F. Murray Abraham

Tom Hulce

Elizabeth Berridge

Simon Callow

Roy Dotrice

Christine Ebersole

Jeffrey Jones

Charles Kay

Kenny Baker

Lisbeth Bartlett

Barbara Bryne

Martin Cavani

Roderick Cook

Milan Demjanenko

Peter DiGesu

Richard Frank

Patrick Hines

Nicholas Kepros

Philip Lenkowsky

Herman Meckler

Jonathan Moore

Cynthia Nixon

Brian Pettifer

Vincent Schiavelli

Douglas Seale

Miroslav Sekera

John Strauss

Karl-Heinz Teuber

Miro Grisa

Samuel Ramey

Helena Cihelníková

Felicity Lott

Karel Gult

Richard Stilwell

Zuzana Kadlecová

Isobel Buchanan

Magda Čelakovská

Anne Howells

Slavěna Drášilová

Deborah Rees

Eva Šenková

Patricia Payne

Leoš Kratochvíl

Alexander Oliver

Gino Zeman

Robin Leggate

Jaroslav Mikulín

John Tomlinson

Ladislav Krečmer

Willard White

Karel Fiala

Jan Blažek

Zdeněk Jelen

Suzanne Murphy

June Anderson

Milada Čechalová

Brian Kay

Gillian Fisher

John Carrafa

Sara Clifford

Richard Colton

Shelley Freydont

Anne Glasner

Barbara Hoom

Mary Ann Kellogg

Raymond Kurshals

John Malashock

Jennifer Rawe

Tom Rawe

William Whitener

Hana Brejchová

Miriam Chytilová

Karel Effa

Radka Fidlerová

René Gabzdyl

Karel Hábl

Aťka Janoušková

Marta Jarolímková

Gabriela Krčková

Vladimír Krouský

Jiří Krytinář

Jan Kuželka

Radka Kuchařová

Jiří Lír

Lenka Loubalová

Dagmar Mašková

Ladislav Mikeš

Jitka Molavcová

Jana Musilová

Vojtech Nalezenec

Pavel Nový

Jiří Opsatko

Jan Pohan

Tereza Pokorná-Herzová

Ivan Pokorný

Bertil Ohlsson

Miloš Forman

Michael Hausman

Michael Chandler

Peter Shaffer

Saul Zaentz

Miroslav Ondříček

Nena Danevic

Theodor Pištěk

Thomas Scott

Jay Boekelheide

Mark Berger

Patrizia von Brandenstein

Phil Bray

Todd Boekelheide

Karel Černý

Anne Gyory

Jaromír Komárek

Mary Goldberg

David Rubin

Ken Tuohy

Maggie Cartier

Twyla Tharp

Paolo Fabbri

Miroslav Hájek

Magda Hájková

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Neville Marriner

Laszlo Heltay

John McCarthy

Simon Preston

Imogen Cooper

Ivan Moravec

Yves Nolleau

Mark Adler

Deborah Guardian

Fabrizio Caracciolo

James Bawden

Tom Priestley Jr.

Trevor Coop

James Halligan

Billy Kerwick

John Nutt

Richard Quinlan

Tom Gilligan

Teresa Book

Michael Magill

Zdeněk Mahler

Paul LeBlanc

Barbara McBane

Lynda Redfield

Michael Ross

Debra McDermott

Robert Connors

Karen Spangenberg

Vivien Hillgrove

Jules Roman

Jonas Thaler

Paul Zaentz

Ken Weston

Josh Zaentz

Nancy Eichler

Cathy Hausman

Pam Hausman

Chris Newman

Robert Horne

Victor Livingston

Sandina Bailo-Lape

Stephen J. Sutter

Diana Pellegrini

T.M. Christopher

Laura Louis

Paige Sartorius

Tim Holland

David Dresher

Aubrey Head

C.J. Appel

Tom Bellfort

B.J. Sears

E. Jeane Putnam

Karen Brocco

John Morris

František Zapletal

Vladimír Mácha

Zdeňka Černá

Hana Zrostlíková

Věra Vláčilová

Jana Hauserová

Bedřich Čermák

Tomáš Tintěra

Jozef Hrabušický

Vaclav Eisenhamer

Václav Rouha

František Vláčil ml.

History

Music

Drama

Amadeus

The Saul Zaentz Company

United States of America

_**Lively costume biography about Mozart’s last nine years in Austria**_

Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is a competent but mediocre composer in Vienna, Austria, in the late 1700s. He recognizes the God-given genius of the younger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and struggles with bitter envy. The story is told in flashback as Salieri shares it with a cleric decades later at an asylum. 

“Amadeus” (1984) is an entertaining costume drama that successfully takes you back to Vienna from 1783-1791. Mozart was basically the rock star of the era and some of his dynamic music even evokes certain modern rock styles. Giving the main characters personality helps bring the events alive and the flashback structure makes for compelling storytelling. 

On the feminine front, Elizabeth Berridge plays Amadeus’ cute & feisty wife, Constanze, while Christine Ebersole is on hand as a ravishing opera singer, sorta reminiscent of Tina Root of Switchblade Symphony (albeit taller).   

The original Broadway play concentrated on character motivation with music in the background while the movie focuses a little too much on it. Unless you’re an opera aficionado, the extensive scenes of Mozart's and Salieri's operas being performed become tiresome after a while and unnecessarily bloat the film, somewhat muting the story. When the Emperor yawns during a performance of “Figaro” I could relate because a lot of opera music sounds the same to me.
 
Nonetheless, this is an informative and amusing biography of Wolfgang’s last nine years; very well done. 

The movie runs 2 hours, 40 minutes and was shot mostly in the Czech Republic.

GRADE: B+/A-

CinemaSerf

Rarely can I think of a more worthy multi-award winning performance than that from F. Murray Abraham in this masterfully crafted - if entirely speculative - retrospective on the life and times of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (portrayed here by the astonishingly effective Tom Hulce). Abraham portrays the duplicitous, envious and malevolent Antonio Salieri, the court composer to Emperor Joseph II of Austria (Jeffery Jones). He is talented, up to point, and settled in his politically influential and wealthy role, but growing up, he has always been aware of this other young boy who can play, perfectly, composing as he goes. Initially in awe of this man's predigious talent, it isn't long before the green eyed monster starts to rear it's ugly head, and jealousy soon starts to drive his every waking moment. Meantime, the young maestro is attracting more and more attention, acclaim and is soon rivalling Salieri for the attentions of the Emperor himself. At this stage, Salieri must act. How? Well fortunately he is ably assisted by Mozart's own self-destructive character. As a child, compared to a performing monkey, he always had issues with his father (Roy Dotrice) and even when married to Stanzi (Elizabeth Berridge) with his own child, we feel that he is always in search of adulation, appreciation and love whilst treading a very fine line between despair and a chronic fear of poverty and failure - one which leads him to an increasingly addictive existence. What is also striking here, is the extent to which Mozart's music has become pervasive in not just cinema history, but in our broader environment too. I found myself familiar - to varying degrees - with much of the superbly delivered soundtrack. It's all told via a rather apposite "confession" between Salieri and a priest who, as the story develops, struggles with his own faith and his belief that all sins can be forgiven. Perhaps some can't? The attention to detail here is fantastic: the sets, costumes and the location photography contribute hugely to the wonderfully rich look and feel of a film that just oozes style and confidence. Hulce's portrayal of the creative virtuoso as he descends into a maelstrom of misery is thoroughly convincing, and by the end - historical fact being adhered to, at least in this - I felt emotionally drained by the strength of these two tours de forces. A big screen with big sound is a must here, and I think you will find the three hours that this lasts will just fly by.

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