selenak: (Siblings)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote 2024-01-07 11:05 am (UTC)

:) I first saw the movie, too, and then read the stage play, but didn't see it performed until the pandemic started and the RSC made its version available via streaming. I agree it's a fantastic adaptation, not least because it really uses all the advantages the cinema has, most notably the soundtrack (as Peter Shaffer, who wrote the script for both, says in the audio commentary on the dvd, the soundtrack immediately can demonstrate to the audience why Mozart was a genius and Salieri is so upset, whereas in a stage performance, you have sort of rely on your audience knowing at least some Mozart), but also the ability to change locations (and the Prague locations which stand in for 18th century Vienna are incredibly gorgeous). But the reason why I didn't list it is not only that it's a straightforward one stage play-to-screen adaptation which I said I wouldn't do but also that in this case I don't like the play nearly as much as the film, and in the cases of the adaptations I listed, I love both.

(Something the streamed RSC version showed me was that Tom Hulce got seriously underestimated for what he did in that movie. I mean, obviously I loved F. Murray Abraham as Salieri as much as any watcher of the film and he so deserved that Oscar, but the thing is, Mozart on page and in that RSC staging can come across as unrelentingly obnoxious, as having nothing going for him but talent, as a human being. Whereas Tom Hulce's version is someone you can empathize with and care for, which I think is important for the story to work - yes, we feel for Salieri, but if Mozart is just obnoxious, it's just a black comedy, and there's no reason why Salieri should feel guilty at all, let alone be driven near mad years later.

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