My Reflection on Amadeus

Reflection about Amadeus

In the movie “Amadeus”, we learn the story of Mozart, one of the most known and talented pianist and composer of all times. But his story is seen by the point of view of Salieri, one other pianist/composer of Mozart’s time.

Mozart lived in the 18^th century, the century of the intellectual movement Enlightenment. In this time period, intellectual people, (philosophes, scientists,…) began to think by themselves, also by the scientific method. But for most people, the most important was God.

For Salieri, Mozart’s talent in music, is directly given by God, he even says that his music is the “voice of God”. At the beginning of the movie, Salieri is always praying God to give him the inspiration to write beautiful music, but after he meets Mozart, (who is really obscene and not a good Christian, for Salieri’s opinion), Salieri begins to think that God is against him and that he is with Mozart. He even burns a statue of Jesus, which at that time would probably have been punished by death.

Amadeus is a movie about jealousy, I already said that Salieri was jealous of God’s preference for Mozart, but he becomes even more envious when he discovers that the woman whom he desires, an opera singer, loves Mozart. After that, he will try to make Mozart’s life as difficult as possible.

The 18^th century is a century where art and music in general are important but particularly operas. Mozart is a perfect example of artist, he is innovative, (he does things that have never been done), he is provocative and of course, he is a brilliant composer and piano player.

My impression of this movie is very good, it represents well that artists and in this case composers have to work very hard to create music. It is also funny to see that people almost only pray God for their own well-behaved. In Salieri’s case, it is very strange, because he thinks that God is against him, because Mozart is a better composer than him, but Salieri’s life’s quality is far away from being bad, he also wrote operas and beautiful music, but he is persuaded that Mozart is better than him. If Mozart hadn’t existed, Salieri would have been happy during is whole life with his lifestyle.

Reflection on Amadeus

The story Aamadeus is about in late18th century that is second half of life of Mozart. The contents of this movie is mostly Mozart's second half of life.

 In this time period, art is really important. According to the movie we can see that many of nobles went to theater to see the opera, orchestra played in the square. I really surprised the way the musician write music. They are asked to write music from nobles or rich people. It is a big difference from the present time.

In this time period the central of power was king. Everyone wanted king to be liked and in the movie, everyone tried to butter up the king. In addition, we can see in the movie, the king also loved music.

I think this movie is really good, because it is difficult for us to understand the daily life of the people at that time only learning the history.So this movie helps us to understand more particular information such as cloth and food. Before I watched this movie, impression of Mozart to me was only he was genius. But now I could see his personal part. I honestly, very surprised that he gave himself over to drink and relationship with women.

According to this movie, I felt mental pain of genius and mental pain of ordinary person. Contents of this movie is suggestive one. 

Amadeus Relfection

Amadeus Movie Reflection

By Masha Westerveen

The time period was still a time where there were rich, as well as poor people. Servants were used, and poorer people wore more dull clothes than the richer ones. According to the movie, richer people wore much brighter clothes (jackets), mostly red, and gold, blue and in Mozart's case purple. It was also a time when people wore wigs on special occasion, and women wore large dresses, and men cloaks, and hats (which were taken off inside), and some wigs had something that looked like a pony tail, tied with a bow. And something that seemed strange to me, maybe it was just an accident, but all men seemed to be shaved. 

The art was mainly portraits at the time.The movie didn't really focus on the art, but there was one piece of art that attracted everyone's attention, which was the portrait of Mozart's dad. Afire Mozart's dad died, the portrait showed how much his father's death haunted him. And since the father was dead, a way the movie showed how much Mozart thought of him afterwards, was through the portrait at which he'd stare at. 

The most powerful there was the King, referred to as the majesty. He was the one who controlled when Mozart would hold his operas, and what specific songs he could sing. In the movie, every time Mozart had a problem, he would seek help from other composers, who would immediately be the ones to seek advice from the majesty. Apparently, the King also had the right to exclude operas and plays that weren't allowed for religious reasons. Then the King had his servants, who were also asked to give a advice to the King whenever necessary. Mozart w could have been of higher class, yet he suffered poverty because he wasted so much money on drinking. In the end his family was broke, and he had to beg for loans.

There were also maids (Mozart didn't know he needed one), who'd take care of the house cleaning. Antonio Salieri was a composer himself, and he owned a servant, which he used as a spy of Mozart. Yet he was very close to the King, and whenever he offered to "help" Mozart, he would refer to the King, telling him that it was the majesty's choice. 

I was really sad towards the end. I just couldn't help feeling sorry for Mozart, after all he had been through, to die of such young age, and because of drinking, felt like a waste of talent. Even though Mozart had done so much in his short life, had he lived longer, he would have managed to accomplish much more. He suffered depression, wasted his money on drinking, and ended up broke. What a poor way to end a life, when it could have went so well. With his successful music, Mozart could have made a fortune if only he had used his money properly. But I have a feeling that Mozart's music was liked more than Mozart himself. He was too full of himself, and called himself the best composer. Even if he was one, because of his egocentric attitude, he was liked less than he could have been.

I do not feel sorry at all for Antonio Salieri. Even in the state that Mozart was in, he couldn't feel pity at all. He was a crazy and heartless man, that no matter what happened to him afterwards, you just couldn't pity someone like that. But what led him to be so horrible? Jealousy. He was jealous of Mozart, and couldn't stand to see someone take his spotlight as a composer. 

Something personal I was quite upset towards the movie because of the death scene. Somehow, for a great person like Mozart, his funeral was not a great one. Apparently that was a ritual at the times in the place where Mozart died. But this movie proves that sometimes people with the best talents, are not the best people themselves. Mozart was a great composer, but as a person he wasn't great himself. And this movie also proves, that jealousy would get you nowhere but an asylum for crazy people.  

Reflection on Amadeus - Chris

The movie Amadeus takes place in the 18th century and it shows the life of Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and their relationship to each other. We got to see a lot of things about how they dressed and how they acted at the time. Even though Mozart had the natural talent, he still didn't act as a person that could handle the pressure on him and his fame, but Salieri had to work for what he could do, he didn't have a natural talent, yet he was still humble and didn't show off. Mozart expected too much of himself and his surroundings which led him to be unemployed and in debt in the end. Mozart did have new ideas, but usually when people hear something good they want something similar and some of his ideas were completely different from anything else. At the time the king had all the power, but people from the music business also had a lot of power for what kind of music could be played and should be made. My impression of the movie was good, it still had a little bit of comedy in it which is always good, but it also took you attention to know what's going to happen next between Salieri and Mozart for example. The movie could be trying to tell us that our desire for something shouldn't become too much and take over our life, like music did with Mozart and also Salieri's jealousy to Mozart's success. 

Reflection on Amadeus by Stelios

The movie was good optically and as a scenario. Interesting characters, a real story put into a movie with great music and talented actors. It also has one of America's best actors F. Murray Abraham playing the role of Salieri.
The movie showed us the society of that time (1756-1791) the power and way the world was governed.
In the movie religion is very important. It is beyond doubt that god exist as a superior being. Salieri was a religious man until about the middle of the movie. The people and the society is not like today. There is a gap between poor and wealthy. There is nobility and normal people. There were a lot of artists and educated people in Vienna at the time science it was the Enlightenment. The nobles are interested in arts and knowledge instead of war and power. Some even try to learn arts like the prince in the movie who was taught by Salieri. The artists of the time are treated like they are nobles too (if they are successful or/and in the service of a lord/prince). Salieri lives in luxury, with servants, a big house with fancy furniture etc.
The normal people of the time also start to get interested in opera and theater. Somewhere after the first half of the movie we see Mozart working in a theater with normal people in the seats instead of nobles with white wigs.  The movie also talks about how a man can be overconfident and lightheaded while being a genius at the same time.
In a way Mozart was like the Heavy metal bands today. What i mean? Not accepted by some people who are old and traditional (Salieri) for their behavior and style, but for their music. Bringing a whole new idea and making music a way never used before.
The movie is very well done and i will remember the meanings of it for a long time.

Stelios Papagiannis

Reflection on the movie "Amadeus"

   The movie "Amadeus" is interesting because it tells us a lot about the time period Mozart lived in known as the age of enlightenment.The movie mostly focuses on the arts of that time period meaning music and paintings. It seems like opera was the most famous genre of music and opera plays were very popular. Also they were not that strict about religion. The prince was in charge at that time, but as the movie shows, Antonio Solieri had some power too. He decided things when it came to music.
  I personally enjoyed the movie. It showed the life of an important man in a comic way. Also, I enjoyed at looking at the movie because I am a great fan of Mozart.

  

Amadeus Reflection

Overall, I thought that Amadeus was a brilliant film production, providing a different view (throught the eyes of Salieri) about the story of Mozart's dramatic and tragic life. It also provided a hint of comedy to the film to make it more interesting and appealing.  Amadeus really showed, in depth, what it was like to live in 18th century, while also following the life of Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. This movie portrayed Salieri and Mozart having a bitter relationship at first, but later ended having a bitter sweet ending. This movie also showed how Salieri was the man who was the hardworker, he never had the natural talent and did not start playing piano until a significatnly older age. Then they showed Mozart as the eccentric and whacky musician who always had natural talent and had always been a piano prodigy since a young age. Even though this movie was about Mozart, the main character was Salieri, who they showed more in detail. I think the main point of this movie was to show the life of Mozart and his brilliant, but dramatic struggle to become the world's greates pianist. The message of this movie was that hardwork may be important to be a succesful person, but a lot of time sheer succesfulness all boils down to natual talent and ability.