#peter shaffer

I feel a little bit like I'm going crazy. Obviously this is an impressive technical feat in terms of set design, costuming and lighting, and much of the sound design is interesting, but that's about it. Introduces a dynamic regarding the prodigy and the relationship between envy and mentorship that I desperately wanted it to explore, that it so easily could have teased something real out of. But instead, it presents a rote series of the same events happening over and over again with the same characters reacting with the same expressions in ever more elaborate set pieces. Abraham does his best with the material but there are only so many times I can hear him express exactly the same thought in exactly the same tone. Repetition is not interrogation. Interrogation would have involved anyone rebutting anything he or anyone else says, rather than each character just stating their opinions until they are no longer relevant to the drawn out plot. How long is it between the burning of the cross and the final shot? Could Forman not have done anything else with a self-identified antichrist? It's so tempting for me to read more into the psychological reality of the film, but that would be pure eisegesis.

The cinematography I don't want to harp on too much, because it's always annoying watching wide screen movies on my laptop, but frankly it was really boring. Like the rest of the movie, far too agreeable. The camera tries to immerse itself in the spectacle rather than reflecting it, and what we see is exactly what we get, there are never turns, never revelations, never curiosity. Only presentation.

During rehearsals, I sat in the stalls, rewriting scenes as the actors brought my characters to life. It was a joy to watch. Simon was startled that Mozart could have spoken so childishly and vulgarly; at first, when he said his lines, the cast got the giggles. But we got them all together to discuss the silliness behind the genius, and they absorbed it. It's not a policy of mine to compare one actor to another, but Felicity Kendal was, in my opinion, the best Constanze [Mozart's wife] of them all. Now, when I think of the character, I see her face.