all these scenes xD and 7:17 is funny too, how the guy in blue looks at the laughing one 😂
Grazie signore
1:39 perfectly in sync with the music
Autism
Refers to one of Salieri's compositions: "A funny little tune..." OUCH! Total burn!
That laugh has got to be the most famous in ALL of music/movie history.
"It's full of proper German virtues!" I love the way Mozart tries to sell it!
Beer bratwurst boobs
I have watched this movie fragment like 15 times already, and can't get enough of it!
14? 16?
Mozart did actually ask Marie-Antoinette to marry him, when they were both children. It'd be a different turn of events entirely.
Wait she wend with the chad emperor instead of the aspergery artist damn
Of course her name then was Maria Antonia Hapsburg...her mother was Maria Theresa Hapsburg, Holy Roman Empress.
Richie Beck Impossible. Mozart was merely a musician who played at courts and he wasn't of "royal lineage" . The royal families all intermarried between themselves - mostly for ulterior reasons such a military alliances and beneficial trade. As talented as he was during his own time Mozart was but an "entertainer" for the royal courts and no emperor would have allowed his daughter to marry a "commoner" which is what Mozart was to them. He neither had any political influence nor any great wealth which might have enticed the emperor to consider him. The royal families took the marrying with their own kind to extremes (which led to inbreeding and nasty illnesses).
In the highly unlikely event this still happened somehow... well, Marie Antoinette gets disowned by her own family and if she's lucky her husband will just be banned from performing at the Austrian court. Not sure he would have made much of an impression in "Italy" (not a country per se until 1861) considering they were highly critical of any non-Italian calling himself an artist of any kind or whether the equally arrogant French would have been much kinder. A different turn of events? Indeed, because Mozart might have left a significantly smaller imprint in history and Marie Antoinette would probably have been forgotten completely. She is know for losing her head you know as much as the Titanic is famous for her sinking.
@@McLarenMercedes - I don't think Riche ever suggested that such a marriage, as suggested by a naive child (my cousin and I, at that age, were flummoxed when our parents told us that cousins couldn't get married), was a realistic possibility. He's just mentioning that her eventually marriage path cost her her head.
Anyone who’s ever struggled with composition, this movie is so perfect for you. ThereMs having natural talent and working your ass off, and feeling pretty great about yourself, but when you meet a true prodigy, it’s profoundly beautiful and shameful. You realize there’s levels to everything. One of my favorite movies ever, and I’m a DIY punk dude.
"The rest is just the same isn't it?"
"Proceed to turn it into Relic" xDD
I read somewhere that Prince saw this movie about a thousand times, and I could understand why. He could easily empathize with Mozart and Rick James was just like Salieri.
I don't know which interpretation is better Mozart's or Salieri's. On the one hand Mozart's interpretation is riddled with pretentiousness, and Salieri's version is simple and modest. They are both excellent in their own unique way.
The Salieri original is trite. Mozart turns it into the captivating march from the finale of Act 2 of "Marriage of Figaro". Schaffer, the playwright, planned it that way.
The opera mozart composed as a result of this fictitious meeting is called “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and is definitely worth listening to. AND...my understanding is that Franz Orsini-Rosenberg really liked (and supported) Mozart.
And the music they're playing is actually "non piu andrai" from Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro.
"The rest is just the same, isn't it?" Aw, Wolfi... You're doomed.
Yes. How to win friends & influence people.
@@derycktrahair8108 😉 The irony is that Mozart will regard Salieri as his only friend until the very end, unaware of what really happened.
@@vincentmutel7313 not irony, it's Rule 1 on a job interview (ie, don't be smarter that the Boss....you'll get your turn when you're the Boss).
Salieri was a working Musician. Mozart up staged him & made an enemy. What really happened? Lesson = even a genius can't get away with being a smart ass.
I am not doomed let's face it the rest is just the motherfu****ing same!
Best scene from the movie. How a genius can transform a boring piece of court music into something truly magnificent.
The laugh makes the whole scene hilarious
Mozart was made to appear very over-the-top in this film, but Mozart actually did this stuff. The role of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte was created for da Ponte's mistress Adriana Farrerese del Bene, who apparently was very full of herself. She had a habit of dropping her chin on low notes and throwing back her head on high ones. Mozart filled her showpiece aria "Come scoglio" with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make Ferrarese's head "bob like a chicken" onstage.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had a music history teacher who talked about how Mozart was super childish like this and one time was asked to write a piece for a duke or something he didn't like, so he wrote out the entire thing, entered the duke's office, and threw all the sheet music everywhere and walked out. If that's true, this is my favorite person in all of human history.
Mozart once wrote a serious song about farts.
Definitely one of the best movie scenes of all time.
They both player their parts so well! One of the best scenes in the movie!
I love the smaller details that did with Mozart. I know this film isn't 100% fact, so I'm not speaking historically, but in terms of the movie they made Amadeus into this sort of "classical rockstar" during his era. He's extremely relaxed and far more casual than he should be around those who are more "regal" than he is. Even his fashion sense and wigs are far out there in comparison. People react to his music like older people reacted to rock music back in the day, saying it's too loud or it has too much going on for a pleasant song.
Mozart is a party animal from the 1700s
F. Murray Abraham's performance in this movie is so memorable and strong. He deserves even more accolades. Man was brilliant in this film.
One of the best films of the 80's and another masterpiece by Milos Forman. He just had an incredible knack for perfect casting, tight stories, great lighting and master's sense of TEMPO in directing his actors for great editing. All his films ooze that special feeling, whether it's Cukoo's Nest, Man on the Moon or Amadeus... they just flow perfectly and hold your attention all the way through. It's a shame so many films today are caught up in CGI and impossible stunts with break neck editing. To me the slower the film the more savory.
As I side note: In the 90's I was working a temp job in Tower Record's classical department and who came to the register but... Tom Hulce. He plopped down a ton of CD's and after entering the last one into the register, I told him the amount which was something like $370. He playfully said, "That's too much." I quickly swiped his American Express Card and shot back: "That's too bad." We both laughed. He was super nice.
Love those rumbling riffs in the bass at the end of Mozart's improv....
This is probably my favorite scene in movie history.
This was a perfect blend of great music, acting and story line which is the making of a great movie and this is one of the greatest.
Understandable. The Baron does look more stately and dignified than the Emperor himself. :D
The Baron was one of Mozart's greatest admirers.
The actor portraying the Baron is my uncle
I think there must be at least one visible painting or statue of the Emperor somewhere around the Imperial Palace, lol.