Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!cbosgd!ihnp4!bbncca!sdyer From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Amadeus -- the movie Message-ID: <954@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 00:03:59 EDT Article-I.D.: bbncca.954 Posted: Mon Sep 24 00:03:59 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 05:28:48 EDT Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 39 I went to Amadeus expecting a lot, having read the early critical reviews. What a disappointment! This is a movie infused with the petit bourgeois concept of "high art", but truly anti-art in its execution. It is a movie for people who would rather talk about music than listen to it. It gives us Mozart's life in a disjointed series of sitcom-style vignettes, separated by the aged Salieri's narration, and wonderful musical excerpts. The trouble is, the movie gathers no momentum. The writing is often banal, and the "schtick", namely Salieri's "mediocrity" in the face of Mozart's "divine genius" is rehashed over and over, without much amplification of our understanding of either character. Only when Mozart's music is performed (in luscious Dolby stereo) does the movie pick up, but it's over all too soon, and it's back to the sitcom again. The movie plods forward up to Mozart's death, and after 2 1/2 hours, I was glad he didn't live to a ripe old age. The acting is generally OK, within the limits of the cardboard characterizations provided by the script. Neither Mozart nor Salieri are given much depth: they are caricatures. Two characterizations are worth noting: Mozart's wife is played as if she were an American housewife from the Valley. This seemed bizarre at first, but it ultimately works: it's an interesting attempt to find a modern metaphor for her well-known frugality and domesticity. Finally, the Emperor is a gem. The actor looks like he walked out of a painting of the Hapsburgs, and his mannerisms are wonderful and sublimely subtle: a not-too-smart, semi-talented statesman who must suffer the company of his fawning court. Neither of these are worth the price of admission, however. I guess what really bothers me with "Amadeus" is the terrible imbalance I see: this is an EXPENSIVE movie. So very much money was spent on location shots, sets, costumes, music, and photography. In every sense, all of these are first rate. So much so that they expose the true artistic mediocrity of screenwriter Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman: there's very little here which can carry its own in such rarefied company. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA