#literally amadeus and salieri

[magical-mystery-tour1967]

I love Amadeus so much hooooly shit i love it. I just watched it for the ninth time. I'm considering watching the directors cut this time, though i usually watch the theatrical version (guess who has Amadeus theatrical version on dvd) Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus

[ded-lime]

[unforth]

I know the Musk "trillion people means more Mozarts" thing is stupid as fuck but I just saw a prominent blogger reply to it by saying anyone has the ability to be a Mozart and I'm sorry but "talent doesn't exist" discourse has officially gone too far, and I say that as someone who hates the word "talent" and has replaced it almost entirely with the word "skill" in my vocabulary.

Not everyone is a prodigy. Yes, prodigies get lost because they lack opportunity, but that still doesn't mean everyone is a prodigy. If everyone WAS then everyone with enough wealth and opportunity WOULD be and like. I'm sorry, have you SEEN what a fucking moron Elon Musk actually is?

[mozartcoeur]

HAPPY 268TH BIRTHDAY, MOZART!!! 🎉

wanted to draw something pretty and/or funny for my best boy's special day, but i'm lazy so here's a low-effort stupid meme i found on pinterest instead

[chatpileroan]

this is my sin of an opinion but i like moriarty more when sherlock isnt there. blasphemous i know but sherlock has been around since. literally camelot and slightly before technically? and in all this time they have Not gotten me to gaf. IM TALKING ABOUT FGO IN CASE ITS NOT OBVIOUS THIS ISNT A HOT TAKE ABOUT THE BOOKS

[doyouknowhowtowaltz]

Oh and I think Mozart/Salieri could be good for this one

A bingo by the skin of their fucking teeth, despite the apparent effort to get the maximum squares filled without a bingo.

[omegalomania]

face in my hands. listen to me. no just. just listen. like. i think on the whole fandom tends to heavily mythologize what certain songs are "about" despite this never being solidly confirmed to be the case and fob (pete in particular) generally try not to say without question What Songs Are About because they want people to take whatever meaning they can from it. but from now on we are enemies is one of the exceptions to this rule to a very limited extent and by that i mean that on two separate occasions, during the hiatus, patrick and pete shared a little bit of what the song was about on twitter, independent of one another.

if you haven't seen the film amadeus it's about a rivalry between two historical composers, wolfgang amadeus mozart and antonio salieri. salieri loathes mozart and finds him supremely childish and annoying...but also irritatingly brilliant beyond words. salieri obsesses over wanting to see mozart fail and even plans on killing him, but they do eventually form a friendship. then mozart gets sick and dies. salieri essentially breaks and loses his mind and years down the line will claim that he murdered him.

the name of the song, "from now on we are enemies," is a direct quote from the film. but it's not talking about mozart. it's a furious diatribe that salieri flings at god himself. he's so wildly and deliriously envious of mozart that he feels like this is divine punishment and so he declares god his mortal enemy for bestowing mozart with such brilliance. from now on we are enemies, you and i.

this is, i should note, one of the last songs fall out boy wrote before the hiatus. this and "alpha dog" were considered "new" for the believers never die greatest hits compendium, but alpha dog was technically debuted before folie released, on the welcome to the new administration mixtape. then fall out boy went on hiatus and there was no guarantee of return.

like i dont know what to say about this song that hasnt already been said. its fucking deranged as all get out ill tell you that much. its fucking unhinged that this song, this song with this central thesis statement, is one of the last songs you wrote together as a band before going your separate ways without any guarantee that you would reform again. and it's THIS. IT'S THIS SONG. a song that laments about whether anyone will remember you when you're gone (reminds me of flu game, reminds me of so much (for) stardust the title track, reminds me of .... so many of the themes inherent to their eighth studio album. actually.), and a song that practically lays out its inspiration for all to see. for a band that seldom if ever discloses with actual intent the Meaning behind their songs, this is a song that discusses a HIGHLY FRAUGHT ARTISTIC RELATIONSHIP and it's hard, it's real damn hard, to see anything but what is clearly all on display. composer but never composed (patrick has always considered himself a composer first and foremost). singing the symphonies of the overdosed (pete played a song that was named after the drug he tried to overdose on with his band mere nights earlier). i'm just a man on a balcony singing no one will ever remember me (again there's the fear and dread about the legacy you leave behind just before the band goes their separate ways).

can't fucking lay out the sheer psychological damage this does to my soul just thinking about this. they played MISS MISSING YOU the night before. just, you know, one of the other Songs that's so hard to disentangle from the hiatus because of the way it was written (patrick wrote the music while making soul punk, felt like it wasn't for him, and set it aside...despite there being, again, NO guarantee that the band would ever reform at this point, and then the song was only completed once fall out boy decided to come back, with joe and andy adding instrumentation and pete adding the lyrics) and whose music video features patrick and pete literally KILLING EACH OTHER. from now on we are enemies. i need to walk into the ocean. i need to lie down. im inconsolable.

[fuckyeahizzyhands]

Con O'Neill interview with Awards Radar's Steven Prusakowski 😭😭😭❤❤❤

SP: Busy time of year, but, you know, starting to slow down in just enough to hang out with the family and do all the cooking for, like 48 hours and then.

Con: Are you the main cook in the house?

SP: I am the main cook.

Con: Yeah. So am I. I love it.

SP: I love it, too.

Con: It's my go to place.

SP: Yeah.

Con: Because when I left school, I trained to be a chef.

SP: Oh, wow.

Con: Briefly. Another story.Okay, let's rock and roll.

SP: Well, that passion never leaves you, I think. I think once you start, especially when someone enjoys and says, hey, I really liked your food.I hear from my daughter's friends or their parents, she loved your pasta or whatever it was, I'm like, okay, now I'm...

Con: It's the best feeling, isn't it?

SP: It is. It's wonderful.

Con: And just that kind of inherent, nurturing thing of just going into the kitchen empty handed and coming out with a meal for people is really rewarding. And I love it. It's intoxicating. I absolutely love it.

SP: Same here.

Con: Because I travel so much, I don't always get a place with a kitchen. And that's why I always try and get an apartment when I'm filming because it just gives me a place to be in my head that isn't about work.

SP: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can talk cooking forever, but-

Con: But we should.

SP: I know we're short on time and I have a ton of questions and I won't get to all of them. So let's just jump into the series and maybe we could pick it back up. Sorry to interrupt, but I love the series. I love your character and your performance.

Con: Thank you.

SP: It's a stellar, and there's so much to Izzy that we see on the surface, but there's so much more to him beneath. How was this character originally pitched you and what did you initially want to bring to him?

Con: The thing about this character was he wasn't in the pilot. So when I spoke to David about it, there was nothing written. So he explained it in very broad terms. But then I quite like specifics when I'm choosing projects. And kind of... he brought up Salieri from Amadeus, and I really hooked into that. Now, I don't know whether we went that way with it in the end, but it was a really good hook for me because Salieri is that guy with a mission who is on the surface wanting, but is underneath something else. And I think initially, Izzy was that, but then we exploded him in several other ways and Salieri diminished to something else. But it was a good hook for me

initially to get in by thinking about Salieri.

SP: Yeah, I like it. I could see that for sure. And to start the season two. So going into that, he's a shadow of himself from this feared, intense, strong man to a broken man. And what was it like taking this character and exposing that humanity and starting to peel away some of that shield.

Con: I mean... David had spoken to me before we started shooting and explained most of the hulk to me, and I'd always played Izzy as a man who was in love but didn't know he was in love. And for me, the key into this season was a. the design, but more importantly, was the Taika's performance. To see a man that I love to be that broken and to be that vicious because of the heartbreak, it was profound for me to see what he did with Blackbeard, and it did break my heart a little bit. So the emotional journey was quite clear that at the end of the day, all hatred of Stede had left him, and all he wanted to do is fix Blackbeard, and he risks his life to do that. He literally puts himself on the line for that because, like always. And what I loved about what David and the writers did was they didn't remove Izzy from season one in season two, he's still there. And what Izzy does is about the crew. He puts his life on the line because Blackbeard is killing his crew, and he risks it all for that. But it breaks him seeing the the man he loves so fragile and broken and angry, it breaks him. So, It wasn't an easy job. It was quite a lonely job. It was quite a difficult job because it was going down that path that I knew inevitably we were going to go down. But I thought it was beautifully written. So most of what I needed to do was on the page, to be honest-

SP: -I'm sorry-

Con: I just had to throw myself into it.

SP: Excellent. And then with Izzy being broken and literally broken, he loses his leg, which is symbolic of much more. It leads to one of the most touching moments of the series, a note with four words: For The New Unicorn. What did that mean to you, and what does that mean to the character?

Con: You know, I've been talking a lot last couple of days - because I'm allowed to now - and, you know, this season is about Izzy coming out. In many ways, he comes out, but that moment, that rest, that beautiful piece of writing again, the writing, where the crew embrace him, and it just releases him. It releases him from his own concept of who he is. It releases him from his own concept of who he has to

be to be a first mate and a brilliant first mate. It released him of concept that he's alone. None of this would have been possible to Izzy pre season one, none of it. And in many ways, it's Stede that brings this into his life. Because before Stede, Izzy never thought of his relationship with Blackbeard as a loving relationship. He never thought of it as being in love. He only realizes he's in love with Blackbeard when he sees Blackbeard lose Stede. That's the only... The reveal is he's heartbroken because the man he loves is broken, and he doesn't know what to do with any of that. He's not emotionally capable. And the crew giving him the letter and calling him the new unicorn and releasing him from all the stuff that he'd done, all that pain that he'd suffered and anger that he'd raged upon them, it's a really accepting moment. So... yeah, I'm waffling a bit now, but it meant a lot, and it was a very beautiful moment to play. And I thought Andy, who directed it, directed it so...Andy was a real shoulder for me to lean on in those scenes, because a lot of those early scenes I'm shooting on my own. And it's quite difficult to play an emotional narrative when you're on your own, because it tends to just be one tone. And he was wonderful, and Alyssa and Alex and all. They were all wonderful in helping me gauge those moments, as were the rest of the cast. But, yeah, that moment touched me enormously.

SP: You know, you have this love triangle that is never really spoken, but it's there.

Con: Yeah

SP: Then it kind of shifts - it's almost like a love square. It's Ed, Blackbeard, Izzy and Stede. And where the love, you know, crosses, it's all... or the hatred is at sometimes, but then it evolves...

Con: Absolutely.

SP: It's so complex.

Con: I mean we all're in contemporary language. We always associate love with romance. That isn't the case here. The love that Blackbeard and Izzy have for each other is deep, man. It's deep, and it's rooted in years of working together, loving each other, saving each other's lives, being constant. This is probably the only constant they both had in their lives, is Blackbeard is Izzy, Izzy is Blackbeard, and then they have this buffoon come in and steal Blackbeard's heart. It's not that Blackbeard falls in love with someone else. Blackbeard falls in love with this guy. This Izzy just can't comprehend, and it's a constant. And then once, I think once Blackbeard hands him the gun, everything changes. And Blackbeard says, kill yourself. Everything changes. And then there's an openness to Stede and Blackbeard that brings him to that place of acceptance-

SP: -It's great to watch also. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Con: No, that. I mean, I'll waffle again. I'll waffle a lot, because that's what I do. But the more I think about that relationship, the more I go down all these different avenues of what it could have been, and what it could never have been, and what it is and what it wasn't. And as you say, it's layered and complex, and I'm honored to have been able to get to play with those actors, and especially with Taika, who's a profoundly good actor - everyone talks about Taika's director and writer - the man's a fucking great actor to work opposite, and he's... he's exquisite. So, yeah, I could only go where I went because the writers and Taika. Really.

SP: That's great. I... of course, we have to touch upon the end of the season and the end of Izzy, unfortunately, which I'm hoping is not. I'm hoping David has something up his sleeve. But what was your reaction when you learned it and how emotional was shooting that final scene? Because that final scene says a lot between...

Con: It was a... listen, I've been around a long time. The writing was on the wall when I started to read the scripts, and David had kind of hinted at it anyway when we went out for the famous dinner where he told me what the plan was, and I was gutted because I loved playing him so much. But, yeah, narratively, yeah, it makes sense. And I have complete faith, respect, love, admiration for David Jenkins, and whatever he thinks or wants to happen in season three will be the right thing if he gets season three, which I, whether I'm involved in it or not, I really hope he gets it, because he deserves it. And the show deserves it. The show deserves its triangle. It deserves it. But, yeah, it took a few days to sink in, and then I was fine. I was incredibly tired by that time. And I was lonely, as... really lonely because I was so far away from home filming all these scenes, and I tended to isolate when I was filming because of the nature of the work. So when I wasn't filming, I was sword training, or I was working out, or I was learning to walk on that fucking leg, or I was whatever whatever whatever. So I found myself isolating a lot. And in a way, it was a relief to be released from it. The final scene David had sent to me several weeks earlier. And I prepped, as I always do, and I prepped and I prepped and we were going to shoot at the beginning of the last week, and then it got shifted to the middle of the last week, and then it got shifted to the morning of the last day, and then it was shifted to the last thing we were going to shoot in the entire season. And there's always a dark cloud around those scenes because you never quite know how it's going to play. And there's a lot of pressure. And it being the last thing we were going to shoot, put more pressure on. And we were on the ship, which is a huge set, hundreds of crew members, the cast, everyone who could possibly be there was there. And I was getting quite unsettled by the amount of cacophony of noise and people. And then we rigged it all up, and it was still just [noise]. And then suddenly it was just me and Taika and just saying goodbye to a character we both fell in love with. And it was... it was a, I'm saying 'profound' a lot, but it was a profound experience doing that scene because everything else disappeared. It was just me and him. It was just Izzy and Blackbeard. And it was a lovely lovely moment.

SP: It was painful, but-

Con: It was lovely to be held by-

SP: -beautiful to watch.

Con: Yeah. Thank you. I mean, it's lovely to be held by another actor just... creatively and likewise with me to him. And David had a playlist playing and it was... elegant to do. It was nice to do. It was a nice, fitting ending to that chapter of this character. And I'll always be grateful that they shot it in that way.

SP: I do have to wrap. I just want to say before we do, I really enjoyed your rendition of La Vie En Rose. fantastic.

Con: Thank you.

SP: That's beautiful. And I appreciate all the work you did in the series, and I hope we see you again. And hopefully maybe you'll have a cooking show too, along the way, because I'd love to see what you make in that kitchen.

Con: Come on and let's bake together. Oh, I can't bake. I'll cook. It's lovely l ovely talking to you, Stephen.

SP: Great talking to you as well. Have a great day.

Con: Thank you. Bye bye.

SP: Thank you.

[too-antigonish]

The Classical Music of Ride, Part I: Mozart’s Requiem

You can’t trust anything or anyone in Ride. People aren’t who they seem to be. Every action, every event is just a cover for something else.

Is Morse one of the idle rich? An Oxford drop-out? A taxi-driver's son from Lincolnshire? A man who’s just finished a prison sentence? A policeman?

Long post....

Is Bixby the filthy rich head of a gambling empire? Is he just a front for Harry Rose’s criminal empire? Is he Charlie Greel looking to win back Cathy or Joss Bixby looking to seduce Kay? Is he even himself or is he his hidden, evil twin Conrad?

Are the denizens of Lake Silence really Morse’s friends—sheltering him after the storm of Blenheim Vale and prison? Or are they a bunch of dysfunctional philanderers and addicts? Even worse, are they suspects? Criminals?

Using Mozart’s Requiem in this episode must have absolutely delighted the music staff because while a great part of its fame and mystique rests on the sheer accumulation of stories and legends that have grown up around it, almost none of those tales can be proven—and all of them have been challenged at some point. You really don't know what's real and what's not—right down to the music itself.

Was the anonymous “stranger cloaked in gray” who gave him the commission the only sponsor Mozart ever saw? Or did he  at some point become aware  that the Count, Franz von Walsegg, was paying for the work? Some people today are shocked to hear that Walsegg planned to pass off the Requiem as his own work—as a tribute composed in memory of his dead wife—but that was a fairly common practice for the aristocracy of the time. It was considered slightly shady, but the proper thing to do was to just politely nod and go along with it.

Did Mozart, his mind disturbed by illness in his final days, truly come to believe that he had been poisoned and that he was writing the requiem mass for his own funeral? Or was that tantalizingly dramatic detail added by his widow Constanze to drive up sales of the score after the his death? The couple was catastrophically bad at managing money and when her husband died, the widowed Constanze was left with massive debts and two small children. She needed to maximize any possible source of revenue. 

Her story certainly captured the public imagination. Pushkin took that little tidbit about writing his own funeral mass and wrote a very short but thought-provoking  play in which he cast Mozart’s contemporary Salieri as the envious poisoner and Mozart himself as a childish, spoiled, and petty genius. Peter Shaffer later adapted Pushkin’s work into the play, and later film, Amadeus. A surprising number of people today believe Amadeus to be not the work of imaginative fiction that it is, but rather a completely factual story of Mozart’s life and death.

Mozart worked on the Requiem up to the day he died at the age of only 35. It was the last piece he worked on. Most scholars believe the manuscript we have contains not only the last music he ever composed but possibly the last words he ever wrote.

As far as authorship is concerned, we know for certain that Mozart himself completed “in skeleton” the Introit, the Kyrie, and almost all of the Sequentia (Dies irae, Tuba mirum, Rex tremendae, Recordare, Confutatis). The last portion of the Sequentia, the Lacrimosa, was completed was the up through the first 8 bars.

The last words that he actually wrote were "Quam olim da capo” — which instructed the musicians to repeat the "Quam olim" fugue of the Domine Jesu from the beginning. In yet another mysterious twist to the story of the Requiem, these actual last words were stolen—quite literally by tearing them from the manuscript—while the score was displayed at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels. They are still missing.

We are certain about the authorship of parts because we have the autograph manuscripts—the music in Mozart’s very own hand. The big question, however, has always been, how much the the rest of the Requiem can we consider his? The parts that were completed “in skeleton” basically had all of the “important” notes in place. Things missing include details like doubled parts that could fairly easily be extrapolated from what he had written. 

In order for Constanze to receive her money from Walsegg, however, she needed to make it appear that Mozart had completed the work entirely or almost entirely himself before his death. Not only would this ensure full payment from Walsegg, it would also promote sales of the score to the public later. A work written by Mozart alone would far out-sell a work written by Mozart and “Mr. Competent-But-Lesser-Known-Composer.”

Today we know that at least two of Mozart’s students were involved in finishing the piece, with the majority of the work being done by Franz Süssmayr. What we don’t know, however, is how much of the completed work is purely theirs and how much came from Mozart’s notes and verbal instructions.

Some versions of the story indicate that Mozart gave detailed deathbed instructions and left many “little scraps” of paper with details of how to complete the composition. Other versions claim that this talk of “little scraps” is simply more of Constanze’s effort to maximize Mozart’s contributions and minimize those of others.

Regardless, we know that the completed Requiem was eventually sent (with Mozart’s counterfeited signature!) to Count Walsegg and dated 1792—which is rather odd in retrospect given that it was well-known that Mozart had died on 5 December 1791. It's always been yet another mystery.

The two excerpts used in Ride are the Lacrimosa, during the opening titles and establishing scenes, and the Confutatis, which Morse is listening to on his record player as he splits wood outside the lakeside dacha.

The Latin text of the first reads:

Lacrimosa dies illa, Qua resurget ex favílla Iudicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce, Deus:

The equivalent translation (i.e. not the one used at mass, but a more literal translation) is: 

Tearful [will be] that day, on which from the glowing embers will arise the guilty man who is to be judged: Then spare him, O God.

So Ride starts with tears and guilt.

I’ve always found it interesting that this text doesn’t even try to claim innocence, instead it very clearly asks that the guilty be shown mercy. 

The Latin text of the second reads:

Confutatis maledictis, Flammis acribus addictis, Voca me cum benedictis.

The equivalent translation is: 

Once the cursed have been silenced, sentenced to acrid flames, Call me, with the blessed.

This text always strikes me as coming almost from a child’s point of view. Basically one interpretation is, “Come and get me once you’ve taken care of all the bad guys.” I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to how that might apply to Morse post-Blenheim Vale and prison.

Next week: The Classical Music of Ride, Part II: Rigoletto or “Why keeping a person’s entire existence a secret leads to Bad Things.”

Special Bonus Section!!!

Parts of Mozart’s Requiem used in Endeavour: 

Dies irae: completed by Mozart in skeleton* S4E4: Harvest (~2 min) (~3 min)

Rex tremendae: completed by Mozart in skeleton* S9E3: Exeunt(~1 h 11 min)(~1 h 11 min)

Confutatis: completed by Mozart in skeleton* S3E1: Ride (~5 min)

Lacrimosa: completed by Mozart in skeleton* through measure no. 8 S2E3: Sway (~0 min)(~1 hr 24 min); S3:E1 Ride (~1 min)

Lux aeterna: Not in Mozart’s MS; however Süssmayr reuses the Requiem aeternam written by Mozart almost note-for-note with just the different text S9E3: Exeunt (~31 min)

*skeleton: means full vocal and continuo parts, notes for prominent orchestral parts and musical bridges

[doomsayings]

my list of favorite movies I watched for the first time this 2024! honestly lots of solid watches this year. Ken Russel remains up there for me…

my thoughts/reviews under the cut!

Cemetery Man (1994)

Honestly my top watch of the year! Literally in the first 60 seconds I already knew it was going to be my fave movie of the year. There’s a certain style about it, a certain camp that is exactly what I look for in my horror movies (consider my favorite watch last year: lair of the white worm) and I could see immediately it was going in that direction. Though it even exceeded my expectations in that! While being a good slapstick horror comedy, it has a lush gothic atmosphere and romance that it approaches very earnestly…. All romantic leads should be crypt keepers! Tbh!

All About Eve (1950)

Believe it or not first movie I ever watched in theatres by myself despite my big age! I chose this over East of Eden which I will have to get to next year, but I don’t regret it. Made me fall in love w/ Bette Davis, who I already loved, like one million times over. Genuinely kept me on the edge of my seat and moved me with how generous and loving it is of its lead. Watching in an empty theatre with only like a group of three gay guys who kept going “oh my god I LOOOVEE bette” felt very fitting…

Amadeus (1984)

Shockingly perfect movie. Absolutely no notes. I had no idea this centered around toxic gay rpf plot when I watched but I was absolutely enthralled for all 160 minutes of the run time. Salieri underrated guy of all time

The Lion in Winter (1968)

Another shockingly perfect movie that I would struggle to add any notes to. Probably best dialogue in a movie ever? Also phenomenal acting by literally everyone in it. A Christmas movie for the ages…

Conclave (2024)

It’s very rare that an actual new release makes my favorites of the year list, but wow I really adored this one. There is such an optimism and real, true belief at the center of this that I found very moving and even devastating as a recovering catholic… aside from being just a precise well-crafted movie. No line is wasted, every shot is beautiful.

Mikey and Nicky (1976)

Probably my second top fave of the year…I fell head over heels in love with it when I watched and told my sister to watch it…she said within the first 40 minutes that she looked up to see if the director was a woman because no man can be that self aware about masculinity WHICH. Pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Has such an insight about the human experience and relationships and shame and guilt it’s almost uncomfortable to watch but… I love it

Ghostwatch (1992)

Took me a very long time to get to despite the fact that I am a known found footage aficionado… it’s easy to imagine why this would have been such a scandal, and I’m glad I saw it before late night with the devil! They make a good double feature

Dante’s Inferno (1967) + The Devils (1971)

To be honest, it’s probably overkill to have two Ken Russel movies with the same actor on this list but I couldn’t decide which one to keep.. The Devils is clearly the masterwork here, is iconic for a reason but I adored the poetry of Dante. Lush and romantic as befitting a movie about the pre-raphaelites…

the haunting (1963)

Far from a perfect adaptation, but so much better than the mike flanagan one I can’t help but be preferential. Still has the ambiance and tension I expect, and great casting. This is my Eleanor….

Nagina (1986)

Spiritually related to my love of lair of the white worm, and the trope of the snake woman my new beloved… also this year has been my first foray into Indian cinema since my girlfriend is a noted Bollywood enjoyer

May December (2023)

I was conflicted whether or not to include this one, it seemed the reception to it was controversial and I watched it randomly on plane while not knowing anything about the premise but it actually kind of blew me away. I was enthralled and upset the entire movie, and all three lead performances were incredible. I think it’s an interesting approach to the topic, considering we are in an era or true crime/ biopics happening while everyone is still alive and relevant. Definitely under explored topic and it left me thinking about it for a long time

[frankidacre]

Seeing Amadeus 1984 actually get more fanart and an actual fandom is wild to me because that was my niche back in 2020 and it was literally just 12 y/o me making fanart of Salieri while seething about nobody recognizing who it was

[ded-lime]

my attempt at lily versions

[follows-the-bees]

A while ago I made a post comparing character traits and audience reactions to them of SPN with OFMD (Dean is to Ed, Stede is to Cas (and Sam), and Izzy is to John) but left it at that. But as I'm writing fics about both of them I really am noticing the similarities even more and you know what, I do want to elaborate. Similar characters traits and then on audience perception/reaction.

Dean and Ed

Characteristics: both underneath it all are soft but have been forced to be hard due to the world/harsh circumstances they are in. When left to their own devices, they will always choose softness first. Both of them want a partner not just for physical intimacy but emotional, they want to be loved and really seen for who they are, not the mask they put up. (Sexual: both are shown with sub undertones)

The childhood trauma in both is strong and affects them as middle-aged adults. When they are in moments of high trauma they become selectively mute.

They also wear a (metaphorical) mask a lot of the time. Their main journey is growing and learning to be comfortable and love all aspects of themselves.

Audience perspection: some of the audience falls for that mask and think those are the traits of the characters. (I.e. Dean is some womanizer with toxic masculinity he never outgrows, Ed is a violent man, etc.) They can also be divisive and there's no in between: you either love or hate them.

Stede and Cas (and Sam)

Stede and Cas are outsiders in their worlds, just a little bit out of touch with it: Stede lives in books and fantasy and is forced into societal expectations that are not truly him. Cas is an angel who has to learn the world of humans. (both can be read as neurodivergent)

Audience perception: audiences often HC them as neurodivergent.

Sam, Cas, and Stede are also accused of being selfish (and while this isn't 100% true, it is not to the extreme as sole claim it to be). Selfish has a negative connotation, but both acted in a way to get away from a bad situation, last extreme action. Sam leaves for college to get away from the hunter life and home situation that makes him uncomfortable. Stede also does the same thing, he leaves his home life for the sea. It is years of built up frustration and a last resort to get out of there. (We even learn in the pilot: "do you want to live?" "I don't know!" And Cas will leave to try to do things so. His own. Not including Dean and Sam because he's trying to protect them.

Izzy and John

Characteristics: now you would think the comparison would end before it started with John being the literal father of Dean and Izzy being a father-figure to Ed, but my friend, you have not forgotten to exclude ships in your searches. *Shudders* also, Ed looks at Izzy as a father-figure, while Izzy looks at him in a pseudosexual power thing with the Blackbeard.

Both of them represent the old ways, the man up, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps toxic masculinity. John causes both parentification and enmeshment with his oldest, Dean, Izzy caused Ed to keep up the Blackbeard persona for years past when he wanted/needed to. Izzy was based on Iago from Othello, and Salieri from Amadeus.

Audience: both are canonically abusive, emotionally and John is implied physically as well. Izzy is shown being physically abusive to others Fang and Black Pete. But a small group of fans will hand wave the abuse of both with the "they were just trying to do their best — trying to keep the subjects (of their abuse) alive in a rough world."

[docholligay]

It was the Director's cut!

I have no idea how I would cut twenty minutes out of that movie. Presumably I've seen the theatrical release at some point, but it was so long ago, that I can't even remember what they cut, and the last time I watched this I watched the Director's cut.

Anyway, it's a great movie and watching it again only solidified that for me. It's funny to me that people talk about having seen it in music class, as...it is so historically inaccurate. It's, okay, here's a good analogy. Amadeus is to history as my fanfic is to Sailor Moon. It's more about "what could we do with the the idea of this?" more than anything that actually happened. Salieri was a married man. Mozart was not put into a mass grave. I would not show this to anyone to learn literally any historical fact.

BUT, what I do love about it, is it's a story about jealousy, and what's so striking about that jealousy is Salieri has INCREDIBLE success in his lifetime. This would be like me being...I don't know, John Grisham. And I am very financially secure off my writing, and people go, 'Oh yeah! John Grisham, i like him" but I see someone who is a genius, who is such a good writer that I can feel the way they are built naturally for the things I have worked so hard for. She's not enjoying wild success, has tons of debts, etc. I have nothing to fear except the fact that I KNOW it's some of the most incredible writing in the world, and I will never ever be that. And it makes me so angry that I take on a war with God, with said writer as the pawn. Ignoring everything I have, every accolade I should be happy with, because I unfortunately am talented enough to see true genius and it consumes me.

Is that not an incredible topic for a story? The idea that only being touched by God in that way would ever be enough. He recognizes his own comfortable mediocrity, and it consumes him. What is it like to be the also-ran, Amadeus asks of us.

ANYHOW WOW YOU ASKED NONE OF THIS, but, great film.

[fashiongrunge]

🚨[now on Patreon] Back Track 018: Well, there it is. | Amadeus (1984) Director's Cut 🎻 🎹 

To say that I'm beyond thrilled to talk about Amadeus would be an understatement. Like I have mentioned before, I can't believe it has taken this long to review this literal perfect film. The obsessive nature between the two men we compare to more contemporary film dynamics (*cough Saltburn). We are talking the Director's Cut of this film since the extra 20 minutes are just a gift to us as cinefiles. I honestly don't think there is anything bad to say about this film and we talk about how a 'Best Picture' winner hasn't really come close since. 

Me and @charleshaslam had such a great time finding out all the behind the scenes, the history of the real men, and get into how we love to watch films about rivalries. 

Off-topic rants include: Zoobilee Zoo, who was Kurt Cobain's 'Salieri'?, the Family Guy spoof, and The Cure movie from 1995 

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

I love how much love FGO shows Antonio Salieri, like your average person either doesn’t know him, or only knows about him through all the awful rumors and fictional depictions (primarily Amadeus....) that paint him as envious and a mediocre composer, which is far from the truth, his music is beautiful and was well loved back when he was alive (he was even more popular than Mozart in Vienna)

They lean into the fact that Servants aren’t literally the historical person brought back to life as-is, but rather a manifestation of their legends to depict all the rumors surrounding him and warping him into a literal monster who doesn’t know who he is. All while making it very clear that no, he did NOT kill Mozart, and they more or less got along, and his profile is quite accurate too, bringing up his role as a teacher (which LB1 and his interlude also reference!) and the false image of him that people have starting with the rumors around 1820...

And he’s practically the highlight of LB1 too, like the Dies Irae scene is one of the most memorable, and he’s also the last Servant to disappear, while bringing music to the world... And they clearly put a lot of care into his animations, and even have some of his music in his attacks (the ones i know for sure are his buster and quick card are from his Dies Irae, extra card is piano concerto in c)

I ended up listening to his music after getting attached to his character in fgo, and now I’m legitimately a Salieri fan, he has so many good pieces, and I’d love to see one of his operas live one day!

(some of my personal favorite pieces of his include “26 variations on la folia di spagna” his entire “Requiem” and “De Profundis”)