Milos Forman
Amadeus

Truer than true, but, in the end, all false. Milos Forman, a Czechoslovak director naturalized American, after the success of the long seller "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and the hippie musical "Hair", which was out of time, takes a break from the present and dives into the past. He "resurrects" a play by Peter Shaffer dated 1979, which, even at the time, caused a sensation given the thesis it supports (let it be said, completely unfounded and totally invented): Antonio Salieri, Court musician, in 18th century Vienna recalls, locked in an asylum, confessing to having deliberately wanted to destroy the life of the talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, unworthy, in his view, of the talent that God or whoever had given him. All false, all a product of Shaffer's imagination who also invents an episode that actually occurred but turns its content and characters upside down: Mozart, already sick and very poor, is contacted by a mysterious individual (he presents himself with a carnival mask) who commissions him a Requiem. In reality, it really happened, and the mysterious individual remains mysterious even today, although theories about his identity have abounded over the years; the most accredited identify him as Franz von Walsegg, an employee of Johann Sortschan’s law firm, others as Johann Michael Puchberg, a Masonic merchant whom Mozart knew and to whom he owed a substantial sum of money. Schaffer identifies him, coincidentally, as Salieri: the thesis would be fascinating, at times even "magical", but it is certain that although the commissioner remains mysterious, scholars and experts have always dismissed the hypothesis proposed by Schaffer.

Mozart's life was one of the most incredible and extraordinary in the entire musical world, a very young talent burnt out in very little time. Forman portrays him as a sort of "rockstar" of opera music, an imp who cannot be contained or confined, an alien in the world of the late 18th century, formal and adorned. A questionable description, certainly he was a man, better say a boy, who defied all pre-established conventions and turned the idea of opera at that time upside down. We know that opera, despite the scores being written by German or Austrian authors, required the Italian language in the text, and Mozart did not like this so much that he came into conflict with nobility and court musicians because, yes, being Austrian, opera should have a German-language text. But if the depiction of Mozart’s character works and might even be more real than reality, that of Salieri, the antagonist, is certainly a child of Shaffer’s work. The Italian musician certainly feared being overshadowed by the talented Austrian musician, but he was never really as rancorous and vindictive as Forman portrays him, and he also had considerable artistic and compositional satisfaction (39 theatrical compositions to his credit).

Yet Forman’s film, if taken with a grain of salt, is phenomenal. In rhythm and form, especially. Two and a half hours fly by, and it is no simple feat given the subject, just as the most famous Mozart compositions fit perfectly within the plot, from "The Marriage of Figaro" to "Don Giovanni", from "The Magic Flute" (operetta for the masses, so Mozart thought) to the aforementioned "Requiem". He is aided by two stunning actors, F. Murray Abraham who owes his international fame precisely to his very evil Salieri and a stunning Tom Hulce in the role of Mozart. Let's not forget the figure of Emperor Joseph II (played here by Jeffrey Jones), a cultured man, an enlightened ruler, also a musician despite not fully understanding the Mozartian revolution of the time.

Forman reconstructs 18th century Vienna in his Prague and relies on a first-rate technical department that allows him to have really sensational costumes and makeup at his disposal. He thus constructs a biography that is a biography up to a point and that finds its raison d'être in the concept of art above everything and everyone: Mozart was an innate talent, a total genius, but he lived off passion, spontaneity, brief and fleeting moments of joy, he didn't cultivate talent, he didn’t tame it, he left it free and wild. He lived off art, for better or for worse.

It won 8 Oscars (best film, best director, best leading actor, best costumes, best sound, best makeup, best production design) all, to be honest, impeccable, and gave Forman his second huge Hollywood success, which, alas, he squandered in subsequent films while maintaining good quality (excluding the excellent "Man on the Moon", 1999). And that "Amadeus" meant a lot to him became even more obvious in 2002 when he released a director’s cut of over 20 minutes on DVD. Even more beautiful than the version released in cinemas in 1984. Music, maestro.