9. Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)

Hands up who hasn’t felt jealous of someone else’s talent at some point in the past? Jealousy, is, after all, innate. One poor sod who’s life was driven by his jealousy is Antonio Salieri, who, for all his mediocre, even semi-decent musical talent, never matched the level of genius attained by Mozart. And, whilst Salieri slaved away, devoting all his time to form his passable scores, Mozart’s came naturally. In fact, considering Mozart’s hedonistic and general sloppy living, his musical talent came to him in spite of, rather than because of his lifestyle. This fact drove Salieri crazy, letting this take over his life, as he devoted all his energy into somehow evening out the score.

F. Murray Abraham plays the lead in a beautifully controlled depiction of jealousy, resentment and rage, all hidden under a façade of that carefully forced smile. Tom Hulce is terrifically annoying as Mozart; his crazy high-pitched laugh rang in my ears long after the credits rolled. Amadeus was the last movie to bung two actors in the Best Leading Actor category at the Oscars. Had Hulce been pushed for supporting, he very probably would have won. As it was, he went up against his co-lead Abraham, who won the Oscar, perhaps the first time Salieri has done one over on Mozart.

The film is gorgeous to look at and listen to. Many of Mozart’s most sumptuous pieces are used throughout. The film carries a tone of underlying sadness throughout, but that doesn’t mean our eyes and ears aren’t deprived of a treat throughout. The costumes, so intricately designed, evoke the feel of 18th century Europe, and the sets, so cleverly architectured, succeed in capturing the grand scale of the opera houses.

Adapted from Peter Schaffer’s play, the script modulates from moment of great comedy to desperate sadness. The story is told in flashback by Salieri, who now resides in a mental asylum and has just had a failed suicide attempt. As a sympathetic priest listens to his tale, Salieri recounts his traumatic and disturbing tale. The direction of F. Murray Abraham is wonderful, both restrained and indulgent, it captures the many sides of the composing industry as well depicting the sadness of the human condition.

The fact that the film is so historically inaccurate does not matter a jot. Rather than attempt to paint a vivid picture of Mozart’s life, Forman instead goes for a painting of jealousy, and in doing so, he has achieved his masterpiece. The title, Mozart’s middle name, “Amadeus”, translates to “Loved by God”, and Salieri spends the whole film opining as to why it is Mozart who chooses to be loved, not him. Mozart, who seemingly has no appreciation of his massive talent, and chooses to piss and debauch his life away rather than making the most of it. And this is the central message of Amadeus: hard as it is to accept, sometimes it is those that deserve it the least are blessed the most.

Three more performances that changed my life.

Anyway, thes entries were part of the run-up to an exciting affair taking place tomorrow. It's still not too late to sign up, and I can't wait to read what you'll all be writing!

A few pieces of housekeeping for the blogathon tomorrow:
01. Anyone can write! You don’t need to have contacted me in advance to participate or anything, just as long as you have something to show on the 07/07/07, I shall link you.
02. I will accept late entries. I’m very understanding, and realise that people will have things to do that may prevent them from getting the article done exactly tomorrow. However, what I will say is that the earlier the entry, the more people are likely to read it because it will have had longer coverage on my blog.
03. Multiple entries are fine. Post me the links and I'll credit all of them.
04. YouTube tributes, poems, essays, are all fine. I encourage diversity!
05. If you’re doing the same performance as someone else, no matter! Even if the performances are the same, I doubt they changed your life for same reasons. So don’t stress.
06. In your post, you should link to me as the blogathon HQ. I’ll have the master post up tomorrow.
07. Enjoy! This is supposed to be fun. And I reckon it shall be. And spread the love. Life is like the movies.

Three more performances that changed my life. In a good way, of course. As good as the avatars:
04. Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus
I saw this movie for the first time in the Easter of 2004. One of my very musical friends who I admired a lot introduced me to the film Amadeus, where the slight “deviation” from fact showed that excellence does not have to equate to truth. In Hulce’s portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I learned that it is sometimes the naughtiest, the most different who are blessed with the greatest talents, and they must use those to lift people’s spirits through art. You have no idea how much this inspired me; I felt that I, always somewhat of a round peg for the square hole, could do something, anything, to entertain and cheer up the entire world. Amadeus is in my personal top 10 of all time, it was wildly entertaining and gave a great interest into a genius, but I loved it also because I saw something of myself in Hulce and his great eccentricity. His child-like mannerisms (the riotous giggle, the silly childish games) are testament not only to his acting skills, but to Forman's exceptional direction and vision, and on watching him, I truly became interested in music. I looked into every type of music I could find, from the great classical composers to Edith Piaf, Spice Girls, The Beatles, anyone and everyone. But the greatest impact Hulce’s performance had on me was making me believe that one day, hopefully, I’ll be able to use my “artistic genius” to change the world. Maybe??


03. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
As ridiculous as this may sound, this was the movie performance that made me appreciate my mates more. It was a sleepover, and we had already seen Cold Mountain, which polarized us (half of us loved it, the other half had been playing cards throughout and found it a snoreathon), and the second film we’d watched, Citizen Kane, had sent all but one into a bored stupor. So, naturally, I was a little cautious in showing one of my favourite movies, containing my favourite actresses to them, at the risk that they’d diss Hepburn, and, in essence, diss me.

I really needn’t have worried. They loved it. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s Audrey is the very epitome of 1960s chic and her Holly captures the essence of an era when the naughty goings on (see my review of The Seven Year Itch) were very implicit. After we saw the movie, we discussed Audrey, the character of Holly Golightly, and how the movie would have turned out had Truman Capote got what he wanted, and Marilyn Monroe played Holly. Anyway, I was just so deliriously happy that there was one movie, and one performance that my friends could all find common ground on, I remember this day clearly still. Afterwards, I came to appreciate my friends a lot more, feel less intellectually detached, and I’m glad I did, because our friendships have developed and bloomed as a result. And we all decided that we would all like a happy ending as sweet as the one Holly Golightly got.

02. Tim Robbins as Andy in The Shawshank Redemption
This was always going to be on here! Interestingly, it took me a second viewing of Shawshank to truly appreciate all the qualities of Darabont’s masterpiece and make it my number 1 film of all time. And I’ve basically lived my life on the qualities I saw in Robbins’ performance as Andy – a sense of hope, mixed with pragmatism, quiet self-belief and inner strength, and perhaps most importantly, remembering to never give up. I actually aspire to be like Andy (for his qualities, not getting convicted for a crime I didn’t commit – duh!), and even in the most testing times in life, and sorriest school days, I will always TRY to think “What would Andy do?” and all is not so bad. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies" is an important lesson I have learnt from films, and it was Tim Robbins who taught me it.