Years & Movies: 1984
The best film of the world cinema of 1984 according to FilmGourmand was recognized the Milos Forman's movie "Amadeus".
"Amadeus" premiered in Westwood, California, USA, on September 6, 1984.
The film is based on the play of the same name by Peter Schaffer, written in 1979 under the impression of the tragedy of Alexander Pushkin "Mozart and Salieri" and the opera of the same name by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The play premiered at the National Theatre in London on 2 November 1979. The production of the play in London was awarded the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theater Critics Award.
After that, the play was staged on Broadway, at the Broadhurst Theater. The performance enjoyed a huge audience success and withstood 1,181 performances. Thanks to this, Peter Schaffer's play won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1981. Peter Schaffer also wrote the screenplay for Amadeus. He was assisted in the preparation of the script by the Czech screenwriter Zdenek Mahler.
Despite the fact that the works of Pushkin and Rimsky-Korsakov were created back in the 19th century, it was only after the release of the play by Peter Schaeffer and the film by Milos Forman that the Milan Conservatory initiated the Salieri trial - on charges of murdering Mozart. In May 1997, a court sitting in the main hall of the Milan Palace of Justice, having heard witnesses for the prosecution and defense (researchers of the life and work of Mozart and Salieri, as well as doctors), acquitted the composer: he did not kill. Thus, ironically, the film helped restore the good name of Antonio Salieri and revive his music, which previously languished in obscurity.
Filming took place in Prague, Milos Forman's hometown. This city was perfect for depicting the desired era. Under the communist regime, many streets, squares and buildings in Prague have preserved their appearance, which absolutely coincides with the appearance of Vienna during the time of Mozart.
Milos Forman was called a traitor by the communist authorities of Czechoslovakia because after the events of the "Prague Spring" of 1968, he had to leave the country and take American citizenship. And for the local population, Forman was a real hero and therefore dangerous for the authorities.
In order to shoot under the communist regime, Forman had to accept certain conditions. He was asked to sign an agreement that he would be constantly accompanied by his old friend, a resident of Prague. In other words, Forman's friend acted as his chauffeur and also as a hostage, because everyone knew what would happen to him and his family if something unexpected happened around Foreman from a political point of view.
In 1985, Amadeus was literally hit by a shower of film awards. First, the film received 6 Golden Globe nominations, of which it won four, including the most important: Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Director - Motion Picture. Moreover, in the nomination Best Director Milos Forman was ahead of Francis Ford Coppola (the film "The Cotton Club") and Sergio Leone (the film "Once Upon a Time in America").
Later, in the same year, 1985, the film "Amadeus" received 11 nominations for the Academy Award and won 8 of them, including the most important: Best Film and Best Director. And again, in the dispute for the Academy Award in the Best Director category, Milos' competitors were very famous David Lean (the film " A Passage to India») and Woody Allen (the movie "Broadway Danny Rose").
In the same 1985, the film "Amadeus" received the French César Awards, ahead of Wim Wenders's "Paris, Texas" in the nomination for Best Foreign Film. Also, "Amadeus" obtained three Italian awards David di Donatello, and in the nomination Best Director Milos Forman bypassed Italian director Sergio Leone (film "Once Upon a Time in America"), and in the nomination Best Foreign Film "Amadeus" again overtook "Paris, Texas" Wim Wenders.
In 1986, the victorious march of "Amadeus" on the festival grounds of the world continued. Milos Forman’s movie received 9 nominations for the BAFTA award and won 4 of them, but not the most important ones. In the Best Film category, British film academics voted for Woody Allen's “The Purple Rose of Cairo". And there was simply no nomination for Best Director. And then Milos Forman's film won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
The vast majority of professional film critics met Milos Forman's film with rave reviews. The guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, devoted two reviews to the film: in 1984 and in 2002. In both, he rated the film with a maximum of 4 stars and included it in his list of "Great Movies". In the first review, he wrote: “"Amadeus" is a magnificent film, full and tender and funny and charming -- and, at the end, sad and angry, too, because in the character of Salieri it has given us a way to understand not only greatness, but our own lack of it. This movie's fundamental question, I think, is whether we can learn to be grateful for the happiness of others, and that, of course, is a test for sainthood. How many movies ask such questions and succeed in being fun, as well?”
However, there were also, let's say, rather "restrained" assessments. So, Dave Kehr wrote: “It's by no means a bad movie, yet it could have been directed by any one of 20 anonymous hacks. That, allegedly, “Shaffer's highfalutin theatricality seems even more strained emerging from these modest, faintly parodistic figures.”
The film was highly appreciated by moviegoers all over the world. 76% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film "Amadeus" a rating of 8 to 10. And 22% of users rated the film with a maximum of 10 points.
With that said, the rating of Milos Forman's film "Amadeus" according to FilmGourmand was 10,966, which allowed it to take the 12th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
In addition to Milos Forman's film "Amadeus", the following films were included in the "top ten" of the best films of world cinema in 1984 according to FilmGourmand:
- Paris, Texas. Director Wim Wenders, Germany. Movie’s Rating - 10,262; 29th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Monanieba მონანიება (Repentance). Director Tengiz Abuladze, USSR. Movie’s Rating - 9,180; 129th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Любовь и голуби (Love and Doves). Director Vladimir Menshov, USSR. Movie’s Rating - 8,263; 431st Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Жестокий романс (A Cruel Romance). Director Eldar Ryazanov, USSR. Movie’s Rating - 8,081; 603rd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Stranger Than Paradise. Director Jim Jarmusch, Germany. Movie’s Rating - 8,080; 604th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Пацаны (Teenagers (Tough Kids)). Director Dinara Asanova, USSR. Movie’s Rating - 8,023; 688th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- The Terminator. Director James Cameron, USA. Movie’s Rating - 7,990; 725th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Чучело (The Scarecrow). Director Rolan Bykov, USSR. Movie’s Rating - 7,968; 759th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Мой друг Иван Лапшин (My friend Ivan Lapshin). Director Aleksey German, USSR. Movie’s Rating - 7,871; 889th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
10 most "cinegenic"*, in our opinion, events of 1984:
- The tragedy of Bhopal. In the Indian city of Bhopal, as a result of an accident at a chemical plant owned by the American chemical and industrial corporation Union Carbide, 3,000 people died immediately and about 22,000-over time due to the resulting poisoning.
- Hezbollah terrorist attacks. The terrorist organization Hezbollah staged an explosion near the US air base in Spain (18 people were killed, 83 people were injured), as well as an explosion in Lebanon near the American Embassy in Beirut. 22 people were killed. 21 people were injured, including the US and British ambassadors.
- The murder of Indira Gandhi. In India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her own Sikh guards. The murder provoked a series of anti-Sikh pogroms, in which, according to various sources, between 2,800 and 17,000 Sikhs were killed.
- Boycott of the Olympics in Los Angeles. In response to the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the XXIII Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were boycotted by the Warsaw Pact countries.
- The first woman in outer space. The first ever spacewalk of a female cosmonaut was made by Svetlana Savitskaya (USSR).
- Clash of warships. The Soviet Navy nuclear submarine K-314 with two torpedoes with nuclear warheads on board and the US Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk with several dozen nuclear weapons on board collided in the Sea of Japan.
- Change of leader in the USSR. Yuri Andropov died in the USSR. By the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the 73-year-old, seriously ill Konstantin Chernenko was appointed the new General Secretary of the CPSU, and, consequently, the leader of the country.
- The Severomorsk disaster. An explosion occurred at the Soviet naval base Severomorsk, destroying two-thirds of all missiles stored for the Soviet Northern Fleet. Workshops needed to maintain the missiles were destroyed, and between 200 and 300 technicians who were ordered to rescue the ammunition from the fire were killed. Western military experts called it the largest naval disaster suffered by the Soviet navy after the Second World War.
- The largest demonstration in the history of Brazil. More than a million people led by Tancredo Neves marched through the streets of Sao Paulo, demanding direct presidential elections during the Brazilian military government of Joao Figueiredo. The march was the largest public demonstration in the history of Brazil. As a result, direct elections were scheduled for 1989.
- The murder of Yvonne Fletcher. A police officer, Yvonne Fletcher, was killed by a shot fired from the window of the Libyan embassy. The murder was the basis for a number of events: the 11-day siege of the Libyan embassy, the severance of diplomatic relations between the UK and Libya, the beginning of the bombing of Libya from American bases located in the UK.
Also, Scarlett Johansson was born. François Truffaut died.
* -With "cinematic" in the present context, we mean events that either have already found their reflection in world cinema, or deserve to become the basis of the plot of a future film.