So this one is longer than I thought . . . . which is why I'm posting at 4am and why this may be a bit disjointed. Anyway, it's an interesting look at Antonio Salieri's (F. Murray Abraham) version of Mozart's (Tom Hulce) life. Told by the recently committed to an asylum for trying to slit his throat Salieri, the film looks at quite a bit of Mozart's life. The pompous Salieri deems himself chosen by God to play and produce music and does so for the Austrian court until Mozart shows up. Ironically, Salieri was inspired to love music by Mozart as a child but comes to despise the younger man because he lacks the "proper" reverence, which Salieri, of course, has promised to God (chastity, etc). Mozart goes through life like it's one big Bacchanalia and that just irks Salieri to no end so he pledges to destroy the much more talented artist to spite God for only making him mediocre when he promised God everything. It develops into quite the love/hate one-sided relationship with Salieri attending every performance of Mozart's work and experiencing some sort of orgasmic ecstasy when just looking at Mozart's handwritten work while he simultaneously attempts to undermine Mozart's every turn and eventually plots to kill him.
I liked this one. It's an interesting look at an unreliable narrator and the proliferation of the myth of a villain where there was likely only a slight rivalry. But, while I like the old delusional self-appointed saint of the mediocre Salieri as the one-sided selfish narrator, I wish the aging make-up were better. There are just too many close-ups where it looks like the stuff is just going to slide off his face.
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