Schadenfreude, Part II

So last time I started talking about why I'm such a homo for that scene in Amadeus where Salieri makes his pact with God and is on his way to becoming one of the most famous composers in Austria. When you think of that scene on its own you say, 'So what? Big deal.' And you're right. But what makes it so striking is the context. You see this young kid swearing off everything - women, booze, anything that can bring you pleasure in this life - just to play music. And almost immediately after that we see a teenaged Mozart, effeminate, flouncing around with a train of beautiful squealing young girls, drinking champagne and playing piano upside down (imagine a Victorian Dennis Quaid [a la Jerry Lee Lewis], with powder and matching wig); meanwhile the not as handsome/talented and shy/withdrawn Salieri looks on at the whole show like a hateful specter.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's this scene that really gets me and not the one I espoused on earlier. Or to make an analogy (in SAT form), maybe this scene (Mozart and entourage) is to Salieri is what the earlier scene (Salieri's pact) is to Mozart. In other words, to go back to the filmmakers' clever device I talked about in the beginning of part I, while the "pact" scene is the one that makes you consciously recognize it (i.e. - naming the film Amadeus and ostensibly making it seem like the movie is about him), what really has the effect on you is the flamboyant Mozart scene (i.e. - Salieri being the quiet driving force of the movie and having the strongest impact subconsciously where Mozart is the outward/conscious lead). [Nota bene - Though my two analogies really have nothing to do w/each other per se, they really just encourage a deeper look into what we think motivates us on the conscious level versus what is actually moving us from a subconscious standpoint. Most times you really have to do some serious digging to find out why you do the stupid shit you do and where the lunacy that triggered the actions came from.]

This is turning out to be longer than I thought. Believe me when I say that when I started this thread I had no idea I'd be writing about the subconscious effect of an effeminate Mozart prancing around drinking champagne. But it is important and in the next post (lord-willing, the last in this series) hopefully you'll understand why it is important and why the scary German name for this topic. That's all for now. Try to get a grip on those nightmares.