Music. Music reigns here irrevocably and uncompromisingly. It stands on a pedestal and surpasses any movie technique, it simply sweeps away. It is especially striking in the last scene, when Forman’s exhausted, half-crazed Mozart faintly hums phrases of the Requiem, and Salieri records melodies that combine into one and strike with the power and splendor of a complete canvas. Mozart sees the music, his eyes looking through the shabby room – he is there, where the arpeggios of the violins flutter, where the chorus sounds powerfully, where the orchestra lulls at Lacrimosa and rumbles like God’s wrath.

Salieri’s envy, a music artisan, is interpreted by the director as hatred of God, who gave the obnoxious boy the gift that the court composer had always dreamed of. Salieri’s anguish is indescribable – he is able to see the beauty of Mozart’s music as no one else can, but he is unable to create anything like it. His best stuff fades when Mozart is around. Amadeus does not invent, he simply records the music that sounds in his head, that he feels, and this talent, given to an unworthy, promiscuous boy, kills Salieri. He decides to defy God and destroy his creation to avenge the injustice. Thus, the conflict goes beyond the boundaries of ordinary human enmity, becomes a monstrous challenge to fate from a man unable to create things as beautiful as this.

Of course, it is worth remembering that the story of Mozart’s poisoning by Salieri is a fairy tale, as well as what the court musician does to Amadeus in the movie in question. But does it matter when such a tragedy is played out before our eyes? Forman’s Salieri is monstrous. He is truly horrible – both by his incredible earthiness combined with his ability to appreciate a masterpiece, by his genuine pain and admiration, which are inseparable from servility, and by his cunning, which appears only when he wants to destroy Mozart. These contrasts are truly frightening, making you clench your palms, waiting to see what will follow. The dissolute Mozart is overly naive, while the austere nobleman Salieri keeps an intolerable evil under his polite mask. Salieri is inexorable, although Mozart’s music raises a storm in him. No matter what he does, he is helpless, and this helplessness shows his other side – intolerable cruelty. The life of Mozart, who is killed by the music, is filled with suffering; the life of Salieri, who died the very moment he saw and heard the great composer, is filled with suffering. “Thanks to my connections, ‘Don Giovanni’ was performed in Vienna only five times. But I didn’t miss a single one myself.”