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| F.
Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Jeffrey Jones |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Emperor:
Well, I mean, occasionally it seems to have... How shall one say...
How shall one say, Direktor?
Direktor: Too many notes, Your Majesty?
Emperor: Exactly! Very well put. Too many notes.
Mozart: I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Your
Majesty, as are required; neither more nor less.
Emperor: My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes
the ear can hear in the course of an evening. [hesitates] I think I'm
right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer?
Salieri: Yes. Yes. On the whole. Yes, Your Majesty.
Mozart: [indignant] This is absurd!
Emperor: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work
is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes,
that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?
A
composer jealous of Mozart's talent believes he caused his death.
 An
unusual stage hit is made into an unlikely but utterly compelling
movie that manages to avoid the many traps of the cinematic stage
adaptation. Director Milos Forman manages to bring eighteenth century
Vienna to vivid life and fills the courts and concert halls with
magnificent detail and lively design. The cast also performs admirably,
making it all the more unsettling that most of these fine actors,
two of whom were nominated for Best Actor Oscars, have now long
been residing in the 'Where Are They Now?' files. A modern classic
that uses Mozart's music to the greatest dramatic effect.
For reasons hardly elaborated on, Amadeus has now been re-released
in a new 'Director's Cut' with about twenty minutes of previously
deleted footage. One might convincingly argue that there wasn't
really all that much room for substantial improvement on the original
cut of the film, and this new cut once again illustrates the point
that deleted scenes are usually deleted for a reason. It's not that
the additions aren't as good as the rest, it's just that they are
clearly superfluous to the main body of the film. There are more
scenes with Salieri chewing his gut, and a few more stand-offs between
him and Mozart, but nothing that adds new dimensions to the characters
or further developments to the narrative. It's hardly worse than
the original cut, but it won't be considered very much better either. |
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The Region 1 release of the theatrical cut was a two-sided 'flipper'
disc that featured an isolated music track and production notes
and cast biographies. The Region 2 disc available in the UK is
identical.
The Region 2 release available in the rest of Europe is
a dual-layered RSDL disc that has the movie on a single
side but is missing the isolated music track and other extras.
It does include a booklet with information on the production,
cast and crew. The movie transfer and audio mix are identical
on all releases.
A two-disc Special Edition release featuring a longer cut of the
film has since been released for Region 1 and Region 2. The Region
2 version is missing the isolated music track included on the
Region 1 release, but otherwise both releases are identical. The
Region 2 version of the Director's Cut edition served as a basis
for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at 2.35:1. The occasional dirt and scratches witnessed
on the previous DVD release are completely gone on this restored
new edition. There is still a slight softness to the image, with
skintones rather pinkish, but the cinematography exhibits great
detail and phenomenal depth, making it a more than satisfactory
transfer.
The soundtrack is presented in a roomfilling Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix that does an outstanding job of creating an
immersive sound field. With far more detail and better clarity than
the previous release, this soundtrack is nothing short of the sumptuous
audio experience it was meant to be.
Two major additions (besides the
inclusion of twenty minutes of deleted scenes within the
feature itself) grace this two-disc re-release: the audio commentary
track features director Milos Forman with playwright and screenwriter
Peter Schaffer. The ever-cantankerous Forman has more than a few
mild disagreements with the highly genteel Schaffer, and though
their highly involved and occasionally rather gossipy commentary
yields a great deal of insight and information, it's disappointing
that neither one of them ever explains why exactly the new scenes
have been added. Disc two holds nothing short of a definitive look
at the making of the film in an hour-long documentary. All
the principals are present in excellent, insightful interview segments,
most of which were recently recorded. F. Murray Abraham and production
designer Patrizia von brandenstein were clearly recorded quite a
while back, but that doesn't make their comments any less interesting.
Forman is as gruff and acerbic as ever, and Tom Hulce is near-unrecognizable,
having put on quite a deal of weight since 1984. The piece as a
whole (which is also presented in handsome anamorphic widescreen)
offers an excellent overview of a fascinating production, but is
again lacking any clue as to why Forman found it necessary to re-edit
the film into this longer version.The theatrical trailer
and some production notes round out these extras, which may
be limited in number but which offer an outstanding range of supplements. The
static menu screens are nicely designed and quite functional.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: November
5, 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on Amadeus.
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