Walk Hard mocked the rock star biopic cliche of the musician reflecting on his entire life before performing. In Amadeus, the Mozart biopic, it’s actually Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) that reflects. The 1984 Best Picture winner comes to 4K UHD with new interviews with Abraham, Mozart actor Tom Hulce, Christine Ebersole and the artisans who brought history to life.
Hulce recalls the scene of Mozart dictating a composition to Salieri towards the film’s end. He said he got so into character, he struggled to keep track of the composition.
“At some point, I literally, me, the actor got lost,” Hulce said. “All of that is in the film and what you see is Mozart trying to find what his next thing is in his head.”
Director Milos Forman played the song that Mozart was composing, but Hulce sometimes still got too enthusiastic.
“There’s a fabulous moment in the scene where Murray’s going, ‘Wait wait wait, you’re going too fast,’” Hulce said. “The score was all broken down into the bits that Mozart was dictating to Salieri so there would be a track. There was a man sitting over in the corner with a little boom box. As I was dictating it, I would hear it in my ear so that my rhythm and the key that it was in, the pitches, were accurate so that when they laid in the sound later it could all work together.”
Hulce worked with composer and music supervisor Neville Marriner to learn the music. Mozart memorized his music, so Hulce came as close as he could to that.
“Neville had me sit on the floor in the middle of the orchestra as they were recording so that I could literally hear the music in my head all around me,” Hulce said. “So that when it came time to say, ‘It’s all here,’ I had a sense of what that might be like.”
The 4K UHD presentation showcases all the lavish costumes and period sets but matches the look of a 1984 film with grain. Mozart music fills the surround speakers so it sounds like you’re in the middle of the opera.