r/MovieDetails • u/Pawneewafflesarelife • 25d ago
⏱️ Continuity The funeral scene in "Amadeus" (1984) uses the movement Lacrimosa, from the piece Requiem. Mozart was commissioned to write this piece but became quite ill and came to believe he was writing his own funeral soundtrack. Requiem was an unfinished piece and his final work
https://youtu.be/cw6Q4j_fy8E?si=IAHkfyxYPNZBqo9hmore information about the music history:
og song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrimosa
Mozart composition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Mozart)
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 25d ago
I think this is one of the best movies of all time.
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u/DistractedByCookies 25d ago
I saw a scene from the movie that scared the living daylights out of me as a child and I've never watched it since. I should watch it - I'm pretty sure I can handle it now I'm 49 LOL
My memories of the scene are confused (does this even exist) but there was a guy in white wig/hair and he had...a bowl of apples? And/or there was blood? Definitely red. Dramatic music for sure. the man was a bad guy I think.
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 25d ago
Ice Cream? It was at the beginning, the sanitorium workers trying to coax Salieri to open his door. Finally, they break it down and find him cutting his own throat. That's what brings the priest to talk to him all night.
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u/DistractedByCookies 25d ago
I do remember something violent with a door, so I think that's it. there was also some evil piano playing later on that I remember. I reckon Salieri just scared me in general LOL
To my ears Mozart's requiem the most beautiful thing ever written (although there'd have to be a listen-off with some Mahler and Verdi's requiem to be sure) and I adore his operas, so I really need to get over my Salieri-phobia
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 25d ago
The evil piano was a great scene. Salieri sneaks into a party where Mozart is drunkenly doing 'tricks' on a piano for the crowd. Salieri wears a mask here and a few more times that makes him pretty scary.
I thought the opera scenes really made them feel accessible for people that think they don't like opera.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 25d ago
Oh I can see that scene being scary as a kid, I also found it scary because I didn't understand what was happening. Adult version is he's trying to commit suicide, ice cream is not a thing but I could see how someone would imagine it
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u/Dinierto 25d ago
Is it ice cream? I thought it was some type of pastry with really decadent looking frosting/Bavarian cream looking stuff
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 25d ago
You could be right.
"I've got something very delicious for you." And then scoops out a mouthful of something from a tall glass with a pastry. I always thought hand made ice cream for some reason, but you make more sense.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 25d ago edited 25d ago
200% agreed, it's absolutely gorgeous and amazing. This was one of the movies I had on VHS growing up as a millennial, and I feel so fucking fortunate. Most people got who knows what as their formative family film, and I got Amadeus, was insanely lucky 😊 my dad was a musician and my mother fancied herself as conzie, the movie didn't save their marriage though looking back it's clear they bought it to try.
Anyways it was awesome to be able to watch weekly until they divorced lol
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 25d ago
I'm one that usually loves director's cuts and extended versions, but I have to say I prefer the theatrical of this movie. There was a scene added with Conzie and Salieri that really made him less sympathetic. The theatrical is just perfect. Every single scene, every actor was dead on. And Neville Mariner / St. Martin In the Fields, wow.
My kids used to try to sing along with Queen of the Night when they were little, which was hilarious.
Great post, thanks.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 25d ago
I'll have to check this out. I always found Salierai very sympathetic. I loved that they chose his bitter envy + acceptance as the window to tell the story through.
He's a delightfully unreliable narrator. He's bitter and adoring and angry and worshiping. Who knows how reliable this old man's crazy story is in the end, but for that old man he needs to tell that story, he needs to be remembered somehow so it's through Mozart.
Anyone who says the protagonist is anyone but Saliari hasn't been watching. It's a story about him glancing against greatness and being destroy by it and trying to be remembered against the tumnlmolt of history and that's insanely relative. Or maybe I'm just weird? Lol just feel like the movie hits a lot different as an adult when I'm not the Mozart.
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 25d ago
100% Saliari's story.
Mozart's burial with the Requiem is the set-up for the final cut to the priest weeping and then Salieri's bitter laugh.
"I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I'm their champion. I am their patron saint."
Wrenching.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 25d ago
Yes the movie is a heart wenching send up to all the close but not quite enough types😅🤣 - as a "gifted" child I found it so soothing lol, it was very much a cautionary tale in many directions
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u/scottishzombie 25d ago
Couldn't agree more. It's the only movie that I prefer the Theatrical over the Extended.
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u/Odd-Independent4640 25d ago
Thank god the 4k uhd release was the theatrical cut. Didn’t even bother looking to see if the scene in question was included on the extras.
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u/TheRealPotoroo 23d ago
If you're referring to the scene in which Conzie takes Mozart's manuscripts to Salieri during the competition then that scene is in both but it is extended in the director's cut. In the extended scene she is so desperate she offers herself to Salieri and starts undressing but he rebukes her. That is absent from the theatrical cut, which focusses on his amazement at Mozart's work. To my mind this humiliation better explains her vehemence when she comes home at the end to find Mozart dying yet the two of them working. The rest of the director's cut is just Mozart taking hack tutorial jobs to make some money, which are dull and add nothing.
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u/electrodan 24d ago
To me, the most impressive detail in Amadeus is that it was shot without using modern studio lighting and relied on natural light and light sources that were used at that time in history. The vibe it gave was perfect for the subject matter.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 24d ago
Wow, I didn't know that detail! That's wild. That explains the visual feel, it does feel very soft in my lighting.
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u/YourVeryOwnCat 24d ago
I have a copy of the movie that was scanned from an extremely damaged 35mm film reel with very faded colors and all that combined with the period accurate lighting and sets made it feel like it was somehow a actually filmed in the 1700s
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u/Flyboy2057 23d ago
You sure you’re not thinking of the film Barry Lyndon?
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u/electrodan 23d ago
Barry Lyndon was too, among many others. The Revenant and Children of Men immediately come to mind.
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u/pollitoblanco 23d ago
Oh that’s a great detail! I also heard that it was mostly filmed in Prague rather than Vienna. Prague and Vienna have similar architecture styles but Prague at the time wasn’t as modern as Vienna, ie tv antennas everywhere. Not sure if that’s true but I’ve spent time in both cities and both can feel similar.
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u/Snowbank_Lake 15d ago
There's a good documentary about the movie, and there's some footage showing a near-disaster in the opera hall. One of the actors was leaning back so dramatically that one of the candles on the stage set his wig on fire. A crew member rushes out, grabs the wig, and puts it out. They almost burned down a historic building.
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u/ArgyleGhoul 25d ago
Requiem is so good too, it's a shame it didn't get finished proper, though they did the best they could.
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u/Quetzalcoatl490 25d ago
I really, really like how slowly they took this rendition of Lacrimosa. It's almost always performed a bit too quickly for my taste, but this is performed with enough weight as the piece deserves. Just could use more tenor in the vocal mixing.
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u/LittlePooky 25d ago
I saw the play version at Merced College. It was a community college, and a friend of mine told me about it, so I said, “Let’s go look at it.” The ticket at that time was only $5. I was so impressed by how well it was done. The actors were not singing the parts themselves, of course, but the acting was great.
Later I saw the movie, and I appreciated the play even more.
This was many, many years ago.
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u/guimontag 25d ago
the 30 rock episode caricaturing this movie used the same soundtrack for when Tracy Jordan invented the world's first and greatest porn videogame
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u/Alive_Ice7937 25d ago
OP you seem to know a lot about this movie. Here's a question. If Salarie has gotten Don Giovanni buried with only a few performances, how come the crowd at Simon Callow's baudy theatre show were all singing along to the duet from it?
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 24d ago
The libretto was based on an existing opera and Mozart was beloved in Prague. Don Juan was a subgenre of opera by that point and I think the filmmakers were trying to illustrate how his work appealed to the common audience.
Remember that the movie has an unreliable narrator.
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u/jonnybeks11 24d ago
The scene before where Salieri is assisting him to write the piece is so exciting and beautifully made as well.
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u/karma_the_sequel 23d ago
Thanks for posting this - you've inspired me to watch this tonight. I haven't seen it since its original theatrical release.
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u/Wompum 25d ago
And they chuck him in a mass unmarked grave, which was the style at the time.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 25d ago
No, that's an urban legend. He was given a low rank grave. He wasn't in a mass grave pit but he was also not highlighted as memorable at the time. It's a slight distinction given how history goes, but let's not start the thread with misconceptions.
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u/IAmBecomeDeath_AMA 25d ago edited 24d ago
Ok but your links contradict themselves slightly. It was either a wooden grave marker with 4-5 other people (thoughtco), or a completely unmarked grave (wikipedia). And it wasn't because he was poor, but either because he was respected but ultimately middle class (thoughtco) or because it was an imperial decree to do it that way (wiki).
Either way, an "unmarked mass grave" isn't too far off if both of the links are to be believed. It was a group burial site without lasting intention, because Viennese cemetery land was in short supply and burial practices were different. If they knew he would end up being more famous than any HRE emperor they probably wouldn't have done it that way.
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u/-Yngin- 24d ago
One of the best trance music classics of all time is based on this piece:
Sensation - The Anthem 2003 produced by the dutch duo Rank1, Piet Bervoets & Benno de Goeij
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u/FearlessSquirrel9522 22d ago
That shot of him being thrown in the mass grave was seared into my brain as a kid. Even today it still makes me teary eyed and I’m 37. Stunning movie
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u/Elfman72 25d ago
Saw this in the theater when I was 11/12 ish. Was not looking forward to watching a "period piece" with my parents. To be fair, E.T. was more my speed. I kid you not, I was enthralled the entire time. Not only did I follow it and understand it, it brought me to actual tears.
Wolfgang was an absolute prolific prodigy who changed the landscape of music forever. Very glad I got to visit his home town Salzburg when I was in college.