Chamber Music Sedona and the Sedona International Film Festival will present an encore of the film “Amadeus” Monday, Oct. 27, 7pm at the Mary D. Fisher Theater. The film is an adaptation of the stage play “Amadeus” by Peter Shaffer which is a variation of Alexander Pushkin’s play Mozart I Salieri. It is the extraordinary story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart told by Antonio Salieri – Mozart’s peer and secret rival.
“Amadeus” was nominated for 53 awards and received 40, including Best Picture in its eight Academy Awards sweep, four BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, and a Directors Guild of America (DGA) award. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked Amadeus 53rd on its 100 Years... 100 Movies list. The film stars F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri, Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Elizabeth Berridge as Constanze Mozart and Roy Dotrice as Leopold Mozart, Amadeus’ father.
The story of “Amadeus” begins in 1823 as the elderly Antonio Salieri attempts suicide by slitting his throat while loudly begging forgiveness for having killed Mozart in 1791.
Placed in a lunatic asylum for the act, Salieri is visited by Father Vogler (Richard Frank), a young priest who seeks to take his confession. Salieri is sullen and uninterested but eventually warms to the priest and launches into a long "confession" about his relationship with Mozart. The film ends as Salieri finishes recounting his story to the visibly shaken young priest. Salieri concludes that God killed Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in even an ounce of his glory, and that he is consigned to be the "patron saint of mediocrity". Salieri absolves the priest of his own mediocrity and blesses his fellow patients as he is taken away in his wheelchair. The last sound heard before the credits roll is Mozart's high-pitched laughter.