Amadeus

Miloš Forman’s 1984 film lets the court composer Salieri tell it, as a confession to an asylum priest. In Peter Shaffer’s play Salieri addresses the audience directly; the priest is the film’s own addition, and the narrator’s unreliability rests there. The operas were shot at the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart staged the premiere of Don Giovanni in 1787. Neville Marriner took the music on one condition: not one note of Mozart would change. The recording came before shooting, so the cast played to music that already existed; Tom Hulce worked at the keyboard three or four hours a day. At the 57th Academy Awards it drew eleven nominations and won eight: Best Picture, Directing, Actor in a Leading Role (F. Murray Abraham), Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) (Shaffer), Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup and Sound. Hulce was nominated alongside Abraham there; Cinematography and Film Editing did not convert. A 2002 director’s cut adds scenes and moves the rating from PG to R; Forman said he cut whatever was not directly tied to the plot. A good fit if it matters that the operas were shot in Mozart’s own hall. Not for anyone taking the poisoning story as documented; it circulated by 1791, Pushkin dramatised it in 1830, and Salieri denied it.