Amadeus

For my cultural event this week I decided to go to the class movie showing. I had heard good things about New York Doll from my aunt, so I thought that would be a good movie to watch. I wasn't too excited about Citizen Cane, because I actually like the main character to be alive at the end of the movies I watch. Some may say that's not real, but I say to that, a lot more people live than die every day. I was okay with watching Amadeus, because my orchestra class started watching it in 9th grade, and while I saw the attempted suicide scene, and the burial of Mozart at the end, I didn't really see any of the in between parts and I was interested to see what happened. It was also a neat experience to be able to watch the movie with some understanding of cutting and shooting techniques, although I have to admit that I was focusing more on the actual goings on rather than specific zooms and such. I also think that it is important to add that I was in a most uncomfortable condition during the movie. The "theater" was great and quite familiar, but I wasn't feeling too well. I was ache all over and I had a whopping headache. When I got home, my mom found that I had a fever of 102, so I guess I had a right to be a little grumpy about driving all the way to Provo, sitting in the theater for 2hrs 45mins, walking back across the then menacing parking lot, and then driving the 30 mins back home. Yes, some of that torture could have been avoided if I had stayed on campus instead of returning home, but driving there was really a fairly menial part of my pains. That all sounds pretty whiny, but I'm really only saying it because my condition did have a great influence on my reaction to the film.

I got to the showing a little late, so I missed the part where Salieri tries to commit suicide, but that was okay, because as I mentioned, I had already seen that particular segment. I came in as the priest was asking Salieri for his confession. The little segments where the old Salieri explained why things happened really served to make his story more pitiable. Not only his dilapidated condition, but also to hear how much he loved Mozart's music when Mozart himself was apparently a twerp, and how Salieri was somewhat certifiable, due to the knowledge that he had played a large role in Mozart's death. I also got the idea from his way of expressing himself, almost without real depth of feeling, that he had spent a lot of time justifying his actions. I think that one of my favorite scenes with the old Salieri in it was when he was playing some of his melodies for the priest who recognized none of them until a piece by Mozart was played. Salieri did have an expression in this scene, one of irony. It is hard for me to say how well the characters were cast, because I didn't really have any background knowledge of the character of the actual people. I would hope that someone as talented as Mozart didn't really have such lax moral standards and such a humorously embarrassing laugh, but I read no book to confirm or deny such actions on his part. Another thing I didn't really enjoy was some of the language as it was yucky and almost modern in style. My biggest complaint was how long the movie was. I kept thinking, hurry up and die Mozart which is quite a terrible attitude in my opinion. I was sure the movie had gone on more than three hours and was quite surprised that it was fifteen minutes less. You can imagine my amazement when other people said they were surprised that the time had gone so fast. I think that any movie would have felt the same to me on Thursday night though.

I thought that it was neat to see a movie that sort of combined a lot of the things we have been talking about. It had classical music, opera and such. I did enjoy listening to the music and I was quite amazed by Mozart's talent when put in comparison with other composers like Salieri, who was surprised to see that there weren't any correction marks on the original music. While I sometimes wish that I was really good at just one thing so that I knew which direction I should take in life, I realized that for some it is a curse. Mozart's talent totally consumed him so that in the end he died due to spending so much time creating his music that he didn't care for himself. I think that his wife created a lot of problems for him, even if her motives were often good. Another of my favorite parts was to see Salieri have the opportunity to write Mozart's music for him when he was too weak. Salieri finally had a chance to see what inspiration was like and I gained respect for his skills as well, as he took down what Mozart said super fast. I liked the movie, but I was also relieved to finish it.