Elementary school is definitely too young for this movie, but then again, I got the traditional First Communion gift for Catholic kids that like to read, i.e. Greek Myths in the edition of Gustav Schwab, which means at age 8 I read all about the Greek Gods messing with humans, Atreus serving his brother his carved up kids for dinner, Achilles dragging Hector’s dead body around the Troy, etc. So what do I know?
Anyway, the Requiem scene is one of the best scenes ever, in any movie, and one of the few that to me manage to convey what the act of artistic creation feels like, as well as being the emotional climax of the entire movie, and yes, only possible in the cinematic medium.
(BTW, rewatching, I was also struck by what a great job the mask and makeup people did. On the old age make up for F. Murray Abraham, obviously, which feels organic, not fake or uncanny valley like the way some digital effects these days do, but also on Tom Hulce as Mozart’s health gets worse and worse through the last section of the movie.)
Re: Contanze’s MeToo moment, yes or no: I actually changed my mind on this one, as my initial reaction years ago when I first saw the director’s cut was that I thought the movie was better without it, whereas during this rewatch, it felt right for the reasons I named. Also, Contanze is depicted as pragmatic and practical - without this experience, wouldn’t she have feared alienating Salieri in the final scene? I mean, yes, he’s obviously not fulfilled his promise to her in the cinematic release, but he’s still a rich and influential man, and her husband is very very sick, not able to work. (She doesn’t know he’s dying.) Which means someone will have to pay doctor’s and apothecary bills and their living expenses for the foreseeable future. (She doesn’t trust Schikaneder to come through with the Magic Flute earnings, after all.) So I think without that experience with Salieri, it would have made more sense for her to swallow down any distrust and at least play along on the chance Salieri will help them this time.
I don't think I've ever seen (well, heard) anything else like this, where the transfer to cinema allows special effects in a specifically focused aural sense (instead of primarily the visual sense) to transform the original work. (I don't see a lot of films, mind you, and would be very interested if you knew of any others.)
Hm, not in the sense of stageplay-to-movie script, but I do know some movies that use music as a quintessential part of their storytelling (without being musicals or filmed opera, that is). One of the early early sound movies, Fritz Lang’s M, which btw was also Fritz Lang’s first non-silent movie, not only has the bit for Peer Gynt which Peter Lorre’s character whistles as a key leitmotiv throughout (and one that helps uncover his identity) but also literally takes the bit from Rheingold where Wagner scores the transition between Wotan and Loge going from Walhalla to visiting the dwarves in Nibelheim; in M, Lang uses this particular music for the transition between the police scenes to the scenes in the gangster headquarters. (Which also doubles as a funny meta joke, especially since one of Lang’s biggest silent movie successes was Die Nibelungen.)
Speaking of early sound movies, Chaplin was one of the last holdouts against sound - which only he could have afforded, being Chaplin, so you get City Lights as a silent movie at a point where the rest of Hollywood has already converted to sound, and it’s still a success. But he does use sound in this movie, and music, as a way to enhance the work. (And he later scored his own older movies.)
That Mozart and Salieri scene is one of my favourites, too, and makes me grin each time. (Mind you, I suspect that’s what poor Mozart apologizes in the end for to Salieri.)
Immortal Beloved: well, quite. Only saw it once and thought, it desperately wants to be Amadeus and really really isn’t. No offense, Gary Oldman: you’re doing your best with what the script gives you.
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I bet you can’tElementary school is definitely too young for this movie, but then again, I got the traditional First Communion gift for Catholic kids that like to read, i.e. Greek Myths in the edition of Gustav Schwab, which means at age 8 I read all about the Greek Gods messing with humans, Atreus serving his brother his carved up kids for dinner, Achilles dragging Hector’s dead body around the Troy, etc. So what do I know?
Anyway, the Requiem scene is one of the best scenes ever, in any movie, and one of the few that to me manage to convey what the act of artistic creation feels like, as well as being the emotional climax of the entire movie, and yes, only possible in the cinematic medium.
(BTW, rewatching, I was also struck by what a great job the mask and makeup people did. On the old age make up for F. Murray Abraham, obviously, which feels organic, not fake or uncanny valley like the way some digital effects these days do, but also on Tom Hulce as Mozart’s health gets worse and worse through the last section of the movie.)
Re: Contanze’s MeToo moment, yes or no: I actually changed my mind on this one, as my initial reaction years ago when I first saw the director’s cut was that I thought the movie was better without it, whereas during this rewatch, it felt right for the reasons I named. Also, Contanze is depicted as pragmatic and practical - without this experience, wouldn’t she have feared alienating Salieri in the final scene? I mean, yes, he’s obviously not fulfilled his promise to her in the cinematic release, but he’s still a rich and influential man, and her husband is very very sick, not able to work. (She doesn’t know he’s dying.) Which means someone will have to pay doctor’s and apothecary bills and their living expenses for the foreseeable future. (She doesn’t trust Schikaneder to come through with the Magic Flute earnings, after all.) So I think without that experience with Salieri, it would have made more sense for her to swallow down any distrust and at least play along on the chance Salieri will help them this time.
I don't think I've ever seen (well, heard) anything else like this, where the transfer to cinema allows special effects in a specifically focused aural sense (instead of primarily the visual sense) to transform the original work. (I don't see a lot of films, mind you, and would be very interested if you knew of any others.)
Hm, not in the sense of stageplay-to-movie script, but I do know some movies that use music as a quintessential part of their storytelling (without being musicals or filmed opera, that is). One of the early early sound movies, Fritz Lang’s M, which btw was also Fritz Lang’s first non-silent movie, not only has the bit for Peer Gynt which Peter Lorre’s character whistles as a key leitmotiv throughout (and one that helps uncover his identity) but also literally takes the bit from Rheingold where Wagner scores the transition between Wotan and Loge going from Walhalla to visiting the dwarves in Nibelheim; in M, Lang uses this particular music for the transition between the police scenes to the scenes in the gangster headquarters. (Which also doubles as a funny meta joke, especially since one of Lang’s biggest silent movie successes was Die Nibelungen.)
Speaking of early sound movies, Chaplin was one of the last holdouts against sound - which only he could have afforded, being Chaplin, so you get City Lights as a silent movie at a point where the rest of Hollywood has already converted to sound, and it’s still a success. But he does use sound in this movie, and music, as a way to enhance the work. (And he later scored his own older movies.)
That Mozart and Salieri scene is one of my favourites, too, and makes me grin each time. (Mind you, I suspect that’s what poor Mozart apologizes in the end for to Salieri.)
Immortal Beloved: well, quite. Only saw it once and thought, it desperately wants to be Amadeus and really really isn’t. No offense, Gary Oldman: you’re doing your best with what the script gives you.