‘Mozart! Forgive your assassin. I confess I killed you. Forgive ‘Mozart! me, Mozart!’ So, to the dramatic opening strains of Mozart’s G minor Symphony No. 25, begins Amadeus – perhaps the greatest film about classical music ever produced. Described as a ‘fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri’ by Peter Shaffer, upon whose play the script was based, the film takes as its premise the ‘confession’ of Antonio Salieri to the murder of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – a rumour first circulated in 1825 when whisperings of a poisoning gripped Vienna, and embellished in the years that followed by playwright Alexander Pushkin and composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Though at times there may have been professional tensions, there is little historical evidence of a bitter rivalry between the two composers, let alone a murderous plot. Yet, this gripping black fantasy of genius and ‘mediocrity’ – as a jealous and wrathful Salieri must accept as his God-given fate – proves the perfect vehicle to showcase the dazzling skill and versatility of Mozart’s music, and to reflect in a surprisingly sophisticated way on the nature of brilliance, and creativity’s power to consume and destroy.
Released by Orion Pictures in September 1984, the film took the Oscars by storm the following March. Nominated in 11 categories, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture for producer Saul Zaentz, Best Director for Miloš Forman, Best Screenplay for Peter Shaffer and Best Actor for F Murray Abraham, who played made near-exclusive use of Mozart’s unaltered music – acknowledged by Forman and Shaffer as the film’s ‘third character’.
