Peter Shock Amadeus

Amadeus Analysis

The scene opens with a mid-shot with a grandness and power about Mozart with two candles besides him and taken from a low angle shot as he is dominant and superior to everyone. Furthermore  adding on to the candles you could also go as far to say as if it looked slightly religious almost as if he was being worshipped by those beneath him and that he was the one in control and then at that time untouchable. But not forgetting this is just a mere recollection of Salieri’s, so it is also seen  from his perspective this is why when seeing this scene it is all so bright and uplifting, just backing up how important and holy Salieri thought Mozart was.

Later taking us to a shot of Salieri sitting on the balcony watching the performance by Mozart, the first thing which automatically draws my attention is the darkness behind him  just showing us that right know his personality is dark and disapproving but when analysing even closer see that this shot is a rule of third and there is a lot of space to the left of him where the audience is in sight but blurred adding visual depth and just simply showing Salieri’s importance and high status as the audience is cramped and looking over the edge of the balcony to get a closer look whereas he is sitting back in his own private sector tensed and inpatient.

Then later on it gives the audience there very first look at Salieri in the present of the film, where he is extremely old and frail. We can gather he is old by the very detailed make up design with the white thin hair and the deep wrinkles on his face and not only make-up but the acting and tone of voice, this assist the make-up very well as we get an old croaked warn out voice, these are both carried out  well and it is very impressive as there is only two skills being used to represent their ages for instants posture, movement or clothing is not being used and they would be very easy to use but that would take away the challenging nature of this scene as the clothing seemed and general to that time and not in any way dated so there is no way we could instantly assume from that unless you was an historian.

Transitions between scenes are great because you always get the piece of music playing before the shot changes to a different one, to really emphasize the nostalgia of the music and how they are triggering his memories but also how it is taking him a while to recall it because the length of time it’s been and this again is backing up the the fact that he is old and maybe not a healthy man. Then going to another shot of him that is A P.O.V of the performance and his narrating admiring the piece of work but knowing then his opinion was completely different and however much he didn’t want to watch his, he wanted to see it trip up or find a way to ridicule but at the same enjoying the performance, like watching a horror movie but now wanting to see the scary parts but there was no way around not liking what is good in his profession.

A couple of shots later you come to one which is highlighting Salieris struggle to keep his calm and you can see him losing all hope in the performance being a disaster and him being victor in being better then Mozart this is signified by the tracking forward to him and the frame getting smaller and smaller as he becomes trapped and irrelevant but this quickly changes when he gets a yawn from the kind so when going back to Salieri the shot has become bigger and his posture more relaxed just showing overall that hope is still alive for him.

The end shot takes us back to Salieri at an old age still boasting the yawn of the king after all these years and the happiness it brings him, this shows the audience just how much it meant for him for Mozart to fail that night and how much he wanted to be better the Mozart still.