FORGET MOZART
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1987 Jeff Meyer
Seen at the Seattle Film Festival: FORGET MOZART (West Germany, 1986) Director: Slavo Luther Screenwriter: Zev Mahler Cast: Tidof, Catarina Rascke, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Wolfgang Preiss Sub-titled
FORGET MOZART is an interesting sideshow--and certainly a different approach--to another movie that recently dealt with the life (and death) of Mozart, AMADEUS. A West German production, FORGET MOZART was shot on the same sets--sometimes during recesses in the AMADEUS schedule--and the rest shot after AMADEUS had finished, but had not yet torn down the sets. It promotes a peculiar feeling of continuity with the former film, even though the actors are different, and they would certainly make a nice double-bill together.
FORGET MOZART is certainly not the production AMADEUS was; the lyrical blending of the music and the action on the screen is not there. On the other hand, FORGET MOZART isn't trying to compete directly; it takes a different tact, and concentrates on the political ramifications of Mozart's actions, and music (!). It opens like an episode of COLUMBO, with a montage of wax figures, splattered with blood, and a real corpse among them; and then suddenly jumps to Mozart's house (exact same set... but I told you that. Uncanny), where a Count in the service of the Throne is there to uncover the reasons behind Mozart's death. Mozart's body has been found, apparently a victim of some disease; but because of his political affiliations, and his habit of offending everyone, the Count is anxious to uncover the reasons for his death, and then to generate a story that will not stir up the country, which is already considered ripe for revolution.
In the room with the Count are the major suspects: his estranged wife and his servant; a Baron who is also the head of the Freemasons, an organization that had inducted Mozart; another Freemason, who had gotten Mozart to collaborate with him on THE MAGIC FLUTE; his doctor; and of course, Salieri, the current court composer. Salieri is actually the only person who does not have a political reason for offing Mozart; and he is also played as much more popular (at the time) than Mozart. But there are echoes of the character from AMADEUS here, and it certainly makes the guessing (which goes on for the rest of the film) interesting. This is more of a 18th Century episode of PERRY MASON then a film on Mozart, though the music is fine and the cinematography is surprising good (though the conclusion is somewhat watered down with a MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS ending). The acting is nothing to write home about--it is far too melodramatic in parts; and the German tendency to toss in a little fast flesh to sate the audience is much in evidence.
An interesting, if not particularly notable, film. Particularly good at a film festival, where the large number of films makes something like FORGET MOZART more appreciable.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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