Amadeus
 

I just got done with watching this movie, and I feel as if I was transported to another time watching it. Absolutely AMAZING. IMHO, one of THE BEST movies ever made, in my own humble opinion. Who else likes this?

One bone that I have to pick:

In the dialog track:
Normally, there is a tape hiss, along with the ambient sounds and vocals. During the talking, the noise floor plummeted during each word and them came back after each word and in the pauses....and in the parts where there is no dialog....

Anyone else catch this? REALLY disconcerting at the end, and annoying.

Also, It gave me goosebumps while watching it. The Dynamics are amazing. I gotta find a clean copy of the soundtrack. Mine's REALLY dirty and unlistenable.

I've lost so many eBay auctions on the Laserdisc format for this movie, it makes me cry.

The story is good, but the music is killer.

Incredible movie - I have watched it probably half a dozen times. The selection of his music is perfect for the movie, and skillfully presented by St. Martin in the Fields. I have the soundtrack (double or triple CD - can't remember), which is well worth getting whether you have seen the movie or not.

I am with you, VD - spine-shilling movie.

Rock me, Amadeus!
 

Pretty good movie. I really enjoyed it as well, even though I saw it when it was a new movie! :sigh:

Seconded.

DEFINITELY. Great intro to Mozart. I gotta try to clean my copy. I cannot wait to listen to it!

There are very few movies that can leave me in a daze for hours afterward, but this is sure one of them. :yes:

I do :D

Excellent movie.

I think that we are going to watch this together. SOON. :yes:

your take on this, Lex?

What did you like about it?

sounds good :D

I've not seen it for years... I don't remember any specific opinions I formed other than I liked it...

:smlove:

Now you have to see this, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110116/.

I work in the theater and "Amedeus" was a play back in the early '80s, before it was a movie. There was a line that Salliari had that was cut from the movie. Salliari was describing Amedeus to someone and used this description: "That shit talking Mozart and his body slapping wife". That quote has stuck with me for some reason for the last 25 years. I loved the movie but not as much as the play.

There is a music only track on the DVD. :music::music:

I haven't seen it in years, but now I've got the urge to check it out again.. Thanks David.

It was years ago, but good especially as you have now been introduced to real music.

Not to be a party pooper, but remember that this was a *story*. Most historians have concurred that the movie was just conjecture, pure Hollywood. Still, it's a fantastic movie when taken in that context and there's enough biographical and historical fact in it to get one's interest.

Hard to believe that the lead (Tom Hulce) was also "Pinto" in Animal House!

My favorite scene is when Wolfie is mocking Salieri at that party and farts.

It seems like I read somewhere that Mozart and Salieri were actually friends!

Hulce made the movie.
 

Tom Hulce did some great acting--Amadeus was his best among roles with which I am acquainted. Did he get an Oscar nomination? The musical score was among the best I have ever heard. I am not as big a fan of Mozart as, say, Beethoven and Franz Liszt, but the movie score was irresistible and superb. I saw the flick originally in the theater and was very impressed, although I can be turned off by the typical Hollywood treatment these days: Let's explore the seamy, gritty, stinky side of what was heretofore beautiful, noteworthy and praiseworthy. Anyway, I think I will check out the rest of the cast on IMDB.com. I don't remember who played Mozart's wife.

Elizabeth Berridge. She's hot! Especially in the director's cut!!:naughty:

F. Murray Abraham was brilliant as Salieri IMO.

I saw the film in the theater,also,and I loved the soundtrack,but Milos Formans films seem to always focus on the dark and cynical side of human nature.I also think that he thinks most people are pretty awful.
Jimmy

The most important thing the movie did for me is that it introduced me to Mozart's Requiem: Up to the point of the movie being released, I had mostly listened to Mozart's "happy-go-lucky" music (most of his works are light-hearted and uncomplicated, at least on the surface), but avoided his darker works. After Amadeus, the Requiem is probably my favorite piece of Mozart's music, if not my favorite classical piece.

The movie has some great music, and is certainly very entertaining. But don't take it as a music history lesson because the story-line has very little basis in fact.

I haven't seen Amadeus in years. My local library has a copy so I think I'll be checking it out.

cubdog

It is a Hollywood movie, I really doubt anyone over the age of 8 is going to think it is accurate.

I have seen it numerous times, but not the past few years. The characters are all a trip, especially Salieri and the Archduke. I love when Salieri tosses the crucifix on the fire and says, "We are enemies, you and I."

Great movie.

Excellent movie.... I still have the VHS tape of it and haven't watched it in years. I need to see it again.... I also have the soundtrack which is I believe 3 cd's... Great music..... To this day I love the last song of the movie with the credits rolling. I forget the exact name of the piece but it is awesome...

Me too, and I think that my neighbors had a nice listen, too.....:D:music:

Good catch, Salieri was a bigger star than Mozart in real life. Salieri went on to teach composition to Beethoven, Hummel, Liszt, Schubert and a vertual who's who of great composers, and Mozart's kid. After his death Salieri's star status was forgotten like thousands of other great composers of their day.

Top 5 for me!

Soundtrack is available on CD, double CD. pretty good mix of songs, but its better to look for complete pieces; operas, symphonies son on and so forth.

Oh yeah, Pinto Rules! Animal House is Top 5 Too!

Schubert -- Love his Unfinished Symphony, especially the first movement.

Can you imagine teaching the likes of the aforementioned geniuses and thinking, "man, I would like to get home and have a beer, my feet are killing me. And that damn Beethoven kid, I'll beat his butt. Who the hell does he think he is?!"

Aren't we the luckiest folk on the planet? Just pop the cd in and listen to the best music ever, whenever we want, as much as we want, at virtually no cost?

For me, it is an LP, but still the same idea...

and :lmao:

Amadeus is an absolute gem. It is a well done movie, it was a great play and I used it in teaching music history due to its closeness to the truth. There was a certain amount of artistic license to be sure, but basically it is very close to reality. Mozart was a foul-mouthed little shit but what talent otherwise! I wish all the great composers had their stories told as well as this film!!!!!

dulcimerlex and I just got done with side one of the DVD, and WOW! She loved it! So did I, again.

What a wonderful movie. I am still in the afterglow of it.

Dude.

I agree. There was a free to the public performance of it about a year ago here at IU which has a well-regarded music program. They performed in one of the smaller venues and the performers took up basically all of the stage, they really raised the roof. It was pretty special.

I Wish that my theater department could put that on...but we don't have the budget for that. I know that I would be there helping out all that I could.

The most hillarious thing about this film to me is that in the movie the antagonist, Antonio Salieri, hates Mozart in old age because his songs are more well remembered. In real life Salieri was more or less a forgotten composer until Amadeus premered and renewed peoples interest. Now his complete works can be had on CD.

That explains why I never say a Salirei LP....

LOL, this reminds me of my freshman music history professor, Dr. David G. Phillips, at the University of South Carolina. You have to imagine this outwardly grumpy old man, so grumpy that he could've made Walter Matthau tuck his tail between his legs, but with this slow, higher-class sounding, old-fashioned Southern drawl. His comment on the movie "Amadeus": "It's lies, all lies! Now, E.T., that's a good movie, I love E.T.!"

Great movie!:thmbsp:

I just love F. Murray Abrahams portrayal of extreme jealousy.


Russ