Amadeus Page #19

SALIERI:

Originals?

CONSTANZE:

Yes.

A pause. He puts out his hand and takes up the portfolio

from the table. He opens it. He looks at the music. He is

puzzled.

SALIERI:

These are originals?

CONSTANZE:

Yes, sir. He doesn't make copies.

CUT TO:

INT. OLD SALIERI'S HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT - 1823

The old man faces the Priest.

OLD SALIERI:

Astounding! It was actually beyond

belief. These were first and only

drafts of music yet they showed no

corrections of any kind. Not one.

Do you realize what that meant?

Vogler stares at him.

OLD SALIERI:

He'd simply put down music already

finished in his head. Page after

page of it, as if he was just taking

dictation. And music finished as no

music is ever finished.

INT. SALIERI'S SALON - LATE AFTERNOON - 1780'S

CU, The manuscript in Mozart's handwriting. The music begins

to sound under the following:

OLD SALIERI (V.O.)

Displace one note and there would be

diminishment. Displace one phrase,

and the structure would fall. It was

clear to me. That sound I had heard

in the Archbishop's palace had been

no accident. Here again was the very

voice of God! I was staring through

the cage of those meticulous ink-

strokes at an absolute, inimitable

beauty.

The music swells. What we now hear is an amazing collage of

great passages from Mozart's music, ravishing to Salieri and

to us. The Court Composer, oblivious to Constanze, who sits

happily chewing chestnuts, her mouth covered in sugar, walks

around and around his salon, reading the pages and dropping

them on the floor when he is done with them. We see his

agonized and wondering face: he shudders as if in a rough

and tumbling sea; he experiences the point where beauty and

great pain coalesce. More pages fall than he can read,

scattering across the floor in a white cascade, as he circles

the room.

Finally, we hear the tremendous Qui Tollis from the Mass in

C Minor. It seems to break over him like a wave and, unable

to bear any more of it, he slams the portfolio shut.

Instantly, the music breaks off, reverberating in his head.

He stands shaking, staring wildly. Constanze gets up,

perplexed.

CONSTANZE:

Is it no good?

A pause.

SALIERI:

It is miraculous.

CONSTANZE:

Oh yes. He's really proud of his

work.

Another pause.

CONSTANZE:

So, will you help him?

Salieri tries to recover himself.

SALIERI:

Tomorrow night I dine with the

Emperor. One word from me and the

post is his.

CONSTANZE:

Oh, thank you, sir!

Overjoyed, she stops and kisses his hand. He raises her -

and then clasps her to him clumsily. She pushes herself away.

SALIERI:

Come back tonight.

CONSTANZE:

Tonight?

SALIERI:

Alone.

CONSTANZE:

What for?

SALIERI:

Some service deserves service in

return. No?

CONSTANZE:

What do you mean?

SALIERI:

Isn't it obvious?

They stare at one another: Constanze in total disbelief.

SALIERI:

It's a post all Vienna seeks. If you

want it for your husband, come

tonight.

CONSTANZE:

But! I'm a married woman!

SALIERI:

Then don't. It's up to you. Not to

be vague, that is the price.

He glares at her.

SALIERI:

Yes.

He rings a silver bell for a servant and abruptly leaves the

roam. Constanze stares after him, horrified.

The servant enters. Shocked and stunned, Constanze goes down

an her knees and starts picking up the music from the floor.

CUT TO:

INT. OLD SALIERI'S HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT - 1823

CU, Father Vogler, horrified.

OLD SALIERI:

Yes, Father. Yes! So much for my vow

of chastity. What did it matter?

Good, patient, hard-working, chaste -

what did it matter? Had goodness

made me a good composer? I realized

it absolutely then - that moment:

goodness is nothing in the furnace

of art. And I was nothing to God.

VOGLER:

(crying out)

You cannot say that!

OLD SALIERI:

No? Was Mozart a good man?

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