Where to watch Amadeus (1984)

Trivia & production notes

• Director Miloš Forman chose to cast Tom Hulce as Mozart after an American-only casting search, rejecting both Kenneth Branagh and Mark Hamill due to concerns about their existing public personas overshadowing the role.
• Meg Tilly, originally cast as Mozart's wife Constanze, tore a ligament in her leg the day before filming began and was replaced by Elizabeth Berridge.
• Actor Tom Hulce drew inspiration for Mozart's unpredictable temperament from tennis player John McEnroe's mood swings and claimed he discovered Mozart's characteristic laugh after drinking a bottle of whiskey.
• The film was shot on location in Prague over seven months, allowing Forman to film inside the Estates Theatre where Mozart's Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito had their world premieres two centuries earlier.
• Hulce was specifically instructed not to study modern conducting techniques, since Mozart's era featured conductors who primarily kept time and often played keyboard instruments.
• Choreographer Twyla Tharp collaborated on the film to recreate authentic opera scenes, which were shot using candlelight inside the Estates Theater to achieve high realism.
• The Amadeus soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 1984 and has sold over 6.5 million copies, making it one of the most popular classical music recordings of all time.
• Conductor Neville Marriner agreed to score the film only if Mozart's original compositions remained unchanged, though this condition was not strictly observed in the final edit.
• All tracks on the original soundtrack album were performed specifically for the film rather than sourced from existing classical recordings.
• Simon Callow, who originated the role of Mozart in the London stage production of Amadeus, was cast as Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of The Magic Flute.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Amadeus (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.