Commentary
The 1984 movie “Amadeus” is a great achievement in its genre because it actually puts the creative process of the genius of W.A. Mozart at the center. This is extremely rare. Most films about great creators dwell almost exclusively on the personal failings of great artistic minds (Ludwig van Beethoven, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, you name it) while neglecting their real magic: how exactly they managed to achieve such wonders.
This is why I don’t like watching most such films. They are too often subtle put-downs of greatness. “Amadeus” is an exception.
There is this scene in the last days of Mozart when rival composer Antonio Salieri is taking musical dictation from the great man on his deathbed. Mozart builds the harmonic and rhythmic structure of the “Dies Irae” of his Requiem Mass. Mozart asks about the meaning of “Confutatis maledictis” and proceeds to compose the sounds of death knells, suffering, and the fires of hell….