An absolute masterpiece crowned by 8 Oscars and adapted from the start of a play, “Amadeus” takes liberties with the way Mozart would have died. Because no, Antonio Salieri, his rival, did not work to make him die of exhaustion…
If Milos Forman delivers an absolute masterpiece, Amadeus takes real liberties with historical facts. In his defense, the critics forget one essential thing. The film is presented through Salieri’s gaze, mad with jealousy, on Mozart. He sees him as a brilliant but obscene, vulgar being, an enemy who must be put down. Most historians agree that while the two composers were indeed rivals, it was also a friendly rivalry, one of mutual respect and admiration.
The legend that Mozart composed a Requiem -commissioned by Salieri- in premonition of his approaching death is romantic imagery. Whether Salieri actually murdered Mozart is pure speculation.
He was certainly the artist who has been the subject of the greatest number of studies on the causes of his death: no less than 140 possible causes have been identified, as well as 27 mental pathologies: hyperactivity with attention disorders , obsessive syndrome, paranoia…
The truth about his death would actually be simpler. If it seems that the composer was poisoned, it is by no means by Salieri. Mozart regularly took a medicine, the liquor of Van Swieten, widely used then to restore his strength, which was in fact only a solution of mercury… Hence the taste of metal that he said he sometimes felt. His premature death, at 35, could be the consequence of kidney failure caused by this remedy.