Amadeus
 

After discovering Amadeus is Gord's favourite movie I wanted to elaborate a little further and thought it best to move into the Small Talk forum as I tend to get a tad carried away when things start rolling for me on the keyboard.

As mentioned in the General Discussion forum the DVD package I have includes two discs, A&B. The B one is the Director's Cut. The A one the movie.

There were approximately 1400 actors screened for this film.

Tom Hulce, the final choice to play the role of Mozart had to compete with a formidable group of contenders including David Bowie, Kenneth Branagh and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Although being nominated for an Oscar, it went to F Murray Abraham, the actor playing "Salieri."
F Murray's acceptance speech ended by saying "there's only one thing missing for me tonight and that is to have Tom Hulce standing by my side.

Both Murray and Tom said that throughout the film they began to feel like they were becoming the real character.

Murray says "it happens that when you embody a character like we did, it happens that you carry it over. We were living a life a little bit like those two characters."

Elizabeth Berridge who played the role of Constanze, Mozart's wife said regarding Tom:"he was so much in the head of Mozart."
When the film was wrapped up they shared a living space together for a while and she said "he was a very different man. He was transformed into Mozart."

Sir Neville Marriner the musical conductor said when approached by director Milos Forman that he would do it under one condition: "not one note of the music be changed."
Having to learn to play keyboard Tom Hulce worked 3 to four hours each day for several months in order to get the music correct. And that he did. Milos said "he never hits a wrong key."

A quote from"USA Today: "about as close to perfection as movies get."

Re: Amadeus
 

Another point worthy of a mention also is the experience encountered by writer, Peter Schaffer upon entering the theatre in Prague for the first time. A good portion of the filming was done in that theatre.

He was there with director, Milos Forman and producer, Saul Zaentz when suddenly Milos noticed Peter had disappeared.

They found him in a corridor of the theatre and he was crying.
Mr Shaffer had become overwhelmed with emotion when he came to realize he was standing in the same place where Mozart himself in person once stood.

It has become a priority on my list of things to do "before the curtain comes down" to visit Prague and step inside the doors of that theatre.
Currently it is known as "The Estates Theatre."

Re: Amadeus
 

It has become clearer to me that the decision to move this thread to the "Small Talk forum" was a good one as yet another addendum has come to the forefront of my brain regarding the "before the curtain comes down" phrase used earlier here.

After discovering that when you reach the age of 75 years you automatically become a member of a group referred to as "The Nearly Dead" which would include me. I've been around awhile. Not sure what the fringe benefits are though, if any.

An interesting note regarding Richard Harrison's book, "Once Upon A Red Eye" which is a most enjoyable and well put together piece of work (thank you Richard), I wanted to mention "The Bonding Power of Humour" chapter and how well it makes the complete package so very entertaining. Of course knowing who the players are it made me laugh till I nearly cried.

Humour and humans. That sounds like a clear link to a bond for sure. We always remember those who made us laugh.