Ironically this movie actually sparked something of a revival of Salieri's music; he'd been largely forgotten but performances and recordings of his music increased dramatically after its release.
@@ChescoYT No link, I heard it on the NPR radio station. The classical hour is managed mostly by music students, and one of them put together a compilation. I'm pretty ignorant of classical music, though I like it a lot. I really didn't know much about Saliery except from the movie. So it was a surprise.
I can only remember seeing a live performance of a Salieri concerto once. I only hope that it was just a piss poor effort by the conductor because it was about the most boring piece of classical music I've ever heard.
Tom Hulce (Mozart), has said in interviews when asked about the irritating giggle he used for the film, that he has never been able to produce that sound again. He doesn’t know why, he just can’t.
More likely he can but tells people he can't to avoid getting asked to do it all the time, Imagine sitting at a table at a nice quiet restaurant and some nob at the table asking you to 'do the laugh'
Salieri was married, had tons of children, was a faithful Catholic until his death, he didn't hate Mozart and he was a great teacher. He was almost the opposite of the character presented in the movie. (I still love the movie very much.)
Salieri was Franz Liszt 's composition teacher. Free, because Liszt and his father was very poor. Liszt wasn' t go to the Conservatoire, because he was foreign. And Cherubini was the boss... Very bad composer
@@christrontherobot4100 That's good to know. I don't care if I'm missing music so long as it's not commentary (there have been a few instances of silence from some of these videos. Nope :( it does cut off commentary (I guess due to the music in the background). Either TH-cam are just dicks about this or it's a clever ploy to convince people to sign up to Nebula (on that site the video plays the commentary audio with the musical background)!
I didn't find out until after I'd seen it that this movie was made in fucking 1984. It looks like it could have been made in the last decade, easily. An absolutely timeless masterpiece.
not really, the quality of the video and audio is clearly outdated, as well as the camera movements, which are typical of the 80’s. You know those slow and long shots that aren’t very common anymore. It’s clearly a movie from the 80's
One small detail that you forgot to include in the video is that Mozart and Salieri where so amicable towards each other that Salieri was the music teacher of Franz Xavier Mozart, the son of Amadeus.
Imagine though, how sad it might have been for Salieri. Franz was only 5 months old when Mozart died. Imagine teaching the son of your brilliant friend, ow deceased, and seeing that while the son does have talent, he is nothing compared to his father, your old friend.
It was later determined that Mozart’s son Franz finished his renown in finished Requiem Mass that he never finished when he died, and under the direction of Salieri 🤔
Salieri and Mozart even composed together on at least one occasion, and Salieri also taught Lizt and Louie Van B. That movie got so much wrong, but it was amusing.
The scene of Salieri beautifully internalizing Mozart's music from notes on paper alone is wonderful. The ability to do that in the age before recorded sound is incredible to me.
Some have brain failures that allow them to memorize things much easier. I say failure because it's not healthy nor normal. But it does allow you to do some cool stuff without wasting time.
If a kid hears they are going to watch a movie about Mozart, they'd probably imagine it being boring af. Then they watch this amazing gem. Happens everytime
Steven Spielberg decides that he wants to make a movie about famous composers. He puts out a casting call. Tom Hulce walks in first and says, "I played Mozart in _Amadeus_, and would love to play him again." Next, Gary Oldman calls. "I was Beethoven in _Immortal Beloved_, so I already have experience playing the part." Arnold Schwarzenegger meets with him, and states, "I'll be Bach."
I love the scene where Mozart's mother in law is yelling at him and the scene transitions to the Night Queen Aria from "The Magic Flute". I had to pause the movie to laugh a good five minutes the first time I saw it. Edit: wow 1.7k likes, that's pretty crazy, thanks everyone. And to Tarsantino, learn to have a sense of humor, don't spoil other people's fun. I still think that Scene is hilarious!
If that scene gave you anything more than a chuckle you're dumb. If you actually had to pause and laugh your ass off for five minutes, you have some form of disability.
@@TonyTars it's a great transition and a funny scene, seems you're the dumb one who doesn't understand that humour is subjective - and that not everyone has to share your sense of it!
@@Eirikr69 He phrased pretty crudely, but he isn't wrong. Five full minutes of maniacal laughter is not an adequate response to a humourus transition between scenes.
Something often overlooked: Mozart's wife Constanze was a trained, talented musician in her own right and many people believe she played an important role in her husband's career.
@@crazycat482mozart's reputation no doubt was helped- but Mozart is such a genius it would have been remembered as one of history's best composers no matter what
@@SirBrass You are absolutely wrong. To fully understand and appreciate Mozart’s music (and any serious composer of his time) takes musical education and some effort. His main target audience and supporters were aristocracy and upper middle classes. Some of his output had popular appeal, but most could be fully appreciated only by playing it.
Mozart was a rock star in the same sense as Philip Glass or Leonard Bernstein. The portrait in the movie was made to make him accessible and understandable to punk music aficionados.
"Amadeus" was one of several films that inspired me to study opera, and Mozart's vocal pieces remain some of my very favorite. "Zauberflöte" was my first opera and what can I say? I was enchanted to say the least. I read about Pushkin's play and the rumour that plagued Salieri before his death, I'm glad someone took the time to make a video essay about it. This was lovely, thank you for sharing!
"Amadeus" is quite a clever movie. It's not meant to be a biography of Mozart. It's a story told by Salieri who went crazy and now has to tell the story from his perspective. If you consider that, the story is naturally biased. On the surface it looks like Salieri never gets any recognition and Mozart is the all-loved genius that gets so much praise. That's because Salieri is the narrator of the story. What we actually see is something completely different: Salieri is highly respected by everyone and the emperor prefers his work over Mozart's. Mozart is the eccentric oddball nobody respects and even though people acknowledge his talent, they always look down on him because of his weird humor and crazy antics.
Good points re: Salieri's unreliability as a narrator. However, the point is made in the play (not quite so much in the movie) that it wasn't fame or renown that was the issue. In the play, Salieri points out that he was more famous, more acclaimed, certainly wealthier than Mozart...but it was no consolation to him, because he KNEW that all this acclaim was for work he knew to be inferior...and he was the only one who realized it.
That also makes sense that in his dementia addled mind, perhaps the rumours of his hate for Mozart affected the recollections of events, when he clearly supported mozart and his son, he doesnt remember that element of his life. As if the made up story of a deadly rivalry overrode the true events driving him to suicide.
@@IronicSonics Well, it's confirmed that Salieri claimed to be responsible for Mozart's death although he wasn't the masked man. So I think it's possible that he indeed forgot that he used to be on very good terms with Mozart and supported him. Instead he came to believe they were enemies. Who knows how Salieri came to this conclusion. My guess is that he was envious of Mozart's talent but never gave into this feeling and instead was good friends with him. Mozart's death certainly had an impact on him. And when his dementia became worse, he mixed everything up and came to believe that he killed Mozart because he was controlled by envy and bitterness.
I loved that silly ass giggle...my fav parts of the movie. Side bar: Abraham stole EVERY scene he was in. His scenes describing Mozart's compositions were breath taking.
manco82 “All right! All right, big man? You wanna make some big bucks? Lets see how tough you are. Do you know something 'bout cocaine?” -Antonio Salieri
I love this movie because it’s very entertaining, and while most of the stuff about Salieri is is made up historical fiction, particularly the fact that he killed Mozart, he DID actually claim that he did it in real life when he was a senile old man in his late 60s-70s in a mental institution. Since this entire story is being told as a confession to a priest by an elderly and senile Salieri in a mental institution, it’s very plausible to interpret Salieri as a very unreliable narrator in the movie. You could just assume that these are just mad ravings of a broken, demented, and senile old man. That’s why the movie works. It also helps that the music is lovely and the two leading actors do a great job with their roles. Still, there is SOME truth to the story, particularly in regards to Mozart’s characterization, family, and backstory in the movie. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart WAS a musical child prodigy who wrote his first composition at five, his first symphony at 8, and his first full scale opera at just 12 years old. They weren’t just simple little little melodies that you would expect from a five-to twelve year child. They were beautiful and complex melodies. His father Leopold was a composer who DID take his son under his wing to teach him everything he knew about music, and toured Europe with him to show him off when he was just a little boy. Leopold Mozart really WAS a rather controlling, disapproving, overbearing, and overprotective parent in regards to the personal lives of his children, even when they reached their adulthoods. Not only did he disapprove of Wolfgang marrying Constanze Weber and moving in with her without his consent first, but he also tried to sabotage his daughter Maria Anna’s marriage too. While probably not as boastful and impolite in public as portrayed in Amadeus, in real life, Mozart really WASN’T always this modest and humble prodigy either. He knew his music was amazing, but a lot of his contemporaries really DID think that there were “too many notes” in his music and thought he was trying too hard to sound impressive. In his letters to and from his father in Vienna from the 1780s, Wolfgang DOES come across as being a conceited and delusional brat towards the Italians in Vienna by unfairly accusing them of forming “cabals” led by Salieri to actively sabotage his attempts to establish himself as a composer there. The letters suggest that Wolfgang, Leopold, and Nanneral resented the Italians for their special place in Austrian courts, considering the fact that they were Austrian themselves. This resentment that Mozart had towards Salieri probably originated from an incident in 1781 when Salieri got the job to be the music teacher of Princess Elisabeth of Würtemmberg instead of Mozart because he had a better reputation as singing and piano instructor. While I do think Mozart WAS a better composer than Salieri, though Salieri was pretty good at composing, too, Salieri was a better music TEACHER than Mozart was in Vienna at the time, so he got the post instead. If there was any evidence of ridiculous jealousy and resentment between Mozart and Saleri, it was actually on Mozart’s side in real life, not Saleri’s. Even then, Mozart still got along with Saleri in public, and never tried to sabotage him, or put him down as a musician. He and his family were just venting their frustrations in private letters about Wolfgang struggling to establish hims as a successful composer, musician, and music teacher in Vienna. However, like his attitude in public in the movie, there definitely IS this sense of arrogance, boastfulness, and pettiness in his and his family’s ridiculous accusations of the Italians secretly plotting to sabotage his success in Vienna. So, while not nearly as overt about it in public as he was portrayed as being in the movie Amadeus, Wolfgang really DID low-key have somewhat of an arrogant and narcissistic side to his personality at times. While Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart DID make a pretty good living as a composer in Vienna for his family and himself, he really WAS a spendthrift, who found himself in debt a lot quickly afterwards because he spent too much money on himself, his wife, and their son, so he went around begging his friends and contemporaries for money when he ran out. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart really DID have a dirty low brow sense of humor. He loved potty humor and sex jokes so much that he even wrote a three part choral piece called “Leck mich im Arcshe” (“Kiss My Ass”) as a joke for a party to sing with his friends. However, in real life Mozart wasn’t THAT much of an alcoholic, overtly obnoxious and arrogant, or a party/frat boy. He was much more introverted, he was capable of being mature and polite when he needed to be in public in comparison to how he was portrayed as being arrogant and rude in public with the Emperor and the rest of the court in Amadeus. While an extremely gifted composer with superior technical skill as a musician in real life, even child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music compositions went through several corrections and revisions in real life. It is NOT like in Amadeus in which Saleri claims Mozart just wrote down whatever he heard in his head on blank sheet music perfectly in tune every time with “no corrections,” “like he was just taking dictations.” That’s a superhuman ability that even most geniuses aren’t capable of. Considering the fact that the story in this movie is primarily being told from the POV of an elderly and demented Saleri, who believes that Mozart had this superhuman superiority as a composer in comparison to him and other composers when he is in a mental institution, it is completely probable that he is exaggerating the strength of Mozart’s skills as musician and composer as better than they actually were. I’m not saying that means Mozart’s music isn’t amazing or that he wasn’t a genius. Mozart *was* a prodigy, who showed his genius in music from the time he was a preschool-aged toddler of 3 years old. Along with Beethoven, Mozart is still considered the greatest and most popular of classical composers in history over two centuries after his death for a good reason, but he still was a human being. He made corrections/revisions to his scores when composing his music, just like any other composer. There also isn’t any evidence that Salieri killed him out of envy and resentment. There’s more evidence that they actually were supportive of each other in real life, who openly admired each other’s work. Salieri also wasn’t this extremely devout Catholic in real life, who vowed to remain abstinent throughout his life to God in exchange for the ability to become a great composer and musician. In fact, he had a wife and several children. There is little to no evidence that the young opera singer Caterina Cavileri, who was singing the lead role of Konstanze in Mozart’s German opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, actually ever had an affair with Mozart, as Salieri believed he had in Amadeus. Even in the movie that assumption that Saleri made is iffy at best because there’s really no reason to not believe that Caterina could have just had unrequited feelings for Mozart. He genuinely seems shocked when she made that “I bet she’s great in bed” comment about Constanze, even when she’s not there to hear them, and throughout the rest of the movie, Wolfgang’s completely devoted to Stanzi, so it would be pretty out of character for him to have an affair with a singer in an opera he just met. I think Saleri was probably just misinterpreting the whole conversation out of jealousy. In real life, there’s actually more evidence that Salieri had an affair with Caterina Caverleri than Mozart. While there are truths to real life here and there, particularly with Mozart’s character, the writers of Amadeus also definitely made Salieri much more austere and conservative than he actually was in real life. There’s no legitimate evidence to prove that Salieri actually killed Mozart. There’s no evidence that Salieri ever sexually harassed Constanze Mozart to deliberately humiliate her when she asked him to commission his music, so he could get revenge against her husband for presumably having an affair with Caterina Cavileri. Peter Shaffer definitely exaggerated Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s arrogance, alcoholism, childishness, obnoxiousness, and vulgarity by making him be much more overt and over-the-top about it in his adulthood, so that they could give this version Salieri a reason to despise him so much that he would want to kill him in the play. The real Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart truly did seem to possess arrogant, immature, and silly personality traits that carried into his adulthood from his letters. He really did enjoy making low-brow sex innuendos/jokes and toilet humor well into his adulthood. According to descriptions of his laugh in the writings of his friends, it really did sound like “the braying of a jackass” and as “grating a cobblestone down a piano’s strings.” Tom Hulce likely played up Mozart’s laugh as even more hilariously obnoxious in the film than it was in real life for the sake of making the character his own and fueling Salieri’s annoyance. I think the real Wolfgang Amadeus was likely a lot more low-key about his arrogant and buffoonish manchild side in real life than he was portrayed as being in the movie. If he were really as openly arrogant, childish, obnoxious, and rude of an adult in real life as he was portrayed in Amadeus, I very highly doubt Mozart could have been able to get commissioned to write operas in Vienna by Emperor Joseph II at all, no matter how amazing his music was.
@@Ava-cy6qw I don't get it. Are you dissing the accuracy of what he wrote in this post or saying that too much info/facts gets in the way of creating a concise, approachable narrative like the one in the movie?
Thanks very much Ernest! I try my best during my research. It can be difficult with only having a few weeks to do it. But thank you for validating my work. :)
History Buffs Wow that Salieri vs Mozart part was ironic. Salieri taught Beethoven but Beethoven's musical hero was Mozart, not only that, Beethoven was more skilled in music than Mozart (not my opinion, go look it up on the internet).
Actually, one cannot really say that either Beethoven or W.A. Mozart was more skilled than the other. They were different, like any two individuals are. Beethoven had to struggle to produce his works; we have many of his surviving sketchbooks which show how he worked and reworked every theme, every movement. Mozart tended to be a natural, effortlessly composing, although we now have some of his sketchbooks that have been discovered more recently. Mozart's challenges seemed to have been in more mundane things, such as money management. Beethoven, on the other hand, left a sizable estate when he died. They were both great musical geniuses, and the world is better off for both of them having lived, but to say one was more skilled than the other is just not something that can be proven or casually posted on the internet. Please do not believe everything you read there.
I am curious to know where on the Internet you learned that Beethoven was more skilled than Mozart. Unfortunately, people who do not know any better will read your post and take it as fact.
Yes, Tom Hulce did deserve an Oscar, but F. Murray Abraham was also incredible as Salieri. Besides, Salieri was the main character of the movie, not me.
Historically, yes, the Salieri vs Mozart thing was complete fiction, but in the context of a standalone film, it makes a wonderfully compelling story of a man who tries to do good becoming possessed by his worse nature. For who WOULDN'T be mad if they poured their heart and soul into something just to have it be overshadowed by someone just coasting along? That bit about Salieri having dimentia is also interesting, as the entire film is told from his point of view as this ailing old man. Who knows how much of it is true, and whether or not he is subconsciously believing the rumors himself?
Rellik165 the reason I think the movie portrayed Slieri vs Mozart is in the movie is because Salieri was jealous because Mozart just outclassed Salieri with his natural talent and gifts.
Yan Air No they're not saying whether Salieri's dementia was fictional or not, they're saying that the movie may have been him mis-remembering things due to his dementia.
That is true, but I also think the writers of the movie were trying to emphasize just how much of a brilliant young composer ahead of his time Mozart was with his very boppy, complex, improvisational, experimental, and flowery music to contrast it with the more easy, predictable, and safe classical music Salieri composed that Emperor Joseph II, the kapellmeister, and the others in the court of Vienna appreciated more. The only reason why Salieri appreciated Mozart’s talent in this movie is because he was a composer who knew amazing music when he saw it and heard it. They presented Mozart’s music in Vienna like a generational clash between Millenials and Boomers. Here comes this brilliant, self-confident, and young composer with this fresh bright, colorful, and complex take on classical music compositions that most of his middle-aged and elderly colleagues and employers have never heard of before. Additionally, most of them aren’t professionally trained classical composers, just very wealthy men in powdered wigs with high positions in aristocracy, who like music that’s pretty and soothing to listen to, so a handful of them criticize it for having “too many notes” and trying too hard to impress beyond his abilities.” While most of them admit that they LIKE Mozart’s music because they can obviously recognize that it’s lovely music composed by a bright young man with fresh ideas, most of them don’t really APPRECIATE it since it’s too experimental to their ears…Well, ALMOST every one of his elder colleagues and employers in Vienna can’t appreciate the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the movie with the exception of Antonio Salieri, who’s also a classical composer by profession just like him who has lived, breathed, and studied classical music long and hard enough to clearly admire and recognize the superior ability and talent of another composer. Of course, Salieri’s whole conflict in the movie Amadeus is that he’s bitterly jealous over the fact that he can’t achieve Mozart’s level of genius since he grew up misguidedly believing that he had to repress his desires, impulses, and passions in exchange for God to grant him the ability to be an amazing composer of classical music. Most of his contemporaries enabled and encouraged that more easy, people-pleasing, and repressive straightforward attitude and style in this fictional version of Saleri’s music from his own POV by praising and honoring it as amazing work… That is until he met Mozart and heard his complex and experimental fresh take on classic music that made it sound even better than it had before. Rather than taking a page from Mozart’s technique by trying to be more experimental, honest, and free in his approach to his compositions in classical music, the Saleri from Amadeus directs his blame and rage at God and Mozart, becomes bitterly and murderously jealous of Mozart’s talent, and secretly plots to steal work from Mozart to make it his after indirectly encouraging him to work himself to death on a requiem. Yet, throughout the movie, he continues to play things safe, do things by the book, repress his desires in public, and gives the general public what they want to hear when it comes to composing music for them because it’s been so ingrained in this fictional version of Saleri for so long. At least until the end when he writes music with Mozart.
@@deanjustdean7818 He lived to 75(seemingly well above average at the time, presumably partly due to his wealth), so probably not for Salieri. He didn't look especially old in the role though(the actor himself wasn't much older than the character), it was just that the Mozart character was portrayed as much younger than he was.
One of the greatest details of this movie has to do with Mozart's giggle. It's fantastic, and fits what was written about him at the time, that he had an incredibly irritating laugh. But the amazing thing is that it wasn't _Hulce's_ giggle, but _Mozart's._ When Forman was editing the finished footage and got to the end, he realized he needed another laugh from Mozart. So he got Hulce to come in and record one, but they found he could no longer do the laugh. He'd lost it when he'd left the character, so Forman had to mine one of the laughs from earlier in the film. It was a mannerism that belonged only to the character. I find that fascinating.
I find fascinating that Mark Hammill was playing Amadeus in theaters and wanted to audition for the movie, but Milos didn't want big celebrities distracting from the story. Imagine Amadeus with the Joker's laugh.
??? My friend Kelly worked with Tom Hulce when he was starring in Kramer's "The Normal Heart" in London, and although he was probably sick and tired of being asked to "laugh like Mozart," he was perfectly able to do so, and occasionally would, if asked.
Im pretty sure that I saw another film with Tom Hulce where he has the exact same laughter. I was surprised. I thought to my self. "Ok so Motzart's laughter in Amadeus is simply Tom Hulce's laughter".
Also, Mozart was only like 6 years younger than Salieri, so while the age gap works great for the film (experience vs natural skill, etc) it puts a lot more of a difference between the two than there actually was.
Yeah the quote(that I don't really remember but will now paraphrase), "while I was playing childish games, he was playing for kings and emperors, and even the pope in Rome!", shows that they were pretty much peers in age.
I learned about mozart's scat fetish around the time this video came out but to see a choir of school children sing about it...is disturbing to say the least, like what was that school thinking... Amadeus is a great film about a great man regardless none the less pushing music forward. There as never been a great artist who wasn't outside the norm of society.
The Catalan text shown behind is not the translation. But I think they must understand something of what they are singing. Someone must speak german among all of them.
I am one of those hardcore Mozart fans, I’ve been playing his music since I was 12, and I love the portrayal of Mozart in this film. I really think it’s close to accurate. He was a bonafide genius but with most geniuses they have serious character flaws. I can’t imagine having a childhood like his. It was written that when his father realized this God given miracle in his son he had a duty not only as a father but as a teacher to share it. Hence the years of touring Europe with short breaks home from age 5 to 17. But through all that he composed over 800 pieces of music in his short 35 years of life. Mozart’s music is still fun and challenging to play, and his Requiem always brings me to tears.
@@teresagardiner153 I don't see it as one sided, I think the writers and Tom Hulce really made a complex character for this film. Over the top at time yes, but in context they had to portray years of Mozart's life in a 2 hour movie. We know he like to spend money on elegant clothes and wigs, he liked to play practical jokes on his friends, his surviving letters show he had a vulgarity about him, he would spend hours isolated working on pieces and was extremely devoted to his work. I think it would be foolish to say that he didn't suffer from bouts of depression, some of his music is almost evidence enough of that. Only 2 of his 6 children survived infancy, basically no one in either family approved of his marriage to Constanze and we know from letters his father's death was a big blow to him. He was described as a devoted Catholic, wrote many religious pieces, and the movie only touches on that a little bit with his Requiem Mass. But personally I think they did a good job portraying his character in Amadeus.
Why does everyone always forget this, this is a story being told by a man who just tried to kill him self this is all built up in his head this is his version of the story from his view at his lowest.
This is exactly the point I made recently in a review I wrote after re-watching it. Salieri is an unreliable narrator, the story (as shown in the film) is only as true as Salieri thinks it is.
This is even clearer in the play on which the movie is based. Salieri begins the play by summoning "the ghosts of the future" (i.e., us -- the audience) and inviting us to observe his play "The Death of Mozart, or: Did I do it?". Everything that happens onstage, therefore, springs straight out of this (fictional) Salieri's mind; the Mozart character we see is the one which Salieri had written into his play-within-a-play. Of course, this is also true of the movie (where everything we see is actually a story that Salieri tells the Priest); but it's even more palpable in the play.
@@AlbinovSK I read somewhere that Shaffer was also inspired by the Faust myth, except here it's a bargain with God, rather than Satan. This is in addition to, not instead of, the Cain-and-Abel aspect.
Christoph Joachimbauer There also the fact you can very easy say the movie is about a man who for years hated Mozart reflecting how he saw the man. Making the film unreliable
Of course, all the inaccuracies can easily be explained due to the format of the movie's storytelling: It's Salieri, old and withered, living in an asylum and potentially suffering from dementia (assuming he isn't just misremembering things). It's entirely possible that IRL Salieri adored Mozart as a friend but harbored some envy that, in his elderly dementia, caused him to believe he'd actually hated him all along (and IRL Salieri did, in fact, make the claim, though it's obvious to anyone familiar with reality that he was suffering from dementia rather than being actually guilty of anything).
I could not move from my seat when I first saw this movie in the theater in 1984. I was drenched in tears but felt joy and also haunted. I’ve never experienced that kind of emotion from the movie before and never experienced again to this day. Timeless classic at its best.
yes, the music is so overwhelmingly beautiful and human and deep, full of deep understanding for the human nature... it frees your heart and takes it on a trip to heaven. mozart's music has the magic power to speak directly to the centre of the human soul. (when i was young i began my musical journey with beatles and janis and doors, delta blues, rock n roll. today i'm listening to music from all around the world, still love and listen rock music for many hours daily, but i've also become a regular and enthusiastic visitor of the opera. i need music in my life to feel good, it's a longing for beauty that becomes ever stronger as i grow older.) regards from austria.
If you don't understand German you will never grasp the amazing feeling when you are visiting family abroad, they take you to a school perfomance and it's proudly proclaimed that the choir will now sing "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber" by Mozart. I couldn't bear the whole session as i broke out in laughter and draw the attention of all the proud and angered parents. My uncle joined in though, once i had enough breath to explain the situation to him. :,D
Another misconception in the movie is that Mozart's wife, Constanza was just his landlady's daughter. She was, but her maiden name was Von Weber-she was the composer Carl Maria Von Weber's cousin, and a classical vocalist. It was a Music Business Marriage.
Her family was not "von" but just plain Weber. Wolfgang originally fell in love with Constanza's elder sister, Aloysia, but when she declined his proposal he moved on to Constanza. It is also worth noting that Constanza's sister Josepha was the original Queen of the Night. He wrote two of the most difficult arias ever composed for her because she could hit high F.
I might also note that while Wolfgang lay dying he was aware that Die Zauberflote was then being performed, and he remarked something like, "Now Josepha is singing her F in alto."
I work in a food importing warehouse, every holiday season we sell tons of those Rebel Mozart chocolates. And every time I look at that picture of him on the wrappers and wonder “What the hell is he smirking about?”
He was a flirt, but he was extremely faithful to his wife. He also did not have a rivalry with Salieri. Salieri did not assist him with the Requiem. Much of the movie is based on the myths.
@@whistlerwind7422 Thank you. Both the play and the movie really push the "rebel" image. They also work overtime to make Salieri seem as stuffy as possible. Never mind that Salieri *did* have a mistress, while Mozart did not. Mozart also refers to Salieri as a friend many times in his letters, mentioning how much he appreciated it whenever Salieri attended one of his concerts. There was some professional rivalry-court appointments don't grow on trees-but they also liked and respected each other as colleagues.
You know that's really kind of sad. To not only be wrongly remembered for killing a friend, but wrongly remembered for having hated your friend enough to do it.
No way. This script is a masterpiece! I'd find it hard to believe that Salieri who was an artist himself wouldn't have absolutely loved it. He likely would've been honored. Besides the majority know that this story is fictional.
Evian Things I would definitely cast doubt on the "majority know that this story is fictional" thing. Most people tend to accept dramatized history as "that's how it actually was" even though experts know better. You see this kind of thing with military history *all the time*, but a perfect music history example is Bach's popular Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114. It wasn't actually composed by Bach. It was composed by Christian Petzhold. Any serious pianist or music historian knows this, but practically any sheet music book or casual performance of the piece will credit it to Bach instead because most people think he wrote it. Decades of misattribution and the fact that no one knows who Christian Petzhold is while everyone knows Bach means that publishers and performers tend to stick the well-known name on there to appeal to people.
You’ve got to wonder how the Academy had to choose between those two since Hulce and Abraham were in contention for Best Actor of 1985. Course the Academy did great in honoring F. Murray
@@lilliedoubleyou3865 I saw that, too. I was blown away by how Suchet transitioned from old Salieri to young Salieri by changing his stance and removing his cap and robe. The set was amazing as well, and could there be a better theater for it than The Music Box? It's such a perfect jewel box. Plus we got to meet Mike McShane before the show.
Holy shit. Once the choir started singing it took me 2 seconds before the lyrics sank in (I can speak German) I 've been laughing my head off for a good 15 minutes now.. No words for it, absolutely no words.. Tears down my face.. I just can't stop laughing.. Thanks Mozart.
Holy shit. Only after reading your post about you being german did I go back to that part and watch it again. Totally didn't even pick up the first time that they're singing in german.
I can't believe the AFI took this film off the 100 greatest American films list. It's easily one of the best films I've ever seen and it never gets old.
As an artist, I love how they showed both sides of creativity. The feeling of being a creative genius and the utter hatred of self when hearing someone else create an undeniably beautiful song or work of art.
The casting of F. Murray Abraham was PERFECT. Not so much for his exquisite acting--which it certainly was, and he definitely deserved the Oscar for it--but because, up until that movie, he had been typecast as a criminal, a drug kingpin, a thug. His role in Scarface cemented him as that type. So when you watch Amadeus, you're not only watching a gifted actor play Mozart's rival, you also see that evil streak, the sinister underpinnings, and you believe that he actually could have murdered Mozart.
Don’t forget Dar Adal in Homeland. He’s just 💋👌🏻 perfetto! The guy who runs black ops and WILL bite the hand that feeds him if it suits HIM, while always claiming a higher, deeper purpose for all his actions to justify everything he does. He’s complex, and you can forget you dislike Dar as quickly as you can forget you like him. It’s a role I’m not sure would be as good with any other actor.
Perfect except for one thing: Abraham looks about a generation older than Hulce. Mozart's and Salieri's age difference was only about 5 years. Some of the dialog in the early part of the movie suggests Salieri always knew about Mozart, but because of their apparent age difference I wanted Salieri to hear about this budding prodigy, the kid Mozart, after he was already an accomplished composer.
I actually think the whole casting was interesting... the “safe” play would be to cast English actors for aristocratic European court life, but they deliberately chose American actors and it shows that an American need not be an impediment to a period drama such as this. The great tragedy was that both F Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce were nominated in the same category for Oscars and only one could win...
Mozart is not seen as a genius for his childishness... He is seen as a genius for his composing... No wonder you are sent to the Principal when you totally didnt get it.
pqsnet Lighten up. I think he got the point. He’s not claiming to have the talent that Mozart. I think a larger case would be that if someone is rich and famous, they are able to get away with things that ordinary people cannot. I’m not so much speaking of getting sent to the principal’s office, but in criminal cases, and how if you are famous and/or wealthy, and can get a very good defense lawyer, you have a MUCH stronger chance of getting away with a serious crime, or avoiding prison time. And in that sense, in the modern time, he’s got a point.
Consider that until Amadeus both the play and the movie Salieri was mostly forgotten so in a strange way due to this slander he and his music lives again.
I actually knew a guy in high school that lapped very similarly to how Tom Holce laughed in the movie. He was a very nice guy and actually quite big for someone his age. At 17 he stood 61, and wait about 280lbs. So to imagine a guy that big and to have a laugh that sounds so much like that always blew my mind. Then I watched this movie a few years ago and instantly thought about him. There laughs are so similar it's spooky. And he didn't do that for shits and giggles, that's really how he laughed.
Amadeus is one of my favorite films-i cry my eyes out starting with the part where Salieri is pushing Mozart to finish the Requium , till the end "mediocrities of the world, I absolve you." It is a brilliant and perfect masterpiece. Your review was outstanding! So so interesting. I've seen Amadeus a thousand times and always wanted to know. Thank you so much.
Fun fact, it's actually been debated whether humor like Mozart's was just the standard for that time in history, as other letters from his family and completely understand related persons contain similar foul humor
I agree that the scene with Scalieri discussing Mozart's work is one of the best in cinematic history. I think the film was great. I also appreciate the thorough nature of this documentary. Very well put together. New subscriber.
One thing to remember about "Amadeus": the story is told by an old man who has psychological problems, he is a textbook example of an unreliable narrator. Those looking for total historical accuracy from Amadeus will be disappointed, but I think the inaccuracies are excusable.
'Amadeus' was never intended to be an historical documentary. Peter Schafer made it clear that he had written a 'what if?' story. I don't know why this video is necessary.
It's necessary because, in spite of what you said and what most who bothered to do their research know, a majority of people who either saw one/both of the Amadeus films or only received a weak lesson of Mozart's life still have an inaccurate ideal of Salieri to this day (and Mozart himself, to a degree). The video's aim isn't to condemn Amadeus for taking creative liberties with history, because they obviously still had to tell an engaging story. But they wanted to use it as a springboard to highlight a man who was likely Mozart's friend and supporter, not his murderer.
would be interesting to a more true to live movie and the main angel is this guy is a self destructive rock star with a net work of enables and those trying to help him Salieri would be a minor character but one of those trying to help him.
tomc8888 I am glad I am not the only one who sees the movie that way. Old Salieri was telling this to a priest while in an asylum for the insane, after attempting to commit suicide at the beginning of the movie. The unreliability of the narrator is totally understandable in a case like that, and it's how I enjoy the movie despite the factual errors.
No doubt, but it's incredibly important that Hulce played Mozart exactly the way he did too The movie wouldn't have worked if everyone was trying to win an Oscar. As a side note, funny how no matter how brilliantly you play a miscreant (Hulce) you won't get an Oscar.
Richard Frank as Father Vogler did a wonderful job with the reactions to Salieri's story. Watching his descent into misery over the course of the movie is just soo good.
Thank you for actually saying the things the film gets right. It’s much more accurate than people give it credit for, particularly Salieri’s love for Mozart’s music, the attention to detail with Mozart’s pieces and the dates which they were composed, and their public friendship. In fact, the entire film is told by Salieri after he loses his mind and the rumours that he killed Mozart actually made him believe he killed him. So in actually, Salieri is confessing what he believes he did to Mozart after he went insane. This interpretation not only adds historical accuracy but adds another layer of genius to this film.
if i get too deep into mozart it brings me to tears. its always been like this. his music connects perfectly with my heart. its sublime and surreal at the same time. rarely does an artist touch anyone so deeply. his understanding of harmonic balance and the use of passing tones and chromatics is unreal. he switches modes and tonic and key anytime he wishes for any reason he does it perfectly. i can't listen it disables me emotionally.
This is my favorite movie. :D Our 6th grade Music teacher had us watch it and most of the other kids thought it was boring. I fell in love with Mozart’s music that day. The OG rockstar.
@@Cejafer If you have to utilize this somewhat unfitting comparison, then the best would probably be Tesla. A genius, but his actual fame only blew up long after he was dead.
Feel like Part 1 could've mentioned that his Sister was a vital part of the family 'prodigy' rounds during their childhood. Nannerl was a prodigy in her own right and would frequently confer with Wolfgang Amadeus about his music after reaching adulthood. Once she reached adulthood sadly she was subjected to the familiar trappings of a woman in the Baroque period. She became a music teacher but even that was only because of her family name. Tragic really.
Perhaps, but the movie was mainly about Wolfgang. I know what you mean about Nannerl, his mother, father and other relationships. I own an extensive biography of Mozart in my own library. A book can explore much more than a movie of course.
Almost always, a child prodigy is just someone who is remarkably good as something....for a child. As they age, they don't continue to be remarkable, and their peers catch up to them. Many get depressed and leave their fields. Wolfgang was quite the anomaly. His sister's life is not an unusual one for someone in her position. I wouldn't consider it tragic, but just a fact of life. Nobody is entitled to their dreams, unfortunately.
@@sitcomchristian6886 prodigies also seem to just burn out quickly. my chinese wife often commented they'd see some up and coming virtuoso on some kind of instrument, and a decade later where are they??? athletics is like that, even speech and debate competition. as you age, others physically mature, or simply want it more. it was easy in high school: now have a few athletes do their military duty and come back in age 22 and give you a basketball @tonsilectamy. and you're surprised. it was such an easy ride in HS. you even smoked just before the track meet race got underway. Now go to college and do something stupid like that, you get the field pounding you.
Its also super common to make Hollywood biopics that are completely different from reality. I actually read a book by someone who claims to have done past life regressions and found out that Mozart was actually poisoned by his wife so that she could be with another man. Hmmm. They should make a movie about that!
True. But who knows just how much of our history is skewed, exaggerated, or outright lies from rumors, propaganda, or even just piece of fiction or a joke being taken too seriously. How much of the truth is forever lost in the memory hole. Makes it a little terrifying to imagine how we'll be remembered 200 years from now in the public eye.
Mozart was a man of duality and contradiction. His maturity was stunted by his being a young phenom. When he moved from Salzburg to Vienna in 1781, his family felt betrayed. Mozart had to live without his beloved sister Nannerl, who turned against him through her fathers influence. Mozart was troubled by his families estrangement from him. Wolfie had written to them repeatedly, asking them to join him in Vienna. His hopes for a happy reunion were repeatedly turned down. Mozart's psyche was one of multiple-complexities in the last eleven years of his life. I loved the movie and Hulce was very entertaining in his portrayal. But, Mozart was a much more complex man than Hulce's depiction of him. He definitely suffered from depression and was often ill. Yet he had a deep soul, partied like a champ and took on the burden of being the breadwinner at home. He wrote music at an astonishingly fast rate for every genre. His greatest works were literally pouring out of him in those last 11 years. Works of astounding quality. He and his wife did squander money but they lived quite comfortably for the times. He would go out of his way for his fellow musicians. He allowed a friend to live rent-free in his home until he found another place to stay. Stanzy was not too happy about that. They could have used the extra income. As for the vulgarity, I have read all of those letters. He loved wordplay and a good joke. Most of them were written when he was a boy and young man still living in Salzburg. Lustful witticisms that were often answered back by an equally lustful female counterpart. He would never have been so rude as to write such things without a game penpal who relished the thrilling naughtiness of it all. They were harmless flirtations. He was also a math wizard. He had a brilliant intellect. In Vienna, he was described by a close friend as being a man who was often lost in deep thought but generous to his freinds. He did not suffer fools gladly but he had a good heart. I do urge people to seek out the real Mozart. He was a fascinating individual and much more interesting than the freakish, somewhat simple-minded depiction of him in Amadeus.
Thank you so very much for taking the time to explain this, I found it incredibly interesting. It’s difficult to know for sure what you see in movies or read in articles/books is in any way accurate so I’m always grateful to have input from others ☺️ although I loved the movie I felt they really didn’t show him in the best light they could have, I too felt there was far more to him than just a crazy drunk genius... Love to you from Scotland ❤️🏴
@@leighirvine Thank you so much for your kind words. I have read some acclaimed biographies about Mozart. I actually read through Maynard Solomon's "Mozart: A Life" three times. Solomon dug into Mozart's psyche a bit more than most authors. He always backed up his viewpoint with a sound explanation. Any good biographer worth their salt does a tremendous amount of historical research. Solomon certainly did his, putting in many years of gathering information from historical resources. "The Mozart Myths" by William Stafford is another interesting book that examines the 'plausible truths' about Mozart's life and times. So much has been sensationalized. It's a fascinating read and at 280 pages is not too exhaustive for some people to dive into. And of course, listening! The music is the reason for all the interest in the first place. It's wonderful stuff. Thanks again for your post. It's much appreciated. Take care!
The boys in that choir of kids would definitely be cracking up (no pun intended) if they understood what they were singing. Also, WHY ARE SCHOOLCHILDREN SINGING THIS?
For a sec I thought u were quoting the movie Friday "Oh I'm hurt! Oh my neck! My back! My neck and my back! I want $150,000! But we can settle out of court right now for $20."
Thank you so very much for pointing out the similarities of personality in Mozart and MJ. So few seem to recognize the devastating effects of being denied a childhood, especially on a genius!
Oh, how sweet you talk about Salieri, and the final scenes you put with Salieri's composition almost made me cry :) you made him justice with this video!
To be fair, or at least precise, *the film never depicts Salieri as having poisoned Mozart*. His actual plan is far more dastardly and takes longer, breaking Mozart down psychologically and thus weakening him more and more physically, to the point where he dies of a combination of alcoholism, chronic insomnia and burn out. In Salieri's narrative in the film, *God actually gets the blame*/credit at the end (by this point the priest looks like he wants to die) for killing "his own beloved" (i.e. Mozart) rather than allow Salieri to share in Mozart's glory. And thank you for choosing one of my favourite pieces by Salieri to pay him the credit that the historical Salieri deserves! :)
You really didn't think Salieri was to blame? I was never taken in by his blaming god for a moment. He was a smug old lunatic taking advantage of a younger man's insecurities to get a petty revenge, something he was clearly angling for from that first _"Are_ they?" One of the things I find compelling about the character is his meanness, the reality of his petty smallness of mind. He's wonderfully drawn, as is Mozart's annoying, petulant brattiness and ham-handed naive egotism.
At no point did he say Salieri was not to blame ("His actual plan is far more dastardly..."). But yes, like all other gods invented by human twisted imagination, Jehovah is a complete son of a whore.
Honestly, the actor playing the priest did an awesome job. He looks absolutely gutted and haunted by the end of Salieri’s story. It doesn’t even matter if the priest truly believes that Mozart was “sent by God”... he’s mourning the innocent man that Salieri just admitted to setting up for early death. He looks at Salieri like he’s never been in the same room with such evil before.
@@Serai3 « His actual plan is far more dastardly and takes longer, breaking Mozart down psychologically and thus weakening him more and more physically, to the point where he dies of a combination of alcoholism, chronic insomnia and burn out ». See above.
Always remember the old saying, “Talent without training is like silver in the mine.” Very few people are born with the kind of genius Mozart or da Vinci presented in their life. It may seem overwhelming to have to measure ourselves against them, but it may be best if you measure yourself against yourself. Every day, ask, “Am I better than I was yesterday?” Work hard, keep at it, and do right by yourself. Genii are born every day, but people with genuine dedication are far rarer.
Salieri was not mediocre by any standard. He was a highly respected composer whose works are still performed today. Mozart's reputation was elevated by skilful marketing employed by his widow after his death.
Amadeus is one of the most perfect movies I have ever seen. Aside from some ahistorical elements (which are necessary to the excellent story), it's literally without flaw.
@@nextlifeonearth Chill man. The most this video claims is that Mozart was kinda silly/dirty minded; not that it was his day to day personality. There's even an explicit disclaimer saying as much before that segment of the video. 4:25 The letters are just meant to show that silliness was at least some small part of his personality, and it likely would have shone out to others around him at some point (even if only occasionally).
@@nextlifeonearth As far as the movie's presentation of him goes, we already know these are heavily reinterpreted renditions of all of the historical figures involved. And also keep in mind, Salieri in the movie is an unreliable narrator. He could very likely just be hyper fixated on a few perceived instances of carefree silliness in Mozart and projecting that personality onto all his memories. In fact there's an interpretation of this movie where all the narrator's memories have been significantly skewed through the combined influence of hindsight, old age, mental illness, and subconscious biases from few isolated incidents. Consider the scenes establishing their first meeting: Salieri building up this image of Mozart in his mind only to stumble onto his private conversation with a woman (and the letters at the least establish IRL Mozart could be dirty in private). That initial juxtaposition can leave an impression in the back of Salieri's mind and color his memories and perceptions in the future. Again, especially when considering "present" Salieri is now old, irrelevant, an mentally ill. This would possibly even affect Salieri's memory and perception of himself. Perhaps the bitterness, victimization, and sense of mediocrity he describes as he recalls these events was non-existent at the time they occurred (or at least subconscious). And as many of his caretakers suspect all along, Salieri's claims to have attempted to murder Mozart may have been retroactive fabrications of his mind. Basically this interpretation posits the story of this movie is an old senile man having embellished memories that match his perceived narrative in the present - God laughing at his life's efforts through Mozart. I think it elegantly handles a lot of problems some people have with his movie.
@@IronicHavoc I don't have issues with the movie, except that some people actually think the portrayal is legit. This video implying he was somewhat like that, but was exaggerated, is an understatement. The man had humour, an indication of a smart man. Those letters don't rule out his actual behaviour was the exact opposite of the portrayal.
I saw this movie when it came out in a huge, grand old style theatre in toronto. I was blown away by the acting, direction, photography, and art direction. I was blown away by F. Murray Abrahams performance. Sheer genius. He could convey a thought , in a simple lifting of an eyebrow or twist of the mouth. Absolute acting genius.!!
There's a part at the end of the film where Salieri tells the priest that his music "grows fainter" as the years pass while mozarts music remains well known and lives on. That much is true. I never heard of Salieri until I saw this movie. Now, I'm not and never have been a player, composer, or even a fan of classical music. But when I was a kid, I was best friends with another kid who lived about 5 or 6 houses up the block from my place. He was a child prodigy classical pianist. He could play it all and very well. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Liszt, Chopin, etc, you name it. Many was the time I'd be hanging out with him at his house when he'd call a time out and go to the grand piano he had in his living room to do his daily practice for an hour or so. As a result, I have heard of great composers such as Mozart, but still, I never heard of Salieri because as to the best of my knowledge, my friend never played Salieri. Not even once. I'm not even sure if my friend himself even knew who Salieri was.
Tippet76 I’ve read that Solieri & Mozart was close colleague who admired each other’s work greatly; in fact Soloiei’s Oprah was thought by Mozart to the best Oprah he’d ever heard.
IRL Salieri, in his old age, did in fact suffer from dementia and claim he killed Mozart. It's entirely possible to adore someone genuinely while also harboring envy towards their talent. And when the brain stops working right, subtle emotions like that can come to the surface in a huge way; combine that with failing memory and you've got a perfect storm of issues that can drive a man like Salieri to suddenly change his tune and genuinely believe he thought and felt and acted in a way contrary to reality.
Cojocari Ilarion I know... but if you took the time to do some research about Amadeus, you would realize that it was originally a stage play and both Mark Hamil and Tim Curry both where on broadway In the role of Mozart.
@@Cheesefist They considered having Mark Hamill reprise his stage role, but the executives in their infinite wisdom thought that audiences would only see Luke Skywalker. As much as I enjoy Tom Hulce's performance...I'd have liked to see Mark's.
As far as I remember he was also inspired by Claude Rains's laugh from his performance in The Invisible Man (1933) which makes sense since it sounds eerily similar to Mark Hamill's Joker laugh.
@@jenniferschillig3768 It would have been interesting, but I see where they are coming from, it could have been a George Reeves situation with him. (George Reeves was the original TV Superman, in case you where curious)
I love AMADEUS--it's a profoundly moving experience. It has also made Salieri famous again, and some of Salieri's music is on the AMADEUS soundtrack. He's also a vital character in the movie, the center of dramatic conflict, and it's not only Mozart's music but the dramatic conflict that makes this movie such an emotional experience. I'm glad that the real Salieri didn't live in such agony, though!
Despite the movie's black-guarding of Salieri, I actually saw him as a very tragic anti-hero, especially compared to Mozart, who was a nominal hero at best. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how great his music was, no matter how much more wealthy he was than Mozart, he felt a pang of dread in his soul: Mozart would be remembered, and not him, and Mozart wasn't even trying. In his mind, it was as if God were holding some sort of grudge against him. Mozart's success was seen as an affront not just to a good work ethic, but also to his very own faith. Salieri saw everything wrong in the world in Mozart: an immature fool who nevertheless held amazing talent, and this allowed him to coast by on life with zero effort. So much for "if you work hard, life will reward you."
Well, he is describing movie!Salieri's point of view and while movie shows effort that Mozart puts in his music, Salieri in the movie is oblivious to that and thus all the more bitter for it.
Yes, I was referring more to Salieri in the movie; him and Mozart were friends in real life, or at least much more friendly than the movie portrays. Movie Salieri is a tragic anti-hero. Also, I don't think the amount of work Amadeus puts in would matter even if Salieri had recognized it; the fact of the matter is, he was so out of Amadeus's league that the hard work he put in, even if greater than Amadeus, wouldn't have mattered, which, yeah, I would resent such a thing too; I believe that people should be compensated for hard work, even if they aren't terribly good at it. Nobody starts out being a master of something. It was also a matter of Amadeus being an irresponsible man-child as well whereas Salieri was probably under more scrutiny, as evidenced by him having to convince the King to pick him over Amadeus.
10:00 so basically Mozart was raised like Michael Jackson was. Both had fathers who lived vicariously through their sons and dedicated their entire beings to grooming them for greatness at the expense of any kind of normal life. Edit: I wrote that before getting to that obvious comparison he makes.
@@sphinxrising1129 if you are using that documentary made by the 2 men, who's parents and lawyersLITERALLY bribed them to lie at the jury, admitted that they lied years later, and then LIED again for a few more hollywood money. you're no better than Salieri. also the fact that Many people in California wanted Michael out, since he was becoming too powerful to the point of even buying capitol and build his own studio, and the fact that he owned Half of Sony's shares. the day when the DoJ opens the black box of the Music Industry will be insane, its literally Goodfellas on Crack.
Anthony, um Mozarts dad didn't torture his kids, or abuse them. He was demanding and controlling, but never brutal or hurtful. His actions were based on a love of G-d.
@@Bitterman5868 you forgot that Jackson had tripwires inside his labyrinthine house which beeped in his bedroom. Several children also accurately described the guys (Jacksons) penis
So Salieri technically took part in the composition of one of them most revolutionary symphonies of Romanticism, Ode to Joy, by teaching the composer how to write for voice (which is a major part of the symphony)?! Where's mediocre in that?!
I find Salieri to be a sympathetic character in Amadeus. The worse thing he does is from a deleted scene, which in my opinion is out of character, so I agree with it being taken out. Other than that, all evil hapens inside his head, and we all are guilty of evil thoughts. His actions reflect the admiration he has for Mozart's music. After he debuts his Opera, he receives glowing reviews from the Emperor, but all he cares about is Mozart's opinion. He sneaks in to the theater every time Mozart''s music is played. He commisions a Requiem, hoping to steal it after he dies, but has no real plan to kill him. Above all, Salieri is he only man who understands the magnitude of the gulf which separates his merit and talent from Mozart's incredible genius.
Just watched the Director's Cut last night. Yup, I dont remember seeing those boobs as a kid when I first saw the movie, but really admiring Stanzi's cleavage in those push up dresses.
+william lydon so Mozart arguably the biggest musical genius in history would've liked Jack and Jill, Little Nicky, and 8 Crazy Nights which are arguably some of worst movies ever made.
The Confutatis scene is the best piece of film about music ever created. It's a master class on how orchestral music is put together, and the acting is brilliant. What most people don't know is that Abraham actually lost the thread of the scene at one point and had to get it back. (The bit where he gets confused about the identical notes.) But he's such a great actor that he managed to keep it together and USE his confusion to make the scene even better. And here's another thing hardly anyone ever thinks about: there IS NO MUSIC PLAYING in that room. The music is all in their _heads_ as they're talking - that room is completely silent. Imagine how the scene would have played out if there'd been no score there, just the two of them arguing tiny little technical details. It would have been incomprehensible to anyone not a musician. But add the music and suddenly it all makes sense, and that moment when Mozart pauses with his hand in the air and then brings it DOWN to start that incredible, glorious flood of sound is flabbergasting. Hell, I get goosebumps every time I hear it!
Of course, this scene is also one of the least accurate in the film: in reality, Salieri had nothing whatsoever to do with the Requiem. But that in no way detracts from its brilliance as a piece of historical fiction. Most historical plays, novels and films are a mixture of fact, speculation and outright fiction; while it is interesting to compare them with the historical facts, insofar as we know them, what ultimately matters, I think, is how well they work *as fictional narratives*.
@@ugolomb For gods' sakes, talk about missing the point of my comment. But hey, you get to feel good about pissing on the scene, so that's all that matters, right?
@@Serai3 You didn't read my comment, did you? I didn't piss on the scene at all. I just said it's historically inaccurate, and then said that fictional narratives shouldn't be judged for historical accuracy. That doesn't mean that it's wrong to point out where they depart from reality; these are two separate issues
Loved the video. Mozart was practically my best friend with I was very young. I knew who Mozart, Beethoven, etc. were before I knew anything about rock music. The first time I saw “Amadeus”, I got so angry to see my childhood “friend” treated that way. However, I rewatched it several years later after having read the play at which point, it became one of my favorite movies with my absolute favorite soundtrack of all time. I even went so far as to record the audio of the entire movie to use as a full cast audio book years before that became a “thing”. I would love to see a video about how similar or different Beethoven’s life was from “Immortal Beloved”.
Ironically this movie actually sparked something of a revival of Salieri's music; he'd been largely forgotten but performances and recordings of his music increased dramatically after its release.
Yes, NPR did a series of Saliery's pieces, and it was the first I had heard them. He was no Mozart, but they were beautiful.
@@Hollylivengood got a link?
@@ChescoYT No link, I heard it on the NPR radio station. The classical hour is managed mostly by music students, and one of them put together a compilation. I'm pretty ignorant of classical music, though I like it a lot. I really didn't know much about Saliery except from the movie. So it was a surprise.
@@Hollylivengood tnx for your response! :)
I can only remember seeing a live performance of a Salieri concerto once. I only hope that it was just a piss poor effort by the conductor because it was about the most boring piece of classical music I've ever heard.
Tom Hulce (Mozart), has said in interviews when asked about the irritating giggle he used for the film, that he has never been able to produce that sound again. He doesn’t know why, he just can’t.
The spirit of Mozart possessed him maybe
Dunno why I find that hilarious.
I think if you get asked non stop to giggle like him you will get annoyed and start lying
More likely he can but tells people he can't to avoid getting asked to do it all the time, Imagine sitting at a table at a nice quiet restaurant and some nob at the table asking you to 'do the laugh'
@@gperrin9050 "Do the roar"
Salieri was married, had tons of children, was a faithful Catholic until his death, he didn't hate Mozart and he was a great teacher. He was almost the opposite of the character presented in the movie. (I still love the movie very much.)
He also teaches piano for children, for free.
You got it all wrong it’s supposed to show his mind what others can’t see
Most importantly: He didnt plot killing Mozart.
Salieri was Franz Liszt 's composition teacher. Free, because Liszt and his father was very poor. Liszt wasn' t go to the Conservatoire, because he was foreign. And Cherubini was the boss... Very bad composer
But Mozart really was a genius. Salieri is grey.
I find it ironic that a video about a movie about a music composer should be plagued with sound problems.
They aren't sound problems, its probably censored for copyright
@@christrontherobot4100 That's good to know. I don't care if I'm missing music so long as it's not commentary (there have been a few instances of silence from some of these videos.
Nope :( it does cut off commentary (I guess due to the music in the background). Either TH-cam are just dicks about this or it's a clever ploy to convince people to sign up to Nebula (on that site the video plays the commentary audio with the musical background)!
Even the last part where he praises Salieri?!
I thought the silence was on purpose
@@pjrslater I watched this before and it did have sound for all those scenes.
I didn't find out until after I'd seen it that this movie was made in fucking 1984. It looks like it could have been made in the last decade, easily. An absolutely timeless masterpiece.
that’s what i thought! if i knew that some of these actors are in their 50’s/60’s now i’d swear this was like 2016
Smitty yeah , it Definitely look like a 90s film even early 2000s. Everything about Wolfgang is Times
Yea i was think this made in 2005 or year near
1984 was an EPIC year for movies. That Amadeus won best picture speaks more during that year than normal.
not really, the quality of the video and audio is clearly outdated, as well as the camera movements, which are typical of the 80’s. You know those slow and long shots that aren’t very common anymore. It’s clearly a movie from the 80's
One small detail that you forgot to include in the video is that Mozart and Salieri where so amicable towards each other that Salieri was the music teacher of Franz Xavier Mozart, the son of Amadeus.
Good one. I didn't know about this one myself.
Imagine though, how sad it might have been for Salieri. Franz was only 5 months old when Mozart died. Imagine teaching the son of your brilliant friend, ow deceased, and seeing that while the son does have talent, he is nothing compared to his father, your old friend.
@@badrm9175 why do you think that?
It was later determined that Mozart’s son Franz finished his renown in finished Requiem Mass that he never finished when he died, and under the direction of Salieri 🤔
Salieri and Mozart even composed together on at least one occasion, and Salieri also taught Lizt and Louie Van B. That movie got so much wrong, but it was amusing.
The scene of Salieri beautifully internalizing Mozart's music from notes on paper alone is wonderful. The ability to do that in the age before recorded sound is incredible to me.
If youve ever tried to learn to read music too...ffs its hard.
it's one thing to hear a single part, but all together? to do so on that level is not as easy as reading music.
One of my friends was able to figure out when I showed him really well known pieces like from Star Wars and I was super impressed
Some have brain failures that allow them to memorize things much easier. I say failure because it's not healthy nor normal. But it does allow you to do some cool stuff without wasting time.
Beethoven composed music while deaf. It's not difficult for a genius. For them it's like reading a poem silently.
If a kid hears they are going to watch a movie about Mozart, they'd probably imagine it being boring af. Then they watch this amazing gem. Happens everytime
I had to watch it twice in grade school; the only thing that really stuck with me was the laugh. XD I really should watch it again.
Both my boys watched it when they were young teenagers. They both loved it.
Plus titties
Ive been a mozart fan since childhood
And they conclude it to be utterly boring and go back to watching Harold Lloyd shorts
Steven Spielberg decides that he wants to make a movie about famous composers. He puts out a casting call.
Tom Hulce walks in first and says, "I played Mozart in _Amadeus_, and would love to play him again."
Next, Gary Oldman calls. "I was Beethoven in _Immortal Beloved_, so I already have experience playing the part."
Arnold Schwarzenegger meets with him, and states, "I'll be Bach."
Go right ahead. It's one of the few jokes of mine that even my wife finds funny. ;-)
Lol!!!! :3
This comment deserves way more likes.
David Loewen Good one m8 :D
nice
I feel like Squidward is loosely based off of Salieri
Just what I thought just what I thought
Holy shit
and Mozart is like Spongebob.... Even an annoying giggle to boot..
@@AirRice wasn't there also a scene when spongebob went on stage everyone cheered him? Then when Squidward went on they all were silent. lmao
That makes so much sense
I love the scene where Mozart's mother in law is yelling at him and the scene transitions to the Night Queen Aria from "The Magic Flute". I had to pause the movie to laugh a good five minutes the first time I saw it.
Edit: wow 1.7k likes, that's pretty crazy, thanks everyone.
And to Tarsantino, learn to have a sense of humor, don't spoil other people's fun. I still think that Scene is hilarious!
Mr. Animation omg me too 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Mr. Animation 😂😂😂😂😂
If that scene gave you anything more than a chuckle you're dumb. If you actually had to pause and laugh your ass off for five minutes, you have some form of disability.
@@TonyTars it's a great transition and a funny scene, seems you're the dumb one who doesn't understand that humour is subjective - and that not everyone has to share your sense of it!
@@Eirikr69 He phrased pretty crudely, but he isn't wrong. Five full minutes of maniacal laughter is not an adequate response to a humourus transition between scenes.
Something often overlooked: Mozart's wife Constanze was a trained, talented musician in her own right and many people believe she played an important role in her husband's career.
She was the one to popularize Mozart's work after his death. Who knows what wpuld have been of Mozart if she hadnt married him
And his sister was as talented as he was.
@@crazycat482mozart's reputation no doubt was helped- but Mozart is such a genius it would have been remembered as one of history's best composers no matter what
Everyone forgets his sister, too. She was also a major player in his success.
Yeah. No.
I thought they portrayed him like a rock star, which made perfect sense to me.
That's exactly what they were in their time.
@@SirBrass You are absolutely wrong. To fully understand and appreciate Mozart’s music (and any serious composer of his time) takes musical education and some effort. His main target audience and supporters were aristocracy and upper middle classes. Some of his output had popular appeal, but most could be fully appreciated only by playing it.
Mozart was a rock star in the same sense as Philip Glass or Leonard Bernstein. The portrait in the movie was made to make him accessible and understandable to punk music aficionados.
Come and rock me, Amadeus
"Amadeus" was one of several films that inspired me to study opera, and Mozart's vocal pieces remain some of my very favorite. "Zauberflöte" was my first opera and what can I say? I was enchanted to say the least. I read about Pushkin's play and the rumour that plagued Salieri before his death, I'm glad someone took the time to make a video essay about it. This was lovely, thank you for sharing!
"Amadeus" is quite a clever movie. It's not meant to be a biography of Mozart. It's a story told by Salieri who went crazy and now has to tell the story from his perspective. If you consider that, the story is naturally biased. On the surface it looks like Salieri never gets any recognition and Mozart is the all-loved genius that gets so much praise. That's because Salieri is the narrator of the story. What we actually see is something completely different: Salieri is highly respected by everyone and the emperor prefers his work over Mozart's. Mozart is the eccentric oddball nobody respects and even though people acknowledge his talent, they always look down on him because of his weird humor and crazy antics.
love your take on it!!
Good points re: Salieri's unreliability as a narrator. However, the point is made in the play (not quite so much in the movie) that it wasn't fame or renown that was the issue. In the play, Salieri points out that he was more famous, more acclaimed, certainly wealthier than Mozart...but it was no consolation to him, because he KNEW that all this acclaim was for work he knew to be inferior...and he was the only one who realized it.
I never really thought about that. Damn that makes me love this movie even more.
That also makes sense that in his dementia addled mind, perhaps the rumours of his hate for Mozart affected the recollections of events, when he clearly supported mozart and his son, he doesnt remember that element of his life. As if the made up story of a deadly rivalry overrode the true events driving him to suicide.
@@IronicSonics Well, it's confirmed that Salieri claimed to be responsible for Mozart's death although he wasn't the masked man. So I think it's possible that he indeed forgot that he used to be on very good terms with Mozart and supported him. Instead he came to believe they were enemies. Who knows how Salieri came to this conclusion. My guess is that he was envious of Mozart's talent but never gave into this feeling and instead was good friends with him. Mozart's death certainly had an impact on him. And when his dementia became worse, he mixed everything up and came to believe that he killed Mozart because he was controlled by envy and bitterness.
I loved that silly ass giggle...my fav parts of the movie. Side bar: Abraham stole EVERY scene he was in. His scenes describing Mozart's compositions were breath taking.
Me too!
Omar Suarez, this garbage was identified to me as an informer for the police.
mimine too excellence!
Absolutely agree. I seriously watch this movie just for his story telling. He did a phenomenal job.
manco82 “All right! All right, big man? You wanna make some big bucks? Lets see how tough you are. Do you know something 'bout cocaine?”
-Antonio Salieri
I love this movie because it’s very entertaining, and while most of the stuff about Salieri is is made up historical fiction, particularly the fact that he killed Mozart, he DID actually claim that he did it in real life when he was a senile old man in his late 60s-70s in a mental institution. Since this entire story is being told as a confession to a priest by an elderly and senile Salieri in a mental institution, it’s very plausible to interpret Salieri as a very unreliable narrator in the movie. You could just assume that these are just mad ravings of a broken, demented, and senile old man. That’s why the movie works. It also helps that the music is lovely and the two leading actors do a great job with their roles.
Still, there is SOME truth to the story, particularly in regards to Mozart’s characterization, family, and backstory in the movie.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart WAS a musical child prodigy who wrote his first composition at five, his first symphony at 8, and his first full scale opera at just 12 years old. They weren’t just simple little little melodies that you would expect from a five-to twelve year child. They were beautiful and complex melodies. His father Leopold was a composer who DID take his son under his wing to teach him everything he knew about music, and toured Europe with him to show him off when he was just a little boy.
Leopold Mozart really WAS a rather controlling, disapproving, overbearing, and overprotective parent in regards to the personal lives of his children, even when they reached their adulthoods. Not only did he disapprove of Wolfgang marrying Constanze Weber and moving in with her without his consent first, but he also tried to sabotage his daughter Maria Anna’s marriage too.
While probably not as boastful and impolite in public as portrayed in Amadeus, in real life, Mozart really WASN’T always this modest and humble prodigy either. He knew his music was amazing, but a lot of his contemporaries really DID think that there were “too many notes” in his music and thought he was trying too hard to sound impressive. In his letters to and from his father in Vienna from the 1780s, Wolfgang DOES come across as being a conceited and delusional brat towards the Italians in Vienna by unfairly accusing them of forming “cabals” led by Salieri to actively sabotage his attempts to establish himself as a composer there. The letters suggest that Wolfgang, Leopold, and Nanneral resented the Italians for their special place in Austrian courts, considering the fact that they were Austrian themselves. This resentment that Mozart had towards Salieri probably originated from an incident in 1781 when Salieri got the job to be the music teacher of Princess Elisabeth of Würtemmberg instead of Mozart because he had a better reputation as singing and piano instructor. While I do think Mozart WAS a better composer than Salieri, though Salieri was pretty good at composing, too, Salieri was a better music TEACHER than Mozart was in Vienna at the time, so he got the post instead. If there was any evidence of ridiculous jealousy and resentment between Mozart and Saleri, it was actually on Mozart’s side in real life, not Saleri’s. Even then, Mozart still got along with Saleri in public, and never tried to sabotage him, or put him down as a musician. He and his family were just venting their frustrations in private letters about Wolfgang struggling to establish hims as a successful composer, musician, and music teacher in Vienna.
However, like his attitude in public in the movie, there definitely IS this sense of arrogance, boastfulness, and pettiness in his and his family’s ridiculous accusations of the Italians secretly plotting to sabotage his success in Vienna.
So, while not nearly as overt about it in public as he was portrayed as being in the movie Amadeus, Wolfgang really DID low-key have somewhat of an arrogant and narcissistic side to his personality at times.
While Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart DID make a pretty good living as a composer in Vienna for his family and himself, he really WAS a spendthrift, who found himself in debt a lot quickly afterwards because he spent too much money on himself, his wife, and their son, so he went around begging his friends and contemporaries for money when he ran out.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart really DID have a dirty low brow sense of humor. He loved potty humor and sex jokes so much that he even wrote a three part choral piece called “Leck mich im Arcshe” (“Kiss My Ass”) as a joke for a party to sing with his friends.
However, in real life Mozart wasn’t THAT much of an alcoholic, overtly obnoxious and arrogant, or a party/frat boy. He was much more introverted, he was capable of being mature and polite when he needed to be in public in comparison to how he was portrayed as being arrogant and rude in public with the Emperor and the rest of the court in Amadeus.
While an extremely gifted composer with superior technical skill as a musician in real life, even child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music compositions went through several corrections and revisions in real life. It is NOT like in Amadeus in which Saleri claims Mozart just wrote down whatever he heard in his head on blank sheet music perfectly in tune every time with “no corrections,” “like he was just taking dictations.” That’s a superhuman ability that even most geniuses aren’t capable of.
Considering the fact that the story in this movie is primarily being told from the POV of an elderly and demented Saleri, who believes that Mozart had this superhuman superiority as a composer in comparison to him and other composers when he is in a mental institution, it is completely probable that he is exaggerating the strength of Mozart’s skills as musician and composer as better than they actually were. I’m not saying that means Mozart’s music isn’t amazing or that he wasn’t a genius.
Mozart *was* a prodigy, who showed his genius in music from the time he was a preschool-aged toddler of 3 years old. Along with Beethoven, Mozart is still considered the greatest and most popular of classical composers in history over two centuries after his death for a good reason, but he still was a human being. He made corrections/revisions to his scores when composing his music, just like any other composer.
There also isn’t any evidence that Salieri killed him out of envy and resentment. There’s more evidence that they actually were supportive of each other in real life, who openly admired each other’s work. Salieri also wasn’t this extremely devout Catholic in real life, who vowed to remain abstinent throughout his life to God in exchange for the ability to become a great composer and musician. In fact, he had a wife and several children.
There is little to no evidence that the young opera singer Caterina Cavileri, who was singing the lead role of Konstanze in Mozart’s German opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, actually ever had an affair with Mozart, as Salieri believed he had in Amadeus. Even in the movie that assumption that Saleri made is iffy at best because there’s really no reason to not believe that Caterina could have just had unrequited feelings for Mozart. He genuinely seems shocked when she made that “I bet she’s great in bed” comment about Constanze, even when she’s not there to hear them, and throughout the rest of the movie, Wolfgang’s completely devoted to Stanzi, so it would be pretty out of character for him to have an affair with a singer in an opera he just met. I think Saleri was probably just misinterpreting the whole conversation out of jealousy.
In real life, there’s actually more evidence that Salieri had an affair with Caterina Caverleri than Mozart.
While there are truths to real life here and there, particularly with Mozart’s character, the writers of Amadeus also definitely made Salieri much more austere and conservative than he actually was in real life. There’s no legitimate evidence to prove that Salieri actually killed Mozart. There’s no evidence that Salieri ever sexually harassed Constanze Mozart to deliberately humiliate her when she asked him to commission his music, so he could get revenge against her husband for presumably having an affair with Caterina Cavileri.
Peter Shaffer definitely exaggerated Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s arrogance, alcoholism, childishness, obnoxiousness, and vulgarity by making him be much more overt and over-the-top about it in his adulthood, so that they could give this version Salieri a reason to despise him so much that he would want to kill him in the play. The real Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart truly did seem to possess arrogant, immature, and silly personality traits that carried into his adulthood from his letters. He really did enjoy making low-brow sex innuendos/jokes and toilet humor well into his adulthood. According to descriptions of his laugh in the writings of his friends, it really did sound like “the braying of a jackass” and as “grating a cobblestone down a piano’s strings.” Tom Hulce likely played up Mozart’s laugh as even more hilariously obnoxious in the film than it was in real life for the sake of making the character his own and fueling Salieri’s annoyance. I think the real Wolfgang Amadeus was likely a lot more low-key about his arrogant and buffoonish manchild side in real life than he was portrayed as being in the movie. If he were really as openly arrogant, childish, obnoxious, and rude of an adult in real life as he was portrayed in Amadeus, I very highly doubt Mozart could have been able to get commissioned to write operas in Vienna by Emperor Joseph II at all, no matter how amazing his music was.
Kudos on your amazingly detailed, substantive post.
my god
your writing is boring,,you just proved why Milos Forman created his masterpiece on the genius of Mozart.
@@Ava-cy6qw I don't get it. Are you dissing the accuracy of what he wrote in this post or saying that too much info/facts gets in the way of creating a concise, approachable narrative like the one in the movie?
@@theoutlook55 follow the thread and let us see if there would be a further than three or four of us in it and the discussion will bring clarity
As a music historian, I say to you, well done! You got your facts right!
Thanks very much Ernest! I try my best during my research. It can be difficult with only having a few weeks to do it. But thank you for validating my work. :)
History Buffs thank you for being on TH-cam
I love your stuff.
History Buffs Wow that Salieri vs Mozart part was ironic. Salieri taught Beethoven but Beethoven's musical hero was Mozart, not only that, Beethoven was more skilled in music than Mozart (not my opinion, go look it up on the internet).
Actually, one cannot really say that either Beethoven or W.A. Mozart was more skilled than the other. They were different, like any two individuals are. Beethoven had to struggle to produce his works; we have many of his surviving sketchbooks which show how he worked and reworked every theme, every movement. Mozart tended to be a natural, effortlessly composing, although we now have some of his sketchbooks that have been discovered more recently. Mozart's challenges seemed to have been in more mundane things, such as money management. Beethoven, on the other hand, left a sizable estate when he died. They were both great musical geniuses, and the world is better off for both of them having lived, but to say one was more skilled than the other is just not something that can be proven or casually posted on the internet. Please do not believe everything you read there.
I am curious to know where on the Internet you learned that Beethoven was more skilled than Mozart. Unfortunately, people who do not know any better will read your post and take it as fact.
Amadeus was one of the best movies ever made, even if the story isn't really accurate. Tom Hulce deserved an Oscar too.
Milos!!
Hulce was great however F. Murray Abraham definitely had the standout performance.
YES MILOS FORMAN REALLY DID GOOD! DARE I SAY HIS BEST FILM ? and TOM HULCE !!! SO UNDRERATED !
The story isn't accurate because it wasn't necessary for it to be. it's an artistic creation, not a documentary.
Yes, Tom Hulce did deserve an Oscar, but F. Murray Abraham was also incredible as Salieri. Besides, Salieri was the main character of the movie, not me.
Historically, yes, the Salieri vs Mozart thing was complete fiction, but in the context of a standalone film, it makes a wonderfully compelling story of a man who tries to do good becoming possessed by his worse nature. For who WOULDN'T be mad if they poured their heart and soul into something just to have it be overshadowed by someone just coasting along?
That bit about Salieri having dimentia is also interesting, as the entire film is told from his point of view as this ailing old man. Who knows how much of it is true, and whether or not he is subconsciously believing the rumors himself?
Rellik165 the reason I think the movie portrayed Slieri vs Mozart is in the movie is because Salieri was jealous because Mozart just outclassed Salieri with his natural talent and gifts.
Salieri had dementia in real life, not in the movie. In the movie he is confessing, so speaking the truth.
@@zeemanshuai2652
No, really ?
And you came up to this conclusion by yourself, or did you think about it with friends ? 🤔
Yan Air
No they're not saying whether Salieri's dementia was fictional or not, they're saying that the movie may have been him mis-remembering things due to his dementia.
Frank Grimes: You better watch your back Homer Simpson, from now on we’re enemies!
Salieri was only 6 years older than Mozart so unless he got unlucky with his genetics the actor should look much younger
That is true, but I also think the writers of the movie were trying to emphasize just how much of a brilliant young composer ahead of his time Mozart was with his very boppy, complex, improvisational, experimental, and flowery music to contrast it with the more easy, predictable, and safe classical music Salieri composed that Emperor Joseph II, the kapellmeister, and the others in the court of Vienna appreciated more. The only reason why Salieri appreciated Mozart’s talent in this movie is because he was a composer who knew amazing music when he saw it and heard it.
They presented Mozart’s music in Vienna like a generational clash between Millenials and Boomers. Here comes this brilliant, self-confident, and young composer with this fresh bright, colorful, and complex take on classical music compositions that most of his middle-aged and elderly colleagues and employers have never heard of before. Additionally, most of them aren’t professionally trained classical composers, just very wealthy men in powdered wigs with high positions in aristocracy, who like music that’s pretty and soothing to listen to, so a handful of them criticize it for having “too many notes” and trying too hard to impress beyond his abilities.” While most of them admit that they LIKE Mozart’s music because they can obviously recognize that it’s lovely music composed by a bright young man with fresh ideas, most of them don’t really APPRECIATE it since it’s too experimental to their ears…Well, ALMOST every one of his elder colleagues and employers in Vienna can’t appreciate the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the movie with the exception of Antonio Salieri, who’s also a classical composer by profession just like him who has lived, breathed, and studied classical music long and hard enough to clearly admire and recognize the superior ability and talent of another composer.
Of course, Salieri’s whole conflict in the movie Amadeus is that he’s bitterly jealous over the fact that he can’t achieve Mozart’s level of genius since he grew up misguidedly believing that he had to repress his desires, impulses, and passions in exchange for God to grant him the ability to be an amazing composer of classical music. Most of his contemporaries enabled and encouraged that more easy, people-pleasing, and repressive straightforward attitude and style in this fictional version of Saleri’s music from his own POV by praising and honoring it as amazing work… That is until he met Mozart and heard his complex and experimental fresh take on classic music that made it sound even better than it had before.
Rather than taking a page from Mozart’s technique by trying to be more experimental, honest, and free in his approach to his compositions in classical music, the Saleri from Amadeus directs his blame and rage at God and Mozart, becomes bitterly and murderously jealous of Mozart’s talent, and secretly plots to steal work from Mozart to make it his after indirectly encouraging him to work himself to death on a requiem. Yet, throughout the movie, he continues to play things safe, do things by the book, repress his desires in public, and gives the general public what they want to hear when it comes to composing music for them because it’s been so ingrained in this fictional version of Saleri for so long. At least until the end when he writes music with Mozart.
Schoolgirl325 wow I was gonna say the same thing but you beat me to it! Beautiful! Haha
Murray is 14 years older than Tom
@@deanjustdean7818 He lived to 75(seemingly well above average at the time, presumably partly due to his wealth), so probably not for Salieri. He didn't look especially old in the role though(the actor himself wasn't much older than the character), it was just that the Mozart character was portrayed as much younger than he was.
@@KenDanieli F. Murray Abraham is 14 years older than Tom Hulce.
One of the greatest details of this movie has to do with Mozart's giggle. It's fantastic, and fits what was written about him at the time, that he had an incredibly irritating laugh. But the amazing thing is that it wasn't _Hulce's_ giggle, but _Mozart's._ When Forman was editing the finished footage and got to the end, he realized he needed another laugh from Mozart. So he got Hulce to come in and record one, but they found he could no longer do the laugh. He'd lost it when he'd left the character, so Forman had to mine one of the laughs from earlier in the film. It was a mannerism that belonged only to the character. I find that fascinating.
I find fascinating that Mark Hammill was playing Amadeus in theaters and wanted to audition for the movie, but Milos didn't want big celebrities distracting from the story. Imagine Amadeus with the Joker's laugh.
??? My friend Kelly worked with Tom Hulce when he was starring in Kramer's "The Normal Heart" in London, and although he was probably sick and tired of being asked to "laugh like Mozart," he was perfectly able to do so, and occasionally would, if asked.
Im pretty sure that I saw another film with Tom Hulce where he has the exact same laughter. I was surprised. I thought to my self. "Ok so Motzart's laughter in Amadeus is simply Tom Hulce's laughter".
@@thewilytroutesq5260 It had been an honour for your friend I guess 🥺
You mean that literally *WOLFY* had this “irritating” laugh? (I don’t find it irritating 😕)
Also, Mozart was only like 6 years younger than Salieri, so while the age gap works great for the film (experience vs natural skill, etc) it puts a lot more of a difference between the two than there actually was.
Captain Jin in the beginning I thought they made it clear that they didn’t have that much of a gap in age. Maybe that was just me
Yeah the quote(that I don't really remember but will now paraphrase), "while I was playing childish games, he was playing for kings and emperors, and even the pope in Rome!", shows that they were pretty much peers in age.
That choir of school children has greater constitution and self control than a lot of people I know.
Training the new generation of musical shitposters to join pirate metal, Mozart and Pepper Coyote
I learned about mozart's scat fetish around the time this video came out but to see a choir of school children sing about it...is disturbing to say the least, like what was that school thinking... Amadeus is a great film about a great man regardless none the less pushing music forward. There as never been a great artist who wasn't outside the norm of society.
I wonder if they were singing phonetically? I could learn the lyrics to a German song but have no idea what the words mean.
@@mr.pavone9719 Exactly - I'm assuming they're not-German-speakers. Maybe the choir director as well?
The Catalan text shown behind is not the translation. But I think they must understand something of what they are singing. Someone must speak german among all of them.
I am one of those hardcore Mozart fans, I’ve been playing his music since I was 12, and I love the portrayal of Mozart in this film. I really think it’s close to accurate. He was a bonafide genius but with most geniuses they have serious character flaws. I can’t imagine having a childhood like his. It was written that when his father realized this God given miracle in his son he had a duty not only as a father but as a teacher to share it. Hence the years of touring Europe with short breaks home from age 5 to 17. But through all that he composed over 800 pieces of music in his short 35 years of life. Mozart’s music is still fun and challenging to play, and his Requiem always brings me to tears.
@@teresagardiner153 I don't see it as one sided, I think the writers and Tom Hulce really made a complex character for this film. Over the top at time yes, but in context they had to portray years of Mozart's life in a 2 hour movie. We know he like to spend money on elegant clothes and wigs, he liked to play practical jokes on his friends, his surviving letters show he had a vulgarity about him, he would spend hours isolated working on pieces and was extremely devoted to his work. I think it would be foolish to say that he didn't suffer from bouts of depression, some of his music is almost evidence enough of that. Only 2 of his 6 children survived infancy, basically no one in either family approved of his marriage to Constanze and we know from letters his father's death was a big blow to him. He was described as a devoted Catholic, wrote many religious pieces, and the movie only touches on that a little bit with his Requiem Mass. But personally I think they did a good job portraying his character in Amadeus.
Who asked
@@alexanderg1297 I did
@@teresagardiner153 Agreed.
@@teresagardiner153 Very good post.
Why does everyone always forget this, this is a story being told by a man who just tried to kill him self this is all built up in his head this is his version of the story from his view at his lowest.
This is exactly the point I made recently in a review I wrote after re-watching it. Salieri is an unreliable narrator, the story (as shown in the film) is only as true as Salieri thinks it is.
In real like they were great friends,,, Salieri was the tutor for Mozart’s children.
It is also a modern retelling of the story of Kain and Able.
This is even clearer in the play on which the movie is based. Salieri begins the play by summoning "the ghosts of the future" (i.e., us -- the audience) and inviting us to observe his play "The Death of Mozart, or: Did I do it?". Everything that happens onstage, therefore, springs straight out of this (fictional) Salieri's mind; the Mozart character we see is the one which Salieri had written into his play-within-a-play. Of course, this is also true of the movie (where everything we see is actually a story that Salieri tells the Priest); but it's even more palpable in the play.
@@AlbinovSK I read somewhere that Shaffer was also inspired by the Faust myth, except here it's a bargain with God, rather than Satan. This is in addition to, not instead of, the Cain-and-Abel aspect.
In other words, Mozart was a musical genius who would fit right into the typical college frat house.
Well the actor did star in Animal House.
I see what you did there.
Or 80s hair metal band...
"Amadeus" is not a biography about Mozart. It is the story of a well gifted musician beside a genius in whose presence anyone else feels mediocre.
Christoph Joachimbauer There also the fact you can very easy say the movie is about a man who for years hated Mozart reflecting how he saw the man. Making the film unreliable
It's a retelling of Cain and Abel
Of course, all the inaccuracies can easily be explained due to the format of the movie's storytelling: It's Salieri, old and withered, living in an asylum and potentially suffering from dementia (assuming he isn't just misremembering things). It's entirely possible that IRL Salieri adored Mozart as a friend but harbored some envy that, in his elderly dementia, caused him to believe he'd actually hated him all along (and IRL Salieri did, in fact, make the claim, though it's obvious to anyone familiar with reality that he was suffering from dementia rather than being actually guilty of anything).
it's just a captivating story,
"in who is presence" 🤣
I could not move from my seat when I first saw this movie in the theater in 1984. I was drenched in tears but felt joy and also haunted. I’ve never experienced that kind of emotion from the movie before and never experienced again to this day. Timeless classic at its best.
yes, the music is so overwhelmingly beautiful and human and deep, full of deep understanding for the human nature... it frees your heart and takes it on a trip to heaven. mozart's music has the magic power to speak directly to the centre of the human soul. (when i was young i began my musical journey with beatles and janis and doors, delta blues, rock n roll. today i'm listening to music from all around the world, still love and listen rock music for many hours daily, but i've also become a regular and enthusiastic visitor of the opera. i need music in my life to feel good, it's a longing for beauty that becomes ever stronger as i grow older.) regards from austria.
Me too…and I was 13.🥳
If you don't understand German you will never grasp the amazing feeling when you are visiting family abroad, they take you to a school perfomance and it's proudly proclaimed that the choir will now sing "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber" by Mozart. I couldn't bear the whole session as i broke out in laughter and draw the attention of all the proud and angered parents. My uncle joined in though, once i had enough breath to explain the situation to him. :,D
could you explain why its funny? Im not german and you got my curiosity picked
Stormxlr "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber" means "Lick my ass nice and clean" in German. ;)
Zajin13
cool thanks, should have googled it myself :D
So how those angry family and choir react when they found out the title they sing?
Oh my god if American parents realized that was being sung if they chose a Mozart song to be sung in an auditorium haha that is some funny shit XD
Another misconception in the movie is that Mozart's wife, Constanza was just his landlady's daughter. She was, but her maiden name was Von Weber-she was the composer Carl Maria Von Weber's cousin, and a classical vocalist. It was a Music Business Marriage.
Her family was not "von" but just plain Weber. Wolfgang originally fell in love with Constanza's elder sister, Aloysia, but when she declined his proposal he moved on to Constanza. It is also worth noting that Constanza's sister Josepha was the original Queen of the Night. He wrote two of the most difficult arias ever composed for her because she could hit high F.
I might also note that while Wolfgang lay dying he was aware that Die Zauberflote was then being performed, and he remarked something like, "Now Josepha is singing her F in alto."
Mozart's childish vulgarity only makes me love him more.
I agree
I work in a food importing warehouse, every holiday season we sell tons of those Rebel Mozart chocolates. And every time I look at that picture of him on the wrappers and wonder “What the hell is he smirking about?”
I wished that the movie includes Casanova finishing Don Juan piece which is a historical fact.
It would be if it wasn't so overdone by everyone these days
Sounds like most rock stars now🤷♀️
He just seems like the first rock star. Tons of fame, alcohol, & women.
He was a flirt, but he was extremely faithful to his wife. He also did not have a rivalry with Salieri. Salieri did not assist him with the Requiem. Much of the movie is based on the myths.
@@whistlerwind7422 Thank you. Both the play and the movie really push the "rebel" image. They also work overtime to make Salieri seem as stuffy as possible. Never mind that Salieri *did* have a mistress, while Mozart did not. Mozart also refers to Salieri as a friend many times in his letters, mentioning how much he appreciated it whenever Salieri attended one of his concerts. There was some professional rivalry-court appointments don't grow on trees-but they also liked and respected each other as colleagues.
Pretty sure that wasn't accepted in 1700
Just without the leather pants!
@@Dannymart_88445Let me tell you a story about the French Monarchy.
You know that's really kind of sad. To not only be wrongly remembered for killing a friend, but wrongly remembered for having hated your friend enough to do it.
Anthony Clay Imagine how King Macbeth feels. Lol
Anthony Clay mate friend jeez you have not yet been acquainted with the night
He is not. Only ignorant people today think this movie is historically accurate.
No way. This script is a masterpiece! I'd find it hard to believe that Salieri who was an artist himself wouldn't have absolutely loved it. He likely would've been honored. Besides the majority know that this story is fictional.
Evian Things I would definitely cast doubt on the "majority know that this story is fictional" thing. Most people tend to accept dramatized history as "that's how it actually was" even though experts know better. You see this kind of thing with military history *all the time*, but a perfect music history example is Bach's popular Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114.
It wasn't actually composed by Bach. It was composed by Christian Petzhold. Any serious pianist or music historian knows this, but practically any sheet music book or casual performance of the piece will credit it to Bach instead because most people think he wrote it. Decades of misattribution and the fact that no one knows who Christian Petzhold is while everyone knows Bach means that publishers and performers tend to stick the well-known name on there to appeal to people.
As a fan of Mozart I love his portrayal in the movie, dude was the closest thing a rockstar that era had and it's both rad and hilarious.
And when you get to parodied by Bart Simpson, you’ve moved into even more pop culture lexicons
MAYBE, just maybe, someone will make a movie titled:
"Salieri, friend of Mozart."
I’d watch it
Hold my beer
Cool premise but change the title
Hear, hear. But it wouldn't have that giggle, though.
Or maybe a comedy about their friendship where they work together "Mozart and Salieri , Lads on Tour"
One small fact that was overlooked was that Mozart rarely conducted his own operas while living in Vienna
I love "Amadeus". Tom Hulce is a very underrated actor. F. Murray Abraham was fantastic as Salieri.
I agree he was amazing in that film. One of my favorite movies
You’ve got to wonder how the Academy had to choose between those two since Hulce and Abraham were in contention for Best Actor of 1985. Course the Academy did great in honoring F. Murray
Agreed. I saw David Suchet (Poirot) as Salieri in the B'way revival several years ago. He was amazing as well.
@@lilliedoubleyou3865 I flew out and went to the Broadway revival as well. Suchet and Sheen were brilliant!
@@lilliedoubleyou3865 I saw that, too. I was blown away by how Suchet transitioned from old Salieri to young Salieri by changing his stance and removing his cap and robe. The set was amazing as well, and could there be a better theater for it than The Music Box? It's such a perfect jewel box. Plus we got to meet Mike McShane before the show.
Holy shit.
Once the choir started singing it took me 2 seconds before the lyrics sank in (I can speak German)
I 've been laughing my head off for a good 15 minutes now.. No words for it, absolutely no words.. Tears down my face.. I just can't stop laughing..
Thanks Mozart.
Bona Nox is another Mozart canon that is very vulgar (and very entertaining).
Joseph Kretschmer
Y did he ntertain such vulgarity, within piecez of such BEAUTY?
Holy shit. Only after reading your post about you being german did I go back to that part and watch it again. Totally didn't even pick up the first time that they're singing in german.
can understand "mein arsch"
"I speak German"
Some of the kids' faces looked horrified-as if they KNEW what they were singing
I can't believe the AFI took this film off the 100 greatest American films list. It's easily one of the best films I've ever seen and it never gets old.
As an artist, I love how they showed both sides of creativity. The feeling of being a creative genius and the utter hatred of self when hearing someone else create an undeniably beautiful song or work of art.
The casting of F. Murray Abraham was PERFECT. Not so much for his exquisite acting--which it certainly was, and he definitely deserved the Oscar for it--but because, up until that movie, he had been typecast as a criminal, a drug kingpin, a thug. His role in Scarface cemented him as that type. So when you watch Amadeus, you're not only watching a gifted actor play Mozart's rival, you also see that evil streak, the sinister underpinnings, and you believe that he actually could have murdered Mozart.
Don’t forget Dar Adal in Homeland. He’s just 💋👌🏻 perfetto! The guy who runs black ops and WILL bite the hand that feeds him if it suits HIM, while always claiming a higher, deeper purpose for all his actions to justify everything he does. He’s complex, and you can forget you dislike Dar as quickly as you can forget you like him. It’s a role I’m not sure would be as good with any other actor.
I had the wonderful honor of meeting Mr.Abraham and I got to hold the Oscar , it was awesome
Loved him in The Grand Budapest Hotel as well.
Perfect except for one thing: Abraham looks about a generation older than Hulce. Mozart's and Salieri's age difference was only about 5 years.
Some of the dialog in the early part of the movie suggests Salieri always knew about Mozart, but because of their apparent age difference I wanted Salieri to hear about this budding prodigy, the kid Mozart, after he was already an accomplished composer.
I actually think the whole casting was interesting... the “safe” play would be to cast English actors for aristocratic European court life, but they deliberately chose American actors and it shows that an American need not be an impediment to a period drama such as this.
The great tragedy was that both F Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce were nominated in the same category for Oscars and only one could win...
When Mozart does his shenanigans, he's a genius. When I do this-I get sent to the Principal.
Too true
😂😂😂
Mozart is not seen as a genius for his childishness...
He is seen as a genius for his composing...
No wonder you are sent to the Principal when you totally didnt get it.
pqsnet Lighten up. I think he got the point. He’s not claiming to have the talent that Mozart. I think a larger case would be that if someone is rich and famous, they are able to get away with things that ordinary people cannot. I’m not so much speaking of getting sent to the principal’s office, but in criminal cases, and how if you are famous and/or wealthy, and can get a very good defense lawyer, you have a MUCH stronger chance of getting away with a serious crime, or avoiding prison time.
And in that sense, in the modern time, he’s got a point.
Funny the privilege to be a genius
Consider that until Amadeus both the play and the movie Salieri was mostly forgotten so in a strange way due to this slander he and his music lives again.
"Nothing is neither good nor bad. But thinking makes it so." Shakespeare.
the play ran on Broadway for over 1,000 performances.
I actually knew a guy in high school that lapped very similarly to how Tom Holce laughed in the movie. He was a very nice guy and actually quite big for someone his age. At 17 he stood 61, and wait about 280lbs. So to imagine a guy that big and to have a laugh that sounds so much like that always blew my mind. Then I watched this movie a few years ago and instantly thought about him. There laughs are so similar it's spooky. And he didn't do that for shits and giggles, that's really how he laughed.
Amadeus is one of my favorite films-i cry my eyes out starting with the part where Salieri is pushing Mozart to finish the Requium , till the end "mediocrities of the world, I absolve you."
It is a brilliant and perfect masterpiece. Your review was outstanding! So so interesting. I've seen Amadeus a thousand times and always wanted to know. Thank you so much.
Fun fact, it's actually been debated whether humor like Mozart's was just the standard for that time in history, as other letters from his family and completely understand related persons contain similar foul humor
I was wondering that as well: I think scatological humour was more prevalent (and...detailed) at that time.
Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay called 'Fart Proudly,' so you are probably correct.
@@JayM409Jonathan Swift was an expert purveyor of scatological humor.
WANTED Fun fact, furries are gay
@@JayM409 ben frankline was a pimp womenizer. xD dude was the og man whore, died of std.
"Mediocrity everywhere, I absolve you! I absolve you! I absolve you!" Amazing final words in a film about genius, jealousy and vengeance.
Maybe he was talking to us watching the movie aswell as the crazy people in the asylum
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain in an asylum.
“Let me speak for you Father. I speak for all mediocracies. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.”
I agree that the scene with Scalieri discussing Mozart's work is one of the best in cinematic history. I think the film was great. I also appreciate the thorough nature of this documentary. Very well put together. New subscriber.
One thing to remember about "Amadeus": the story is told by an old man who has psychological problems, he is a textbook example of an unreliable narrator. Those looking for total historical accuracy from Amadeus will be disappointed, but I think the inaccuracies are excusable.
Let's face it, it would have been a very dull film had they depicted Mozart and Salieri as the best of chums.
'Amadeus' was never intended to be an historical documentary. Peter Schafer made it clear that he had written a 'what if?' story. I don't know why this video is necessary.
It's necessary because, in spite of what you said and what most who bothered to do their research know, a majority of people who either saw one/both of the Amadeus films or only received a weak lesson of Mozart's life still have an inaccurate ideal of Salieri to this day (and Mozart himself, to a degree). The video's aim isn't to condemn Amadeus for taking creative liberties with history, because they obviously still had to tell an engaging story. But they wanted to use it as a springboard to highlight a man who was likely Mozart's friend and supporter, not his murderer.
would be interesting to a more true to live movie and the main angel is this guy is a self destructive rock star with a net work of enables and those trying to help him
Salieri would be a minor character but one of those trying to help him.
tomc8888 I am glad I am not the only one who sees the movie that way. Old Salieri was telling this to a priest while in an asylum for the insane, after attempting to commit suicide at the beginning of the movie. The unreliability of the narrator is totally understandable in a case like that, and it's how I enjoy the movie despite the factual errors.
Watched this movie recently, what a masterpiece. Abraham 's acting was superb!
He won an Oscar for it! 🤘
No doubt, but it's incredibly important that Hulce played Mozart exactly the way he did too The movie wouldn't have worked if everyone was trying to win an Oscar. As a side note, funny how no matter how brilliantly you play a miscreant (Hulce) you won't get an Oscar.
Richard Frank as Father Vogler did a wonderful job with the reactions to Salieri's story. Watching his descent into misery over the course of the movie is just soo good.
Thank you for actually saying the things the film gets right. It’s much more accurate than people give it credit for, particularly Salieri’s love for Mozart’s music, the attention to detail with Mozart’s pieces and the dates which they were composed, and their public friendship. In fact, the entire film is told by Salieri after he loses his mind and the rumours that he killed Mozart actually made him believe he killed him. So in actually, Salieri is confessing what he believes he did to Mozart after he went insane. This interpretation not only adds historical accuracy but adds another layer of genius to this film.
if i get too deep into mozart it brings me to tears. its always been like this. his music connects perfectly with my heart. its sublime and surreal at the same time. rarely does an artist touch anyone so deeply. his understanding of harmonic balance and the use of passing tones and chromatics is unreal. he switches modes and tonic and key anytime he wishes for any reason he does it perfectly. i can't listen it disables me emotionally.
The best part is that they got a children’s choir to sing the ‘lick my ass’ song 😹😹😹
You can tell some of them are trying really hard not to laugh!
Speak for yourself. What were they thinking?
That's the easy part. Having them keep a straight face while they were at it is another story.
How, in this day and age, did they find an entire children's choir who's parents didn't kick the actual eff off about it?
and it is German!!!!!!!!!
That, sir, IS my favorite scene too. "And then, suddenly, high above it, an oboe..." aw man! goosebumps everytime.
What composition is that right there?
IDK why TH-cam recommended this 3.5 years later but boy am I glad I watched it. Now I have a new composer to start playing on my piano!
Because TH-cam is all knowing. We were just speaking of this movie yesterday at work and it showed up in my recommendations. Lol
This is my favorite movie. :D
Our 6th grade Music teacher had us watch it and most of the other kids thought it was boring.
I fell in love with Mozart’s music that day. The OG rockstar.
Things Antonio Salieri deserved: NOT THAT
Mozart the Thomas Alba Edison of music?
@@Cejafer If you have to utilize this somewhat unfitting comparison, then the best would probably be Tesla. A genius, but his actual fame only blew up long after he was dead.
Mozart is Tesla of music
Feeling bad for Salieri is like feeling bad for incels.
Titanic The Greatest Ice Bucket Challenge Could you please explain?
Feel like Part 1 could've mentioned that his Sister was a vital part of the family 'prodigy' rounds during their childhood. Nannerl was a prodigy in her own right and would frequently confer with Wolfgang Amadeus about his music after reaching adulthood. Once she reached adulthood sadly she was subjected to the familiar trappings of a woman in the Baroque period. She became a music teacher but even that was only because of her family name. Tragic really.
Perhaps, but the movie was mainly about Wolfgang. I know what you mean about Nannerl, his mother, father and other relationships. I own an extensive biography of Mozart in my own library. A book can explore much more than a movie of course.
Someone should make a movie about her
@@ischeele7203 i think there is one... ithere's a movie titled "mozarts sister"
Almost always, a child prodigy is just someone who is remarkably good as something....for a child. As they age, they don't continue to be remarkable, and their peers catch up to them. Many get depressed and leave their fields. Wolfgang was quite the anomaly. His sister's life is not an unusual one for someone in her position. I wouldn't consider it tragic, but just a fact of life. Nobody is entitled to their dreams, unfortunately.
@@sitcomchristian6886 prodigies also seem to just burn out quickly. my chinese wife often commented they'd see some up and coming virtuoso on some kind of instrument, and a decade later where are they??? athletics is like that, even speech and debate competition. as you age, others physically mature, or simply want it more. it was easy in high school: now have a few athletes do their military duty and come back in age 22 and give you a basketball @tonsilectamy. and you're surprised. it was such an easy ride in HS. you even smoked just before the track meet race got underway. Now go to college and do something stupid like that, you get the field pounding you.
It's pretty grim that so many people think Salieri was a murderer. Makes me angry.
Its also super common to make Hollywood biopics that are completely different from reality. I actually read a book by someone who claims to have done past life regressions and found out that Mozart was actually poisoned by his wife so that she could be with another man. Hmmm. They should make a movie about that!
Tina, you could write an opera about how he was innocent.
it's a move, chill.
ruining a mans reputation using baseless accusations is commonplace nowdays
True. But who knows just how much of our history is skewed, exaggerated, or outright lies from rumors, propaganda, or even just piece of fiction or a joke being taken too seriously. How much of the truth is forever lost in the memory hole. Makes it a little terrifying to imagine how we'll be remembered 200 years from now in the public eye.
Man. Guy has been dead for hundreds of years, but you still pay Salieri respect.
Respect.
Salieri’s music is actually very good and still played in concert halls.
Mozart was a man of duality and contradiction. His maturity was stunted by his being a young phenom. When he moved from Salzburg to Vienna in 1781, his family felt betrayed. Mozart had to live without his beloved sister Nannerl, who turned against him through her fathers influence. Mozart was troubled by his families estrangement from him. Wolfie had written to them repeatedly, asking them to join him in Vienna. His hopes for a happy reunion were repeatedly turned down.
Mozart's psyche was one of multiple-complexities in the last eleven years of his life. I loved the movie and Hulce was very entertaining in his portrayal. But, Mozart was a much more complex man than Hulce's depiction of him. He definitely suffered from depression and was often ill. Yet he had a deep soul, partied like a champ and took on the burden of being the breadwinner at home. He wrote music at an astonishingly fast rate for every genre. His greatest works were literally pouring out of him in those last 11 years. Works of astounding quality. He and his wife did squander money but they lived quite comfortably for the times. He would go out of his way for his fellow musicians. He allowed a friend to live rent-free in his home until he found another place to stay. Stanzy was not too happy about that. They could have used the extra income.
As for the vulgarity, I have read all of those letters. He loved wordplay and a good joke. Most of them were written when he was a boy and young man still living in Salzburg. Lustful witticisms that were often answered back by an equally lustful female counterpart. He would never have been so rude as to write such things without a game penpal who relished the thrilling naughtiness of it all. They were harmless flirtations. He was also a math wizard. He had a brilliant intellect. In Vienna, he was described by a close friend as being a man who was often lost in deep thought but generous to his freinds. He did not suffer fools gladly but he had a good heart.
I do urge people to seek out the real Mozart. He was a fascinating individual and much more interesting than the freakish, somewhat simple-minded depiction of him in Amadeus.
Awesome summary...thanks 👍
this needs more likes tbh
How can I learn more about him and his music? I’m just getting into classical music and have no idea how to learn about these musicians
Thank you so very much for taking the time to explain this, I found it incredibly interesting. It’s difficult to know for sure what you see in movies or read in articles/books is in any way accurate so I’m always grateful to have input from others ☺️ although I loved the movie I felt they really didn’t show him in the best light they could have, I too felt there was far more to him than just a crazy drunk genius...
Love to you from Scotland ❤️🏴
@@leighirvine Thank you so much for your kind words. I have read some acclaimed biographies about Mozart. I actually read through Maynard Solomon's "Mozart: A Life" three times. Solomon dug into Mozart's psyche a bit more than most authors. He always backed up his viewpoint with a sound explanation. Any good biographer worth their salt does a tremendous amount of historical research. Solomon certainly did his, putting in many years of gathering information from historical resources. "The Mozart Myths" by William Stafford is another interesting book that examines the 'plausible truths' about Mozart's life and times. So much has been sensationalized. It's a fascinating read and at 280 pages is not too exhaustive for some people to dive into.
And of course, listening! The music is the reason for all the interest in the first place. It's wonderful stuff.
Thanks again for your post. It's much appreciated. Take care!
The boys in that choir of kids would definitely be cracking up (no pun intended) if they understood what they were singing.
Also, WHY ARE SCHOOLCHILDREN SINGING THIS?
+Hopeofmen
Why wouldn't they understand what they are singing? We have choirs in Germany too, you know?
+AdalRoderick
Disregard everything I just said because this is an Italian choir.
+AdalRoderick I'm pretty sure it's a Catalonian choir.
+AdalRoderick There are no choirs in Italy
+Hopeofmen Because adults don't have the voice for it.
Salieri:
Mozart: My neck..my back...
I HATE that song but it's so relevant here 😂
Jessey Hunt good one
For a sec I thought u were quoting the movie Friday
"Oh I'm hurt! Oh my neck! My back! My neck and my back! I want $150,000! But we can settle out of court right now for $20."
Gio Corvino oh, my 😳😳
I can't believe you went there! Okay, it was funny!
Thank you so very much for pointing out the similarities of personality in Mozart and MJ. So few seem to recognize the devastating effects of being denied a childhood, especially on a genius!
6:20
I'm German. I can understand EVERYTHING they sang! It was HILLARIOUS but also GLORIOUS!!!!
That wouldn't be allowed in New Zealand, as the government is too left and the parents would be outraged
Das ist alt Deutsche
@@shimmeringreflection lol kind of irrelevant and also untrue.
Oh, how sweet you talk about Salieri, and the final scenes you put with Salieri's composition almost made me cry :) you made him justice with this video!
To be fair, or at least precise, *the film never depicts Salieri as having poisoned Mozart*. His actual plan is far more dastardly and takes longer, breaking Mozart down psychologically and thus weakening him more and more physically, to the point where he dies of a combination of alcoholism, chronic insomnia and burn out. In Salieri's narrative in the film, *God actually gets the blame*/credit at the end (by this point the priest looks like he wants to die) for killing "his own beloved" (i.e. Mozart) rather than allow Salieri to share in Mozart's glory.
And thank you for choosing one of my favourite pieces by Salieri to pay him the credit that the historical Salieri deserves! :)
You really didn't think Salieri was to blame? I was never taken in by his blaming god for a moment. He was a smug old lunatic taking advantage of a younger man's insecurities to get a petty revenge, something he was clearly angling for from that first _"Are_ they?" One of the things I find compelling about the character is his meanness, the reality of his petty smallness of mind. He's wonderfully drawn, as is Mozart's annoying, petulant brattiness and ham-handed naive egotism.
At no point did he say Salieri was not to blame ("His actual plan is far more dastardly..."). But yes, like all other gods invented by human twisted imagination, Jehovah is a complete son of a whore.
Honestly, the actor playing the priest did an awesome job. He looks absolutely gutted and haunted by the end of Salieri’s story. It doesn’t even matter if the priest truly believes that Mozart was “sent by God”... he’s mourning the innocent man that Salieri just admitted to setting up for early death. He looks at Salieri like he’s never been in the same room with such evil before.
@@Serai3 « His actual plan is far more dastardly and takes longer, breaking Mozart down psychologically and thus weakening him more and more physically, to the point where he dies of a combination of alcoholism, chronic insomnia and burn out ». See above.
I watched this film because of your video and I can honestly say it’s definitely one of the greatest films I’ve ever watched
I relate to salieri, man. The burden of mediocrity in the face of genius is too hard to handle
Sounds cliche, but just give it your best and you've done right.
Always remember the old saying,
“Talent without training is like silver in the mine.”
Very few people are born with the kind of genius Mozart or da Vinci presented in their life. It may seem overwhelming to have to measure ourselves against them, but it may be best if you measure yourself against yourself. Every day, ask, “Am I better than I was yesterday?” Work hard, keep at it, and do right by yourself. Genii are born every day, but people with genuine dedication are far rarer.
@@Nobythulhu man thanks. I really needed to hear it
Nobythulhu We have one now; Alma Deutscher.
Salieri was not mediocre by any standard. He was a highly respected composer whose works are still performed today. Mozart's reputation was elevated by skilful marketing employed by his widow after his death.
Amadeus is one of the most perfect movies I have ever seen. Aside from some ahistorical elements (which are necessary to the excellent story), it's literally without flaw.
I couldn't agree more
Do Beethoven. I want to know if the decision to cast a Dog was "Grossly Inaccurate" or a "Creative Liberty"
**heavy smoker laugh**
**loud heavy smoker laugh**
[In a smoker voice] I need *MOAR* smokes
Ted Bear lol
Massively underrated comment
The Magic Flute. I saw it first years ago when the Metropolitan Opera used the Chagall sets. I will never forget it
When your shit posts (literally) intended for like 1 person as a giggle is read hundreds of years later by millions.
And your character is based on it.
I strongly disagree with that being evidence for his day to day personality.
@@nextlifeonearth Chill man. The most this video claims is that Mozart was kinda silly/dirty minded; not that it was his day to day personality. There's even an explicit disclaimer saying as much before that segment of the video. 4:25
The letters are just meant to show that silliness was at least some small part of his personality, and it likely would have shone out to others around him at some point (even if only occasionally).
@@nextlifeonearth As far as the movie's presentation of him goes, we already know these are heavily reinterpreted renditions of all of the historical figures involved. And also keep in mind, Salieri in the movie is an unreliable narrator. He could very likely just be hyper fixated on a few perceived instances of carefree silliness in Mozart and projecting that personality onto all his memories.
In fact there's an interpretation of this movie where all the narrator's memories have been significantly skewed through the combined influence of hindsight, old age, mental illness, and subconscious biases from few isolated incidents. Consider the scenes establishing their first meeting: Salieri building up this image of Mozart in his mind only to stumble onto his private conversation with a woman (and the letters at the least establish IRL Mozart could be dirty in private). That initial juxtaposition can leave an impression in the back of Salieri's mind and color his memories and perceptions in the future. Again, especially when considering "present" Salieri is now old, irrelevant, an mentally ill.
This would possibly even affect Salieri's memory and perception of himself. Perhaps the bitterness, victimization, and sense of mediocrity he describes as he recalls these events was non-existent at the time they occurred (or at least subconscious). And as many of his caretakers suspect all along, Salieri's claims to have attempted to murder Mozart may have been retroactive fabrications of his mind.
Basically this interpretation posits the story of this movie is an old senile man having embellished memories that match his perceived narrative in the present - God laughing at his life's efforts through Mozart. I think it elegantly handles a lot of problems some people have with his movie.
@@IronicHavoc I don't have issues with the movie, except that some people actually think the portrayal is legit.
This video implying he was somewhat like that, but was exaggerated, is an understatement. The man had humour, an indication of a smart man. Those letters don't rule out his actual behaviour was the exact opposite of the portrayal.
Imagine how your facebook posts are going to be remember a hundred years from now :D
I saw this movie when it came out in a huge, grand old style theatre in toronto. I was blown away by the acting, direction, photography, and art direction. I was blown away by F. Murray Abrahams performance. Sheer genius. He could convey a thought , in a simple lifting of an eyebrow or twist of the mouth. Absolute acting genius.!!
They're decomposing composers.
There's nothing much anyone can do.
You can still hear Beethoven,
But Beethoven cannot hear you.
-Eric Idle
This reminds me of a joke about Mozart decomposing because his music was heard being played backwards in his grave.
Good thing I don't need ears to read 😎
Monty Python?
But he listens
Actually Beethoven turned a deaf ear to any criticism.
Amadeus is my all time favorite film. It helped me get into classical music when I was in high school. I was an oddball in my generation.
Aw poor Salieri, he was actually a cool guy
F. Murray Abraham's performance in this movie is immense, one of the best i've seen.
"Go ahead, mock me! Laugh! But that wasn't Mozart who was laughing at me, it was God."
Lines you can hear
There's a part at the end of the film where Salieri tells the priest that his music "grows fainter" as the years pass while mozarts music remains well known and lives on. That much is true. I never heard of Salieri until I saw this movie.
Now, I'm not and never have been a player, composer, or even a fan of classical music. But when I was a kid, I was best friends with another kid who lived about 5 or 6 houses up the block from my place. He was a child prodigy classical pianist. He could play it all and very well. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Liszt, Chopin, etc, you name it. Many was the time I'd be hanging out with him at his house when he'd call a time out and go to the grand piano he had in his living room to do his daily practice for an hour or so.
As a result, I have heard of great composers such as Mozart, but still, I never heard of Salieri because as to the best of my knowledge, my friend never played Salieri. Not even once. I'm not even sure if my friend himself even knew who Salieri was.
Just imagine 200 years from now we'll have a movie about how Usher tried to get rid of Michael Jackson.
and 200 years from now another generation will be cursed after hearing Michael Jackson's signature laughter
No you won't.
No. By then it'll be who's usher? MJ won't be forgotten though. Huge difference.
Nah. It’ll be a graphic retelling of his crimes against children. And how people were absolutely insane for thinking he was innocent.
lol
Antonio Salieri taught Mozart's son. I mean if the rivalry was that obvious I doubt that WAM's wife would have gone with that.
Tippet76 I’ve read that Solieri & Mozart was close colleague who admired each other’s work greatly; in fact Soloiei’s Oprah was thought by Mozart to the best Oprah he’d ever heard.
IRL Salieri, in his old age, did in fact suffer from dementia and claim he killed Mozart. It's entirely possible to adore someone genuinely while also harboring envy towards their talent. And when the brain stops working right, subtle emotions like that can come to the surface in a huge way; combine that with failing memory and you've got a perfect storm of issues that can drive a man like Salieri to suddenly change his tune and genuinely believe he thought and felt and acted in a way contrary to reality.
Damn it!!!! I absolutely HATE that damned autocorrect!!!!! That was SUPPOSED to say OPERA!!! OPERA. NOT OPRAH 😡😱😵
@@bonnielong5812 Haha, i understand
@@bonnielong5812 As much as you meant opera....I have to admit....it's still funny!
Downfall. Do Downfall next.
JA!!!!
Yes
vesteel JA JA JA JA!
ja ja ja
Keep calm and bringen sie mir Fegelein.
I cannot ever get enough of this utterly brilliant movie.
That one girl in the choir that's cracking up singing the "Lick my Arse" song is the most relatable of them.
Funny fact. Mark Hamil used his Laugh from his performance in Amadeus as Mozart as a stepping stone for his laugh as the joker. The more you know
The actor is tom hulce
Cojocari Ilarion I know... but if you took the time to do some research about Amadeus, you would realize that it was originally a stage play and both Mark Hamil and Tim Curry both where on broadway In the role of Mozart.
@@Cheesefist They considered having Mark Hamill reprise his stage role, but the executives in their infinite wisdom thought that audiences would only see Luke Skywalker. As much as I enjoy Tom Hulce's performance...I'd have liked to see Mark's.
As far as I remember he was also inspired by Claude Rains's laugh from his performance in The Invisible Man (1933) which makes sense since it sounds eerily similar to Mark Hamill's Joker laugh.
@@jenniferschillig3768 It would have been interesting, but I see where they are coming from, it could have been a George Reeves situation with him. (George Reeves was the original TV Superman, in case you where curious)
I love AMADEUS--it's a profoundly moving experience. It has also made Salieri famous again, and some of Salieri's music is on the AMADEUS soundtrack. He's also a vital character in the movie, the center of dramatic conflict, and it's not only Mozart's music but the dramatic conflict that makes this movie such an emotional experience. I'm glad that the real Salieri didn't live in such agony, though!
I love the end. Delicate little piano piece by Salieri whose music, ironically, got a rebirth after "Amadeus".
Despite the movie's black-guarding of Salieri, I actually saw him as a very tragic anti-hero, especially compared to Mozart, who was a nominal hero at best. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how great his music was, no matter how much more wealthy he was than Mozart, he felt a pang of dread in his soul: Mozart would be remembered, and not him, and Mozart wasn't even trying. In his mind, it was as if God were holding some sort of grudge against him. Mozart's success was seen as an affront not just to a good work ethic, but also to his very own faith.
Salieri saw everything wrong in the world in Mozart: an immature fool who nevertheless held amazing talent, and this allowed him to coast by on life with zero effort. So much for "if you work hard, life will reward you."
Well, he is describing movie!Salieri's point of view and while movie shows effort that Mozart puts in his music, Salieri in the movie is oblivious to that and thus all the more bitter for it.
Yes, I was referring more to Salieri in the movie; him and Mozart were friends in real life, or at least much more friendly than the movie portrays.
Movie Salieri is a tragic anti-hero. Also, I don't think the amount of work Amadeus puts in would matter even if Salieri had recognized it; the fact of the matter is, he was so out of Amadeus's league that the hard work he put in, even if greater than Amadeus, wouldn't have mattered, which, yeah, I would resent such a thing too; I believe that people should be compensated for hard work, even if they aren't terribly good at it. Nobody starts out being a master of something. It was also a matter of Amadeus being an irresponsible man-child as well whereas Salieri was probably under more scrutiny, as evidenced by him having to convince the King to pick him over Amadeus.
BLACKIESBOY This is true in all fields, including ths sciences.
A masterpiece on all levels. One of my favorites of all time. Outstanding acting, screenplay, cinematography, costumes, location... RIP Milos Forman!
10:00 so basically Mozart was raised like Michael Jackson was. Both had fathers who lived vicariously through their sons and dedicated their entire beings to grooming them for greatness at the expense of any kind of normal life.
Edit: I wrote that before getting to that obvious comparison he makes.
The difference between Mozart & Jackson was this. One had actual talent & did not grow up to be a child sexual predator Freak who wanted to be white.
@@sphinxrising1129 if you are using that documentary made by the 2 men, who's parents and lawyersLITERALLY bribed them to lie at the jury, admitted that they lied years later, and then LIED again for a few more hollywood money. you're no better than Salieri.
also the fact that Many people in California wanted Michael out, since he was becoming too powerful to the point of even buying capitol and build his own studio, and the fact that he owned Half of Sony's shares.
the day when the DoJ opens the black box of the Music Industry will be insane, its literally Goodfellas on Crack.
Anthony, um Mozarts dad didn't torture his kids, or abuse them. He was demanding and controlling, but never brutal or hurtful. His actions were based on a love of G-d.
@@sphinxrising1129 sad but true
@@Bitterman5868 you forgot that Jackson had tripwires inside his labyrinthine house which beeped in his bedroom. Several children also accurately described the guys (Jacksons) penis
The 'Directors Cut' really enriches this movie , especially his wife and Salieri !
I freaking love mozart!
I love YOU Beethoven. Hope technology has somehow given your hearing back bud.
Beethoven, is it true that you met Mozart once?
Me too :) but I love your music too
Lol bethoven
You should. Salieri was your most influential music teacher!!!
Salieri taught Beethoven how to write for voices. And it makes sense, since salieri came from an era that valued this kind of composition.
So Salieri technically took part in the composition of one of them most revolutionary symphonies of Romanticism, Ode to Joy, by teaching the composer how to write for voice (which is a major part of the symphony)?! Where's mediocre in that?!
I find Salieri to be a sympathetic character in Amadeus. The worse thing he does is from a deleted scene, which in my opinion is out of character, so I agree with it being taken out. Other than that, all evil hapens inside his head, and we all are guilty of evil thoughts. His actions reflect the admiration he has for Mozart's music. After he debuts his Opera, he receives glowing reviews from the Emperor, but all he cares about is Mozart's opinion. He sneaks in to the theater every time Mozart''s music is played. He commisions a Requiem, hoping to steal it after he dies, but has no real plan to kill him. Above all, Salieri is he only man who understands the magnitude of the gulf which separates his merit and talent from Mozart's incredible genius.
The boobie scene?
That's the one!
@@DoctorZisIN total dick move but nice natural boobs😅👍
Just watched the Director's Cut last night. Yup, I dont remember seeing those boobs as a kid when I first saw the movie, but really admiring Stanzi's cleavage in those push up dresses.
Mozart was truly ahead of his time, using fog machines in live shows!
Would Mozart have been an Adam Sandler fan if he was alive today?
Lmao
Dude, biggest fan is what he woulda been :)
+william lydon so Mozart arguably the biggest musical genius in history would've liked Jack and Jill, Little Nicky, and 8 Crazy Nights which are arguably some of worst movies ever made.
Daniel Erbes He wrote a song called "Lick my Ass" sounds like a match to me :)
Nah, we smart people aren't down with racists :)
The Confutatis scene is the best piece of film about music ever created. It's a master class on how orchestral music is put together, and the acting is brilliant. What most people don't know is that Abraham actually lost the thread of the scene at one point and had to get it back. (The bit where he gets confused about the identical notes.) But he's such a great actor that he managed to keep it together and USE his confusion to make the scene even better. And here's another thing hardly anyone ever thinks about: there IS NO MUSIC PLAYING in that room. The music is all in their _heads_ as they're talking - that room is completely silent. Imagine how the scene would have played out if there'd been no score there, just the two of them arguing tiny little technical details. It would have been incomprehensible to anyone not a musician. But add the music and suddenly it all makes sense, and that moment when Mozart pauses with his hand in the air and then brings it DOWN to start that incredible, glorious flood of sound is flabbergasting. Hell, I get goosebumps every time I hear it!
Of course, this scene is also one of the least accurate in the film: in reality, Salieri had nothing whatsoever to do with the Requiem. But that in no way detracts from its brilliance as a piece of historical fiction. Most historical plays, novels and films are a mixture of fact, speculation and outright fiction; while it is interesting to compare them with the historical facts, insofar as we know them, what ultimately matters, I think, is how well they work *as fictional narratives*.
@@ugolomb For gods' sakes, talk about missing the point of my comment. But hey, you get to feel good about pissing on the scene, so that's all that matters, right?
@@Serai3
You didn't read my comment, did you? I didn't piss on the scene at all. I just said it's historically inaccurate, and then said that fictional narratives shouldn't be judged for historical accuracy. That doesn't mean that it's wrong to point out where they depart from reality; these are two separate issues
Mozart would have LOVED Dumb & Dumber!!
And Family Guy and south Park.
@@lonelymoe1822 South Park is high brow.
Mozart would have loved the Dumb and Dumber duo's restruant scam.
Imagine how brilliant a would-be "Dumb and Dumber" opera would have been
So what?
Loved the video. Mozart was practically my best friend with I was very young. I knew who Mozart, Beethoven, etc. were before I knew anything about rock music. The first time I saw “Amadeus”, I got so angry to see my childhood “friend” treated that way. However, I rewatched it several years later after having read the play at which point, it became one of my favorite movies with my absolute favorite soundtrack of all time. I even went so far as to record the audio of the entire movie to use as a full cast audio book years before that became a “thing”.
I would love to see a video about how similar or different Beethoven’s life was from “Immortal Beloved”.