I've spent this morning watching the DVD of "Amadeus." It's very difficult to remember that this movie is 23 years old! It doesn't seem that long ago that it came out.
I've been watching it with a view to the costumes, as A Cut Above is costuming it for the theater in Fredericksburg.
I've heard said that costuming in a historical movie says more about the year the film was made than the period which it depicts. In some ways, this is true of "Amadeus." I understand that we are seeing Mozart filtered through the mind of Salieri, driven mad with jealousy and rage, but those wigs are absolutely outrageous! Why should Salieri's mad view take on the form of 1980s hair styles? Just wondering. I vaguely remember the designer taking some heat over those wigs. I mean, really! One of them was pink. PINK! And he wore it with a purple jacket. Just sayin'...
They staged the "Don Giovanni" scenes in the theater in Prague where it was premiered in 1787. Now that's very cool!
I think the costumes in "Dangerous Liaisons" are more authentic, as to period, but that's not the show we are doing. Besides, I loathe that film. Its cynical view of corruption and licentiousness is too much for me.
Better the madness of Salieri and a very strange wig designer.
LOL Ronni, i take it you do theater? i didn't know this..what fun you must have! I don't think i've seen that version of Amadeus, i'll have to check it out. I love sewing historical clothing..it's so interesting..i only do it for my own enjoyment though.as far as period pieces though that have great costumes have you seen Elizabeth I? I was wowed by that..one of my favorites.hope you have a lot of fun doing the show!
ReplyDeleteLOL pink wig huh? this i have to see..lol
I have 24 years experience in community theater. I work for a theeater costume designer. We are costuming a production of "Amadeus" for a community theater.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite version of the Elizabeth story is "Elizabeth R" which was a mini-series on PBS with Glenda Jackson.
Superb costuming is taken for granted these days, but when Elizabeth R was released, it was so fine to see stuff that looked more-or-less historically accurate.
Good morning, Ronni. I have been looking at some websites and, boy, are you taking on a mammoth feat?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful clothing but oh so fussy.
BTW, that movie annoyed the heck out of me. He just couldn't have been that much of an idiot!
ReplyDeleteBut, in the movie, we are seeing him through the jaded and jealous eye of Salieri. He probably wasn't that bad.
ReplyDeleteThe wigs bugged me.
I've heard of tinted wigs before. Philip Wiley wears one in the Jamie books, and I seem to recall mention of a lilac one in The Baroque Cycle. Fiction, but well researched.
ReplyDeleteYou are right! I had forgotten that.
ReplyDeleteWe never see them in portraits, though, and that's mostly what I go by.