TRIVIA: Several professors of music stated, after studying all of the musical keys struck on pianos throughout the film, that not one key is struck incorrectly when compared to what is heard at the exact same moment. In other words, what you see is exactly what you hear. When shooting the scene in which Salieri is writing down the death mass under Mozarts dictation, Tom Hulce was deliberately skipping lines to confuse F. Murray Abraham, in order to achieve the impression that Salieri wasnt able to fully understand the music he was dictated. When the movie won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Sir Laurence Olivier was presenting the award. He went up to the podium, opened the envelope and said Amadeus. The problem was he forgot to read the nominees first. The performance of Don Giovanni in the movie was filmed on the same stage where the opera first appeared. 46 of 46 found this interesting | Share this Only four sets needed to be built: Salieris hospital room, Mozarts apartment, a staircase, and the vaudeville theater. All other locations were found locally. F. Murray Abraham learned to read and conduct music for his role. When Mozart upstages Salieri by modifying the march that Salieri wrote for the emperor, the modified piece is actually Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Non Piu Andrai, Farfallone Amoroso from The Marriage of Figaro. Sets and costumes for the operatic productions were based on sketches of the original costumes and sets used when the operas premiered. Elizabeth Berridge, during the Nipples of Venus scene, did not know she could spit out the candy (which was really lumps of marzipan) between takes and ate about 15 whole pieces. She later describes how she thought that they were disgusting and that she eventually made herself sick. In one scene, Mozart refers to Christoph Willibald Gluck as boring and says, I dont like him, regarding George Frideric Handel. However, Gluck and Handel were two of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts favorite composers. It has been claimed that the concept for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts annoying laugh was taken from references in letters written about him, including a description of him having an infectious giddy laugh, and sounding like metal scraping glass. No citations have been provided for these letters, however. There is no indication as to who wrote them, to whom or when. And in the absence of further citations, these claims of historical evidence for Mozarts laugh should be regarded as dubious at best. Robert L. Marshall, writing in Film as Musicology: Amadeus (The Musical Quarterly, Vol.18/2, 1997, p.177) says that there is absolutely no historical evidence for this idiosyncrasy [Mozarts infuriating laugh]. We simply have no contemporary testimony at all as to how Mozart sounded when he laughed. Marshall goes on to explain that the laugh is a dramatic device, representing the mocking laughter of the gods, as in fact Antonio Salieri recognizes in the script. Several real (or at least apocryphal) events from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts life were incorporated into the screenplay, including the interlude between the child Mozart and Marie Antionette, and the Emperors comment that Abduction from the Seraglio had too many notes. The music was pre-recorded and played in the background as scenes were filmed. Tom Hulce practiced four hours a day at the piano to appear convincing. Tim Curry and Mark Hamill both auditioned for the role of Mozart (and played Mozart on Broadway). The Don Giovanni scene was being shot in part on the Fourth of July. During one take, upon Milos Formans call of Action, a large American flag unfurled from the ceiling. 500 extras stood up from their seats and begun to sing The Star Spangled Banner. The only extras that did not stand up were about thirty people, scattered throughout the theater- at first thought to be normal people, but it was deduced that these thirty were the secret police. Prague (Milos Formans native city) was ideal as a stand-in for Vienna, as modern television antennas, plastic and asphalt had rarely been introduced under Communist rule. Salieris chaste, unexpressed love for Katarina Cavalieri is shattered by the realization that Mozart slept with her. In real life, Katarina Cavalieri was Antonio Salieris mistress, not Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts. Amadeus (1984) joins a select group of other Best Picture Academy Award winners never to crack the box office top 5. Milos Forman insisted that his lead actors retain their American accents so that they could concentrate on their characters and performance instead. According to John Harknesss book The 1999 Academy Awards Handbook, Maurice Jarre, in his speech accepting the 1984 Best Original Score Oscar for A Passage to India (1984), expressed his gratitude that Amadeus (1984) had not been Oscar-nominated for Best Original Score. An obvious joke, since none of Amadeus score was original. Entire film was shot with natural light. In order to get the proper diffusion of light for some scenes, the DPs covered windows from the outside with tracing paper. In preparation for some aspects of the title role, actor Tom Hulce studied footage of John McEnroes on-court tennis tantrums Baron van Swieten (played by Jonathan Moore) has a Dracula connection. He was the son of Gerhard van Swieten, appointed by Empress Maria Theresia to squelch a vampire hysteria sweeping Austrian society and especially the armed forces. As the Imperial vampire hunter, the elder van Swieten was Bram Stokers inspiration for the character of Van Helsing in Dracula. Peter Shaffer broke down in tears when he first visited the Prague opera house, knowing that Mozart himself had performed there. The portrait of Leopold Mozart seen in the movie, while made to look like Roy Dotrice, is based on and has a very close resemblance to a real portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts father. The original is in the care of the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg. Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham had a deliberately distant working relationship during the making of the film, much as Mozart and Salieri had in real life. Walter Frith is watching...
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 23:36:36 +0000
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