Micitype Pretty Good

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Howard Schumann Phil Grabsky's In Search of Mozart is a straightforward documentary about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that follows a linear chronology in looking at his life and music. If you are looking for a film with a unique style or impressionistic flair, you will not find it here. What you will find, however, is gorgeous color, valuable commentary, visits to ten European capitals, and Mozart's glorious and inspired music. Reduced to a foul-mouthed clown by Peter Shaffer's fictional Amadeus, the true genius and stature of Mozart emerges in Grabsky's two-hour documentary. Narrated by British actress Juliet Stevenson, the film includes interviews with musicologists and artists, the revelation of Mozart's personal letters, and performances of eighty of his works, played with rare passion by some of the world's greatest orchestras and singers. Although I have been known to cry at movies before, rarely have there been this many tears of unadulterated joy tinged with sadness for his short life.In Search of Mozart traces Mozart's life from his childhood in Salzburg to his death in Vienna in 1791 at the age of thirty five from rheumatic fever and kidney failure. Mozart was already a gifted pianist and composer at age five, a boy who could play the piano with amazing dexterity for one so young. By age eighteen, he had already composed twenty eight symphonies, many of which are still performed. Sensing that his son was a genius, his father Leopold, a prominent composer in his own right, took him on the road, visiting courts in Germany, Paris, Austria, and Italy hoping for a court appointment but it was not to come. The film takes us on the 25,000 mile journey along every route Mozart that followed and the cinematography is stunning, though scenes of busy contemporary European life intermixed with drawings of the eighteenth century seem jarring and out of place.Though he had some prosperous years, Mozart struggled financially for most of his life and had considerable debts at the end. When he finally did obtain a position as a court composer in Vienna with Emperor Joseph, he earned only a middle class salary, not the wages of a nobleman. His happiest years were in Vienna from 1780-82 after his marriage to Constanze Weber, but when his first born died, followed soon after by the death of his parents, his music became more introspective, especially in the reflective slow movements of his later piano concertos and the melancholic G-minor string quintet. The high point of his music to many of course are his magnificent operas including Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute, which are shown in live operatic performances with English subtitles.Grabsky makes it a point to state that Mozart was not poisoned, did not die a pauper, and had a faithful and loving relationship with Constanze his entire life. The film discusses Wolfgang's strained relationship with his father and his scatological letters but points out that they were written when he was very young and that the rest of his family used the same kind of base humor. Marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, In Search of Mozart, the first major feature-length documentary of Mozart's life, is worth going the extra step to see whether you are a fan of classical music or hip-hop. It is a stunning celebration filled with the unyielding mystery of genius. Picking up the pieces from the wreck left by Amadeus, In Search of Mozart does justice to the man and his music.

jperl66 Based on previous comments and critical reviews, I went to see this movie. I expected to see a well made documentary about Mozart's life, a composer I love to listen to and whose home I have visited. I was very disappointed. There was nothing new in this movie that made me sit up and take notice. You might learn a little about Mozart's life if you knew nothing, but taken as a whole, I was unimpressed with the details that were presented. You could not get emotionally involved with this genius by watching this movie. The presentation in many respects is unfortunate. Interviewees spoke in their native tongue, no translations were given. Now I know a little German, so I could understand those speakers, but the Italian, French and whatever other languages were spoken were beyond me and I'm sure to most other viewers. There was also no identification of who the interviewees were, so you could not relate to them in any way.

miknnik For someone who would like to explore Mozart's music and/or learn more about his life, this documentary will be an excellent source of both. Except for Great G minor (K.550--on the selection screen on DVD) and Clarinet Concerto in A (K.622), which we hear at the very beginning, the viewers can listen to Mozart's compositions in a chronological order mostly and hear the progression of his composition skills. And how fast he progresses! As one of the interviewees in the film says, Mozart's life and the development of his musical talent were as if they had been on the fast-forward. The documentary showcases a wide range of musical genres--sonatas, concerti, symphonies, operas, motets, string quartets, and more. World-class musicians and conductors explain the technical aspects of certain pieces and talk about the emotions they evoke. We also journey through Mozart's life following some excerpts of his and his parents' letters and video clips of the cities he visited during his lifetime.If you are a Mozart aficionado and have been gathering any scrap of information on Mozart over the years, you won't find anything earth-shattering in the film. After all, Mozart's life has been well chronicled through his correspondence and other forms of documents. The information the documentary provides is on the conservative side. I could not help smiling when I read the producer's note at the end; that Mozart probably died of rheumatic fever and kidney failure, and that he was not poisoned. I get this feeling that Phil Grabsky doesn't approve of the portrayal of Mozart in Amadeus. Attributing Mozart's death to rheumatic fever and renal failure has been one of the main theories for decades, but what about other possibilities? Only a year or two ago, I read a newspaper article, which claimed Mozart might have died of trichinosis. The article was fascinating, but Mozart's death is one of many mysteries we will never be able to solve. For music connoisseurs, this film has a great appeal with Renée Fleming, Lang Lang, Sir Roger Norrington and others affectionately and passionately speaking of Mozart's music. And let's fact it, you don't get to hear Mozart's first compositions on keyboard or early operas often even if you listen to an all-classical format radio station. In addition, you get to hear the samples of well-known, and not so well-known pieces by Mozart.There's a Japanese proverb on prodigies that goes like this: A prodigy (literal translation: divine child) at age ten, a whiz at fifteen, just a man at twenty and over. I suppose Mozart himself, and In Search of Mozart to a certain extent, proved that even ancient oriental wisdom can be wrong every once in a century or two.

alan-goldman I was recently given the DVD as a present which was a little surprising as I am not normally a fan of this type of film and would not normally choose to buy such a film , however I found it absolutely fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed it. It certainly gave me an insight into the world of Mozart. I thought the Direction & Acting was first class and it brought to life , for me the period and times of Mozart. I would recommend this film to anyone . Watching this film has given me the incentive to become a little more adventurous in my choice of subject and I will be looking to view other films of this type and by this Director.