My Favorite Miloš Forman Film

I think it's fair to call "Amadeus" one of the formative films of my moviegoing life, a film I've watched many, many times over the years, both as a child and as an adult. When I was younger, I loved seeing the stagecraft and the pageantry of Mozart's world, the ostentatious period costumes and the grandeur of the Habsburg court of Emperor Joseph II. As I grew older, I learned to appreciate the use of the music, the performances, and the filmmaking. And when I was in college, I saw it for the first time in theaters, a Special Edition cut that added several scenes of more adult material.

That's when I began to appreciate "Amadeus" as a subversive film, about a bawdy, bad boy musician who rebels against authority in order to make the music that he wants. He's vulgar and irresponsible with money, fond of parties and excess, and is eventually brought down by his own ego. I started watching Miloš Forman's other films, noting similar themes in the counterculture musical "Hair," the Larry Flynt biopic, and perhaps the ultimate story of a man rebelling against the system, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Note that nearly all of Forman's later films also end with the main character's self-destruction and untimely demise.

Forman had plenty of experience with rebellion and going to great lengths to make his art on his own terms. After distinguishing himself as a major talent in the Czechoslovakian New Wave in the '60s, and earning the ire of the government with the satirical "Fireman's Ball," Forman was ousted from the Czech film industry in the early '70s. A decade later, after finding success in Hollywood, he would return to shoot "Amadeus" in Prague. Like the madmen and creative geniuses who featured frequently in his films, Forman had a tendency to become obsessed with his projects, often unable to work on more than one at a time, and abandoning at least one major undertaking due to not being able to bear compromising his vision.

"Amadeus" isn't just about Mozart, but also his rival. Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) is one of my favorite characters in cinema, a successful composer who realizes that he's musically mediocre, and becomes increasingly jealous of the genius of Mozart (Tom Hulce), who he views as an obnoxious child. I'd have loved to see the celebrated Ian McKellan stage performance of Salieri brought to the screen, but Abraham's work here is unforgettable. The film widens the scope of the original play to show us a more complete and nuanced picture of Mozart, but it's still framed as Salieri's confession, and driven by his obsessions with God and music. His monologues have been transformed into conversations with his priest, allowing for more measured, more directed presentation of his observations as we watch Mozart's career progress.

This was typical of Forman's adaptations, which were faithful in spirit to the original works, but often drastically reworked in order to meet the more visual demands of cinematic storytelling. Forman certainly didn't skimp when it came to the visuals in "Amadeus," resurrecting the original opera house where "Don Giovanni" premiered, and rewriting a scene to make better use of the Archbishop's Palace locations. Mozart's operas are lavishly staged, and used in the film to mirror various aspects of Mozart's life and career. The climax of "Don Giovanni" providing the inspiration for Salieri's scheme is especially chilling. And then of course there is Mozart's music, heard constantly throughout the film, supervised and conducted by Neville Marriner. The famous Requiem Mass deathbed composition scene was created specifically for "Amadeus," a spectacular confluence of music, visuals, and the acting performances of Abraham and Hulce.

I grew up listening to classical music all of my life, but the experience of watching "Amadeus" was one of the few times that I felt I really had proper context for any of it. Though the particulars of the story and the relationship of Mozart and Salieri are almost totally invented, the humanization of Mozart gave me so much more appreciation for his work. And similarly the more I learn about Miloš Forman and what he undertook to bring "Amadeus" to the screen, the more I marvel at its successes.

What I've Seen - Milos Forman

Black Peter (1964)
Loves of a Blonde (1965)
The Firemen's Ball (1967)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Hair (1979)
Amadeus (1984)
The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
Man on the Moon (1999)
Goya's Ghosts (2006)



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