#elizabeth berridge

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You're WELCOME. I love making these so much omfg

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Amadeus (1984) | dir. Miloš Forman

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The Funhouse, French lobby card, 1981

[cinematicmasterpiece]

amadeus (1984)

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⋆˚｡⋆ ⋆˚｡⋆⋆˚｡⋆ Amadeus (1984) dir. Miloš Forman⋆˚｡⋆ ⋆˚｡⋆⋆˚｡

[freudianblunders]

Amadeus, 1984

The man, the music, the madness.

Amadeus is one of those films that leaves you in a profound, meditative state for a day or two. I don’t think I will ever be able to fully articulate the kind of impact it had on me or do proper justice to its review.

Miloš Forman’s widely celebrated masterpiece details the rivalry between composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. Every moment of this film deserves praise. It is not intended to be a biopic, as it’s based on the play Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, which in turn was inspired by the 1830 play Mozart and Salieri by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Shaffer even called it "a fantasia on the life of Mozart and Salieri." The play uses a rumor to explore the nature of providence and the tragedy of being consumed by envy.

Amadeus is a three-hour-long odyssey that seems to fly by, made all the more remarkable by the fact that the camera rarely moves. Forman has crafted a magnetic film, with soaring music (by Mozart, of course) placed immaculately, matched only by impeccable performances from Tom Hulce and Elizabeth Berridge, with F. Murray Abraham shining the brightest. The film serves as a cautionary tale and an incredible dialectic on envy, faith, power, and finding joy in life by not raging against things you cannot truly change.

Mozart's nickname, "Amadeus," in Latin means "God's beloved." This is the central theme of the film, as Salieri believes Mozart's music is so perfect that the only explanation is that Mozart is merely a vessel for God, who is truly composing the music, or that God bestowed this ultimate talent upon Mozart. Finally, the most incredible and mind-boggling thing about Mozart is that he was even better than what is portrayed in the film.

The film earned 11 Academy Award nominations, winning 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, Art Direction, Costume Design, Directing, Makeup, Sound, Shaffer’s Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for F. Murray Abraham.

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Elizabeth Berridge as Constanze Mozart in Amadeus (Film, 1984).

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Amadeus

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TOM HULCE, ELIZABETH BERRIDGE & CHRISTINE EVERSOL in AMADEUS

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F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri

(Source)

[thatmarygirl93]

Elizabeth Berridge is so fucking beautiful 🥹💕

Constanze Mozart’s Outifts in Amadeus (1984) - for @fdhsgbkjd

[knowyourbmovieactors]

OCTOBER HORROR MOVIES 2024 (DVD EDITION) #15 THE FUNHOUSE

1981 was a turning point of sorts for Tobe Hooper. The outsider filmmaker rocketed to acclaim and controversy in 1974 with his weird, greasy, grimy slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Five years later, he had matured into a confident director able to handle more complicated material with more adult themes, like his celebrated 1979 adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. Stephen Spielberg had even been in talks with him about possibly directing this upcoming movie called E.T. By the dawning of the '80s, he was poised to move past all that gory '70s grindhouse stuff and take his place among the dignified, highbrow horror directors.

Except, 1981 was still basically the '70s, and Hooper wasn't quite done being a little gross and weird. Exhibit A: The Funhouse, a teen slasher film set in a skeevy, dirty traveling carnival. When four teenagers on a double date dare themselves into spending the night inside the carnival's funhouse, they get a lot more than they bargained for, and we get absolutely no hint that this was made by the guy who was going to make Poltergeist only one year later.

I loved the atmosphere of this film. Shot in Florida (specifically because child labor laws were so lax there that they could work their one child actor more than 12 hours a day; guys, Florida has ALWAYS been like this), they picked locations right down the road from where a bunch of actual traveling carnivals spent their down months in the winter. So, Hooper hired them. All the obvious OSHA violations that people are riding for fun and all the too-skinny carnies are absolutely genuine. When Hooper needed "dancing girls" for one of the carnival tents, he just popped over to a local strip club and started hiring. There is a gritty realness to the carnival scenes that takes me right back to the traveling carnivals that would roll through small towns for their summer and fall festivals back when I was a kid. They always felt a little bit seedy and dangerous, which, honestly, was most of the appeal. I mean, ring toss and corn dogs are nice; but did you ever see a drunk carnie climb up on the prow of a swinging ship attraction and ride it like a bull in a rodeo, and instead of getting that man with an obvious problem help, almost everyone who was strapped into the ride applauded? I SURE DID!

The movie itself is fine. It's nowhere near as demented as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, even though it once again features a deformed killer who is the product of a deranged upbringing. The film does show a bit of empathy for the disturbed, nonverbal man-child raised in the shadow of his greedy, drunken father's violence, so you can see hints that Hooper understands that horror films can be more than vehicles for blood and guts; but once the killing starts, that's all left in the dust as we concentrate on our 25-year-old teenagers trying to escape the chained-up funhouse. There's some inventive use of space inside the the twisting, disorienting darkness of the ride (which must be at least four stories tall and goddamn ENORMOUS); Kevin Conway plays three different carnival barkers, each one more off-putting than the last; and Elizabeth Berridge has the most devastated, traumatized thousand-yard stare you'll ever see at the end of a horror film; but for me, what makes this film interesting are all the dirty little details in the background.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM THE DVD EXTRAS The only extra on this DVD was the original trailer for the movie. Remember when trailers were just men with deep voices telling you everything that happens in the movie?

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The Funhouse, French lobby card, 1981

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Elizabeth Berridge