Miloš Forman’s original version of his Oscar-winning drama, beautifully restored, is a sublime and frequently uproarious portrait of artistic jealousy.
A welcome return to the big screen for the original-cut of Miloš Forman’s Academy Award-winning adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s acclaimed stage play.
As he stares down death from the confines of a psychiatric hospital, former Austrian court composer Antonio Salieri tells a priest about his role in the murder of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The initial joy at the thought of meeting and hopefully collaborating with the young musical genius sours when, instead of encountering a humble artist in thrall to the gift God has bestowed on him, Salieri is faced with a lecherous man-child who rides roughshod over his lesser compositional skills.
Forman mines Shaffer’s own adaptation of his play for all its subversive humour. Like his previous Oscar winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus finds the filmmaker balancing comedy with darker tones that become more oppressive – and richer in detail – as the film progresses.
F. Murray Abraham received the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Salieri, but the film’s success lies in his interplay with Hulce’s uproarious, sensitive and ultimately heartbreaking portrayal of Mozart. An intimate epic, Amadeus screens here in a beautifully restored version of the original theatrical cut.
Ian Haydn Smith, writer and curator