The 2000s Reviews

Amadeus - Director's Cut DVD (1984)
October 14, 2002
By Almar Haflidason
BBC

Few epics are as timeless as the beautifully realised Amadeus. Now released as a director's cut with 20 minutes' additional footage, the movie has been further improved with a digital restoration and release onto a two-disc DVD set.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture: Whether in the darkness of Salieri's grim confines as an old man, or in the most splendidly colourful palace, this transfer to disc copes with bright colours and darkness with ease. The film looks substantially fresher than it did on tape and is sharper than the old 1999 non-anamorphic DVD release. As Forman reveals in his audio commentary, he'd asked his cameraman that "blacks be black" and "flesh look like flesh." On DVD they indeed look as instructed.

Sound: The new 5.1 sound mix carries a power that was not present on the old DVD, and is far more substantial than any tape release. Considerable work has gone into showcasing the music so it fills and envelops the viewer in almost three hours of audio bliss.

DISC ONE SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio: Commentary -- The witty repartee of director Milos Forman and screenwriter Peter Shaffer are your companions for this often highly amusing and informative commentary. Forman is straight in with a gag, denouncing all critics for never appreciating the performance of the cat in the opening scene. Apparently, he jokes, most of the film was a breeze to make, but no one noticed he had to work with animals for this movie!

There are anecdotes galore on offer here, and points to note that may have escaped the attention of some. For instance, Forman mentions that all the common people of the film have American accents, while the nobles all sport British accents. You'll also find plenty of discussion about the placement of the music in the film, and how it drives certain scenes as a performer, rather than just as background accompaniment.

DISC TWO SPECIAL FEATURES

Making of Documentary: Running at an hour in length, this retrospective documentary is a revealing look at the often-extraordinary production of this remarkable film. It's been cleverly put together, with the interview material shot with director Forman allowing him to react to others' comments.

Forman is a man of considerable humour, and he kicks off proceedings by admitting that he had to be dragged along to see Peter Shaffer's original play. By the interval, he was thinking seriously of turning it into a movie.

He got together with Shaffer, and they holed themselves up in Forman's house for four months to write the screenplay. Both are at pains to try and outdo each other on describing what a hellish process this was. They each admit to having huge conflicts over the script and hating one another's cooking.

The production of the film takes up most of this documentary, though, and it's an incredible tale studded with amusing anecdotes of the secret police in Czechoslovakia trying to work out why these people really were in Prague. Clearly, the excuse of making a movie was not good enough for them and, in an act of rebellion, 600 Prague extras stood up to sing the American national anthem to expose a huddle of 30 panic-stricken secret police planted in amongst them.

There's a surprising amount of behind-the-scenes footage featured in this programme, and all the main actors are interviewed for their recollections. What comes out from all of these interviews is the sheer amount of hard work that Tom Hulce put into getting his performance right, and the lengths that F. Murray Abraham was prepared to go to in order to perfect his resentful character.

Additional Disc Two Extra Features: Also on disc two is a theatrical trailer. Subtitles are included for the documentary.