Part of Weekend Classics and Music City Mondays
New 40th Anniversary 4K DCP Restoration — Miloš Forman directed Peter Shaffer’s screenplay, based on his Tony Award–winning play, about the 18th century rivalry between journeyman court composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham in an Academy Award–winning tour-de-force performance) and his rival, young upstart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (fellow Best Actor nominee Tom Hulce). Saul Zaentz’s lavish production features opulent period details, while Shaffer’s witty script speaks eloquently about the challenge of art while leaving room for Mozart’s gorgeous music to dominate. The film earned 11 nominations and its 8 Oscar wins include Best Picture, Actor, Art Direction, Costume Design, Directing, Makeup, Sound, and for Shaffer’s adapted screenplay.
New 4K Restoration courtesy of the Saul Zaentz Co. and Academy Film Archive.
“A gloriously colorful confection of music, theater and emotion.” ––Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times “Decorated with a powdered-sugar sweetness and creamy lavishness unseen since the days of Josef von Sternberg, and performed by an eager to please, rootin'-tootin' American cast that would be comfortable in Oklahoma!, AMADEUS is junk food par excellence.” ––Jay Scott, Globe and Mail “This is Mozart as an eighteenth-century Bruce Springsteen, and yet (here is the genius of the movie) there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach.” ––Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Sep 19, 1984)
