Directed by Miloš Forman • 1984 • United States
Starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge

Sumptuous, deliciously irreverent, and graced with immortal music, Miloš Forman’s marvelous adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play returns in a new restoration. One of the great cultural events of the 1980s, this lavish saga of genius, rivalry, and treachery was not only a critical triumph but a box-office hit, garnering eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director. From a nineteenth-century insane asylum, aged composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham, delectably diabolical) recalls the events of three decades earlier, when the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce, memorably giddy, giggling) first gains favor in the court of Austria’s Emperor Joseph II. Salieri rues the fact that his own music never rises above mediocrity, and he remains permanently incensed that God would bless so vulgar and obnoxious a young whippersnapper as Mozart with divine genius. Unable to match Mozart’s talent, Salieri devises a duplicitous scheme that will be the downfall of them both.