Thank you to Josh for recommending the movie, thus ensuring that I have ‘Marriage of Figaro’ stuck in my head for many days to come .

Quick recap: The incredibly sad story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by the guy who hated him most.

Fun (?) fact: Director Milos Forman didn’t even bother having the actors use an accent in the movie because he wanted them to focus on their characters. It almost makes me feel bad to think about all the things I said about Tom Cruise and his lack of accent in the movie Valkyrie. Almost.

My thoughts: Of course I loved Amadeus. I may not get the point of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? , but I’m not a complete monster. Then again, I also uploaded a video of the Bloodhound Gang, so let’s just say I break even and move on.

The very first thing I did after finishing the movie was head over to Wikipedia to see how much of Amadeus was true and it turns out- it’s actually rather accurate. Of course there are scenes that probably didn’t take place, but seeing as how the movie is about a guy who lived over two hundred years ago, it’s a little difficult to pin facts down. Most scholars believe that Salieri didn’t really hate Mozart all that much, although they certainly weren’t BFFs or anything. It’s this detail that keeps me from embracing the film completely, although I certainly understand the reasoning of having a villain. Man versus Himself is much harder to portray on film, even though it is closer to the truth. Mozart was a genius and he knew it, and I think that’s what ultimately did him in- that he saw the genius in himself when others didn’t. I mean, he was celebrated while he was alive, but he also died penniless and was buried in a pauper’s grave. As for Salieri, the film does an excellent job painting him as a villain, but also someone that, although it is uncomfortable, we can relate to as an audience. Jealousy is an ugly thing and also something we all wrestle with.

What I loved most about the film, I think, was the way the music was woven into different scenes. Not only did I get to see snippets of some of his operas but I was also able to experience the music as it related to who he was. I’m by no means a genius composer (or AM I?) but I am consumed by music from the time I get up until I go to sleep and sometimes even while I sleep. The music I listen to is not a hobby, it is who I am. I have a playlist on Spotify that if you listen to it chronologically, it tells a story of me and all that has happened the past few years. In Amadeus, Mozart gets so obsessed with Requiem that it almost kills him. He didn’t just compose the music, he WAS the music and the two could never be separated.

Final review: 5/5.

Up next: Oh, Voyager

Quick recap: Red. The color of pomegranates is red. And sometimes pink, but mostly red.

I’ve seen a lot of life hacks about eating pomegranates, but this is a new one

Fun (?) fact: Director Sergei Parajanov once said that the American public didn’t understand his movie because people ‘are going to this picture as to a holiday.’

Weirdest holiday ever.

My thoughts: The Color of Pomegranates is about the life of Armenian poet, Sayat-Nova. Despite being a a biographical film, there isn’t really a plot, or words, or characters or anything that would help me understand what I was watching at any point in time. So instead, I took everything at face value and came up with a few highlights to share with you about Sayat-Nova’s life:

As a young boy, nothing made Sayat-Nova happier than dancing while his face was obscured with an instrument

His real passion, as we will see throughout this film, was holding stuff

From his angsty teenage years

Sayat-Nova cared about his studies and finally got accepted into a university that specialized in professional pomegranate eating

Sadly, Sayat-Nova died. His many friends attended the funeral

Now, it could be that director Sergei Parajanov put everything in here as a symbol, but as a stupid American who doesn’t appreciate good film, I wouldn’t know better.

Final review: 1/5. Supposedly this is a gorgeous film with a ton of meaning, but it went WAY over my head.

Up next: Detour