Amadeus (1984)

Amadeus is a tour-de-force romp through Tom Hulce's manic mind as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the demigod of classical music who could party down like it was 1789 and probably died of consumption at the age of 34. "Wolfie" to his buxom wife Constanza or "Stanzi" (Elizabeth Berridge), Mozart achieved immortality in human history through his soaring, lyrical, divinely inspired compositions that came to him as-is, first draft, virtually perfect, without revisions. So inspired and passionate for his art as to seem at times insane (oh, that laugh!), Hulce as Mozart tears up every scene with prima-donna impishness or insults. The best scene is when the civil and musical authorities (including his patron and his boss) tell Mozart his music has "too many notes" -- so he challenges them to pick which ones to remove. Other memorable scenes depict how he feeds the slow burn that the lesser court composer Domenico Scarlatti (F. Murray Abraham) held against him. The premise of the movie is a tenuous one historically: Scarlatti confesses on his deathbed how he hated Mozart all his life and engineered his death. More than just a doozie of a whodunnit, Amadeus is a wonderful psychological study of the gradual corruption of Scarlatti's soul from a vain young boy (who blithely welcomed God's "answer" to his prayer to pursue a musical career) to a hopelessly bitter old man (ardently jealous of Mozart's greater gift and fame while furious at God for so favoring a less pious person). Here are my favorite performances of all from Hulce and Abraham and the music is a constant delight too. (Gotta love Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields!) For these reasons it took 8 Oscars -- including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor -- and I'll never tire of seeing and listening to Amadeus "one more time, from the top!" 5 stars.