I recently bought this on DVD, having not seen it in over 20 years, and just finished watching it. It's still a great film, I think; but how great would it have been if they'd cast the original Salieri (Paul Scofield) and the original Mozart (Simon Callow) in those roles?

The movie cuts so much of the play's humor that i find it unwatchable.

I just re-watched the movie over Christmas. I would love to see a revival of the play staged to compare how they differ.

Amadeus was the first play I ever saw on Broadway. Ian McKellan, Peter Firth and Amy Irving. After all these years, it sill ranks as one the greatest things I’ve ever seen. And McKellan was earth shaking in the role. The movie was a pale imitation and F. Murray was a big nothing to me.

r1 I've never actually seen or read the play, but I'm a huge fan of Paul Scofield and I just found a 1983 BBC Radio recording of the original cast doing the play, so I should have a good idea of what you're talking about after I've heard it. I did just listen to the first 5 or so minutes and was immediately struck by how funny Scofield was.

I wonder what Simon Callow felt performing in a much smaller role opposite Tom Hulce in the film.

Paul Scofield as Salieri at the National Theatre in 1979 (I wish the whole performance was online):

Hard to imagine anyone other than Tom Hulce as Amadeus.

BTW, have you seen him lately?

R5 - thanks for that. Now to see if the full recording is somewhere.

Is it true that Hulce and Abraham's egos were super-inflated by the film's success and they both basically unbearable for years afterwards?

I don’t think it belongs in the category of best period films of the 80s, where A Room with a View and Dangerous Liaisons are permanent members.

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

R12 here - sorry, I forgot about the independent.co.uk. THe National Theatre is reviving Amadeus starting Janaury 11 with Adam Gillen as Amadeus.

Simon Callow, of course, yes.

OMG, thanks, R14! Would love to see that.

Adam Gillen as Mozart and Lucian Msamati as Salieri...

I liked Amadeus much more than Dangerous Liasons.

Tom Hulce = casting couch to get the role.

I may be completely wrong here, so take it with a pinch of salt, but I'm sure it was on here that I read someone posting about how Tom Hulce was a total egotist in the 80s. It might have been the Herbert Ross Troll (I miss him).

More about the Herbert Ross Troll, r20.

An old DL thread: Myth Revealed: Gay actor Tom Hulce was never married...

I recall someone on DL in a thread from eons ago revealing how he worked at a casting agency or something equivalent, and Tom Hulce came in wearing sunglasses for an audition. Never took them off. Just sat there, wearing his shades, monosyllabic and assholeish and bizarre.

In the DVD extras of "Amadeus," the woman who played Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge?) said that she was roommates with Hulce, and that for a while, he actually believed he was Mozart. What a fucking piece of work. I liked him in a few other things he did after that film, but given his exposure and Oscar nomination, he should have skyrocketed in terms of his career. I do believe he became an insufferable SOB, and F. Murray Abraham did, too.

Lest we forget the original “I love my life” Oscar moment.

I just read the Carol Marcus-Saroyan-Saroyan-Matthau biography "Among the Porcupines" after reading a DL thread about her recently.

In it, she mentions that her husband Walter Matthau really wanted the role of Salieri in the 1984 film and was somewhat of a Mozart aficionado, himself.

Carol was very supportive of his ambition for the role and encouraged him to pursue it with director Milos Forman.

One evening, Walter got on the phone with Milos and talked about the film. Carol sat anxiously beside him egging him on to really go for it.

Over the phone, Walter told Milos that he wanted to audition for the Mozart role. Carol couldn't believe her ears. Had her husband lost his mind? "You want to play Salieri, not Mozart, you idiot!" But Walter continued and listened in silence for a few minutes, then said goodbye and hung up the phone.

Carol was absolutely furious and demanded to know how he could fuck up such a marvelous opportunity like that.

Walter's response was quite telling. He wanted to protect both himself and Milos from the embarrassment of rejection so he asked to play Mozart. He predicted obviously that the director would reject it outright because of his advanced age; but Walter anticipated that Milos would think next of Salieri and, if intrigued, would ask, "well how about Salieri?" When he did NOT bring it up Walter knew that he was unsuitable in the eyes of the director and neither man had to endure any further discomfort. I thought there was a passive-aggressive genius quality to the strategy that put a smile on my face.

For the posters who want to see the National Theatre production, it was shown as part of the NT Live season in cinemas in 2016 and a good quality dvd rip is available on torrent sites (as are most of the NT Live screenings, with the exception of Follies) It's quite odd seeing Adam Gillen in a serious role when he's best known in the UK for his role in Benidorm as Liam, the dizzy son of transgender receptionist Lesley.

Kenneth Branagh famously missed out on the role of Mozart but cast Tom Hulce in Frankenstein, long after everyone else had forgotten about him.

Mark Hamill was in the running for Mozart too.

Was the Mozart laugh used by Hulce in the movie also enacted by the stage Mozart's?

I was so disappointed when I saw Hulce do Equus. Very small dick. I'd seen Firth who was huge so needle dick Hulce was a disappointment.

Firth's endowment was so large that the horse was obsessed with him.

I consider F. Murray Abraham to be the greatest actor in English language...

Eff's role as the gruff mechanic in the film version of The Sunshine Boys was Brando-esque.

The NT revival means It's possible there'll be another cinema screening. Recommended if so.

Gillen was quicksilver brilliant as WAM, an annoying punk genius on speed, cartoonishly fast around the stage. His latter tragic phase not quite so impressive. Lucian as Salieri was stolid and commanding, helplessly earthbound in his malign mediocrity.

All in all it was the best panto I've ever seen, everything being upstaged in context when WAM's music was played, the astounding reason for the play.

I saw the Broadway production with McKellan, whose performance was excellent, but I'm glad he didn't do the film as Abraham took a lower key, more subtle approach that suited a film version better. Plus, Foreman was the kind of director who would never cast someone who had played a role on stage as they would come to the set with the idea that they would just play the part pretty much the same way.

Paul Scofield originated the role of Sir Thomas More in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS on the stage and then won the Oscar when he transferred the role to the screen. I'm positive, had he been cast in the film of AMADEUS, he would have been amazing and also won the Oscar that Abraham received.

A much loved film that did nothing for its lead actors as far as other movies are concerned.

I thought Tim Curry did Amadeus, not sure which production.

Tim Curry played Mozart in the original Broadway cast.

The play was so much fun and the film just is such a slow leaden slog. Never been able to get through it. Salieri needs to be sexy and funny for his self-loathing to be a surprise.

F. has no wit or hotness.

R8, I don't know a thing about Hulce, but Eff has a terrible - an well earned - reputation as an insufferable diva. And the career he has managed to eke out reflects how difficult and disliked he is within the business.

[quote]I consider F. Murray Abraham to be the greatest actor in English language...

[quote]—Said no one ever

I can think of at least one person who considers F. Murray Abraham to be the greatest actor in the English language.

Was Whoopi half-way out of her seat when she heard Eff's opening line?

[quote] F. has no wit or hotness.

It’s the pockmarks, isn’t it?

No. Its the sour, self-important attitude.

Sour "Fruit of the Loom" Grapes.

R8 F. Murray Abraham's ego was gigantic before he was cast in Amadeus, he was considered difficult to work with which is why you saw him in so few films after Amadeus.

Off-topic: looking at r12's linke, why does London theater sound so exciting and Broadway sound so boring?

R46 - Broadway is about $$$$, period.

1.) Theatregoing is a tradition in England. 2.) There’s a great deal of government funding. 3.) The biggest name actors are trained stage actors who are always eager to return to the stage, no matter what success they’ve had in TV and films.

The combination of the three breeds ambition amongst writers and producers. Plain and simple, they can afford to swing for the fences.

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