@William said:
Tony Palmer? Are those TV documentaries or are they dramatized?
Yes, those Russell ones are highly variable. For example, the one on Debussy which had Oliver Reed - an actor whom I absolutely worship - was nevertheless stupid and worthless crap as a film. However, the one Russell did on Percy Grainger was excellent and in fact, one of the best films about a composer I've ever seen. So Russell was, as usual, erratic in the extreme.
I notice you guys liked Amadeus but I HATED it. I hated the performance of the actor they got to play Mozart first of all. He looked like he should have been shambling drunkenly on the streets of Liverpool after vomting at a punk rock concert instead of playing the greatest composer in history. Or perhaps he should have played a chimp that became a human being in a wacky science fiction comedy. Yeah, that would fit his range beautifully. And I hated the simplistic message - Mozart was an effortless angel of music and Salieri was a hard-working hack. Like that is a message to artists this playwright just discovered! Whoah! That's deep! It is a bunch of ***, because first of all Mozart worked hard on his music, and so does any great composer. And Errikos, usually I agree wholeheartedly but what are you saying? That a mere shift in point of view suddenly makes something wonderful that would otherwise be stupid? That doesn't happen for me. But of course this is all a matter of taste.
I don't remember Song to Remember which is probably a good thing.
Have a look at the dramatization of Shostakovich's life 'Testimony' by Palmer (based on Solomon's collected writings of Shostakovich), starring Ben Kingsley. It is quite a powerful film. I also enjoyed Percy Grainger's dramatization, I think his character was akin to Russell's own in certain respects...
Like I said before, 'Amadeus' is really a film not about Mozart, but about how Salieri viewed Mozart; at least this is how I perceive it (if it was not meant that way I would then be in agreement with your objections). After all, Schaffer was not the first to write about the dynamics of the relationship between the two composers (see Pushkin). Additionally, the stories about how Salieri might have poisoned Mozart did circulate around Europe at the time, so much so that Salieri himself felt obliged to deny them (according to Moscheles who adds that even if that weren't the case, everybody knew how Salieri had done what he could to obstruct Mozart's career).
If Salieri felt like that, it is only understandable that he would portray his nemesis to the priest character like the drunken monkey you describe, for whom the chosen actor as you say was perfectly cast. We are not to surmise that Mozart was anything like that, but to witness Salieri's subjective, spiteful portrait of him which exaggerated some of the real Mozart's occasional crassness and toilet humour (he felt a freer spirit than the average bending courtier of his time). As far as his effortlessness at composing is concerned, it is known that he revised 1st finished drafts rarely if at all; that is not only due to genius, but also because he couldn't afford the time; he accepted as many simultaneous commissions as possible in order to live the expensive lifestyle he and - more so - his wife, coveted. Compared to other composers his age, he lived very extravagantly. His age is also indicative of the speed with which he composed, having completed almost 700 works before he hit 36 (understandable when you look at his scores which are 10-notes a page - but what notes!...). I don't want to say much more under the eagle eyes of the Viennese moderators who would be expert, suffice to say that the bibliography is replete with great composers' attestations to Mozart's composing facility (Brahms, Busoni, Tschaikovsky, etc.), but I don't think any of them meant that Mozart did not work on his art; merely that he didn't have to work as much (if as hard) as the rest of them, something that I agree could have been exaggerated as most comparisons are made with the laborious Beethoven. At least that is my take on this...
@Paul: These are the kind of liberties directors take that I don't mind. Tschaikovsky could not play piano like that in his dreams, but that is a welcome stretch. Trevor I think would have his task carved out for him having to score a scene with a temp-track like that! However, with Hans' help I feel he has a good chance...