Amadeus
This film is a story told from the perspective of Antonio Salieri, an Italian classical composer, who claims to be behind the murder of the talented and well known composer of his classical era, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Antonio Salieri
Talk about dynamic introductions.
We first see Salieri as he bleeds on the floor after he slit his throat and begged for forgiveness, claiming to have murdered Mozart. This man, just like Koro from Whale rider experienced cognitive dissonance, but handled it very differently.
This successful classical court composer in Vienna was doing great, living a meaningful and passionate life creating music! He had been longing to meet Mozart, the prodigy who had been playing music for kings when he was a young child, and when he finally does, he was quite in shock.
Mozart probably wasn't the man Salieri hoped to be, instead he was a rude, arrogant, and flirtatious dirty-minded young fellow who had no self-control and an obnoxious (fictional) laugh.
Though his character may not be someone of great virtues and morals, his music was the real deal and Salieri knows it.
Mozart leading a performance that stuns the crowd.
"It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God."
This was the beginning of Salieri's inner conflict of loving and despising Mozart at the same time. He loves Mozart's talent for music, his genius mind and compositions, but at the same time, despises it for he could not believe that God chose such a vulgar person to be the God's instrument.
Salieri makes himself believe that Mozart's composition must be an accident, and uses this as a way to weaken the intensity of his cognitive dissonance.
Soon after, the emperor wishes to invite Mozart to the palace and offer him to stay in Vienna, and Salieri decided that he would compose a welcoming tune for Mozart. I believe this is the side of Salieri that loves Mozart, wanting to show some work of his own and impress Mozart.
Mozart was able to memorize the tune, and nonchalantly make changes to improve Salieri's tune after only hearing it only once. The prideful young man probably doesn't even notice that he was showing off his musical talent, hurting Salieri's pride as he makes major changes to Salieri's original version of the tune.
Again, from loving and seeking Mozart's praise to hating the young show off for embarrassing him in front of the emperor. The seed of jealousy and resentment has started to grow in young Salieri.
Salieri's hatred grew even more as he learned that Mozart had toyed with feelings of the lady of his dreams, and even though she wasn't his, he hated Mozart to the extent of having really violent thoughts, and which he prayed to God to take him away to protect both of them.
"Send him back, for his sake, and mine."
When Mozart was required to send in some of his work to be considered for the royal appointment, his pride took over and he didn't want to do it. His wife secretly took his work and brought it to Salieri.
Salieri took a look at Mozart's work, they were all original copies of the composition with no corrections to them once so ever. His heart swayed once again by the absolute beauty and genius of Mozart's melodies.
He mentions that now he genuinely believes that the composition he had heard when he first met Mozart was no accident, and "Here again was the very voice of God".
Then more events occurred that fanned his flames of hatred towards Mozart, as at party a masked Salieri asked Mozart to play one of his compositions as a dare.
Salieri then tightened his resolve and sneaked into Mozart's house to look for the work that he tried so hard to keep a secret, the play of Figaro that has been banned. He then leaked the information about the inappropriate composition to the emperor who instead became interested in Mozart's work.
Mozart turned to Salieri for help, and Salieri pretended to help him. But fate decided to be on Mozart's side and brought the emperor to his rehearsal. Causing Salieri to feel bitter failure and even more anguish.
As the play went on, Mozart's beautiful composition caused Salieri to feel even more bitter in his defeat, but he can't deny his raw talent. Salieri constantly holds on to two conflicting beliefs, causing him more and more dissonance as the days pass.
But then the emperor yawned and gave Mozart only 9 shows, and his bitter defeat became a sweet victory. Things became even more complicated for Mozart as his father passed away, but still haunts him in his music.
The play was genius, but was only aired 5 times, and in secret, Salieri attended ALL FIVE shows, worshiping the sound that only he could fully comprehend, again loving Mozart's creations.
He finally thought of a way to end Mozart perfectly, to haunt him with the thoughts of his father and get him to write a requiem, for his own funeral!
" Boo ! "
Through many nights of constant work and constantly wearing himself out because he needed money, Mozart fainted at a play he was performing for, and later on died working on the Requiem with Salieri by his side.
It can be seen that Salieri LOVED working with Mozart even though he had trouble keeping up with his brilliance, he was not just watching the person he looks up most to create right before his eyes, he was assisting him!
Salieri had killed the person he loved and look up to, at the same time killed the man he so much despises. The dissonance he experienced caused him to have contradicting attitudes and behaviors, and thus caused him to take excessive measures and took away not just Mozart's future, but also harming and affecting that of his own future and sanity.
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