Amadeus (1984, Milos Forman)

My affair with Hollywood musicals has been relatively foreign for a long time but my perception of it has undergone a drastic change after I watched All That Jazz. With Amadeus, my love for it just elevated.

Milos Forman's highly celebrated and academy winning musical traces the final 10 years of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the time that he primary spent in Vienna. But, the most striking part is Forman focuses less on Mozart's life and creates his epic encircling his covetous counterpart Antonio Salieri, a man who has come to terms with the fact that he is less gifted and is way inferior.

Salieri is the film's heart and soul. It starts and ends with him in a film about Mozart. It's arduous to comprehend Mozart's life in totality as all we see, is an interpretation through Salieri's gaze. One can certainly presume that Amadeus isn't a rigorously authentic portrait of The Mozart.

What works in favour of Forman is he has two contrasting and fleshed out characters in his hand. If not anything, the dilemma between its lead makes it a riveting watch. In Salieri, Murray Abraham portrays a pious and righteous person, who has avoided earthly pleasures whereas Mozart is a child-like persona, who dwells in debauchery.

Keeping its esoteric production design and aesthetics aside, Amadeus more importantly is an ode to classical music. Neville Marriner at the helm of providing the score, ensures a perfect rendition of Mozart's original notes to create inarguably one of the most exquisite soundtracks of all time. Each beat and each symphony just pierces through our eardrums like bullets.

Amadeus is one of the finest period pieces about artistic creations, which produces a faceoff between a behemoth and a mediocre, inebriated with sound and jealousy.