amadeus analysis

Amadeus Analysis

In the opening shot, we as an audience are presented with Salieri in present time, with the diegetic sound of him talking to somebody, which from the audience’s POV, looks as if he is speaking to us through the camera. This opening shot of a medium close-up of Salieri shows him having a lot of shadow surrounding him connoting he has a sense of negativity about him. Another thing is that Salieri begins to look down at the table which is in front of him, revealing that he is about to have a flashback but thinking of how amazing the performance was when he says it was as if “God was speaking through his music”.

The next shot is a visual signifier from the present to the past; starting with past day Salieri looking down from the top of the theatre at the performance that Mozart is giving. This is a low angle shot showing connotations that he is powerful, however it is a metaphorical meaning as to how he views himself, showing he is arrogant and has a big ego. The next shot in this scene is a POV shot (from Salieri’s POV) and also a wide shot, of the stage which Mozart is performing, and here we see a narrow stage connoting he is narrow minded and shows an audience that he focuses on the negatives rather than the positives of Mozart’s work and we can also identify this from the low key lighting.

Next, is a wide shot at which Mozart is the centre of attention of, as the audience in the background are out of focus, connoting that Mozart is the important one that we as an audience of the film should identify. In this shot we are able to identify religious connotations due to Mozart being surrounded by lightness (High Key Lighting) and candles. The candles show connotations of the stand at which Mozart is stood behind conducting, looks like an alter. Another thing about this shot is the fact that even though the audience behind Mozart are out of focus, we can still see they are also surrounded by white light connoting that these are people who enjoy Mozart’s music and are enlightened by it.

The next shot of the scene is a slow track forward shot to the stage, which as an audience we are drawn in and mesmerised by what is happening.