Sweet mercy, I knew the 1980s was one of the those collective moments where everyone forgot good taste, but...Amadeus as best picture in 1985? Really? I was mentally prepared for an epic. I was completely crushed. To add to the misery, Christina has banned me from choosing movies until further notice. (Let's see, Donnie Darko and then Amadeus...at least I'm edgy in my picks.)
The music was fine. The last 25 minutes or so (Mozart dictating his Requiem to Salieri) are cool. But the movie is absolutely ruined by 1) the inability of Mozart and his wife to act, and 2) awful, modernish dialogue. (In what should be the most poignant part of the movie, Constantze terribly cries "Oh Wolfy, Wolfy, Wolfy!" at his lifeless body. I was unmoved.) Overall, I would say more enjoyment can be had listening to Falco's Amadeus.
So, after watching and being incredibly disappointed with Amadeus, we watched Christina's pick Ghost Town, and surprise, surprise, it was hilarious. Out and out the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. I hadn't heard anything really great about the movie, but I was really dying at a couple of scenes (self-righteous teeth monologue, the gagging scene.)
3 comments:
Okay, so now the question is, have you seen the 30 rock where they parody the final scene of Amadeus, with that harry/glasses/ball cap guy as salieri, and Tracy as Amadeus? Tracy is writing the first ever porn/super violent video game. "DO YOU HAVE IT?? DO YOU HAVE IT??!" and they even have the quack doctor running in slow motion with a cape billowing to the sounds of the big chorus. It's GENIUS. And only funny if you've seen (and been disappointed, as I definitely was) with Amadeus.
Okay, so they cast the wrong guy, but they had to find someone who could actually play the piano, so there you go. I've shown one clip from the movie in my 202 class, the one where he takes Salieri's little tune for the Emperor, "fixes" it, and then improvises several different variations on it right there in front of Salieri. Great scene! The rest is less compelling. I much prefer "Vitus"...
1985 wasn't really so bad. The October part was especially good.
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