‘A signature attack on the USSR’: Could Amadeus be the most misunderstood Oscar winner of all time?

Jeff Smith, author of “Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist,” tells the BBC that Mozart’s fight against the status quo stemmed from Forman’s own frustration with Soviet censorship. “The Kaiser’s silly judgment on Mozart’s opera – “too many notes” – is precisely the kind of accusation that was used as a cudgel against avant-garde artists and thinkers, insinuating that their work was neither pleasing nor edifying to Soviet ears. Mozart’s angry incredulity in this scene must have reflected Forman’s own longstanding contempt for Soviet stagnation and oppression.

Amadeus behind the Iron Curtain

Filming took place over a six-month period in 1983 in Prague, which had the distinction of offering basilicas, palaces and cobbled squares virtually unchanged since the late 18th century. But even as Soviet power waned, Czechoslovakia remained part of the Eastern Bloc and Forman was still persona non grata. Therefore, an agreement was reached: the director would forego meetings with political dissidents and the regime would allow friends of Forman to visit their repatriated prodigal son.

Forman’s own memories of the shoot focused on the hardships of Soviet interference. His landlady warned that his phone was tapped. There were informants lurking in every room. Two unmarked cars followed him everywhere, which seemed unnecessary since his own driver was also a secret agent. In his autobiography “Turnaround,” Forman only briefly addresses the extent to which themes of Soviet oppression permeated Amadeus. “As it had to be in socialist Prague,” he wrote, “the spirit of Franz Kafka dominated our production.”

Perhaps even more telling is a story he tells about negotiations with the general director of Czechoslovak film, Jiří Purš, who, as Forman recounted, wanted absolute certainty that the Communist Party had nothing to fear: “I assume that “There’s nothing politically in it.” the script on which they could hang their hats?” Forman’s answer is an example of plausible deniability and biting irony: “See, it’s about Mozart!”

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F. Murray Abraham felt the strain of coercive control when he traveled to the United States to film his role in Scarface (1983) while Amadeus was being produced in Prague.

Abraham tells the BBC: “At the end of each day of filming I had to cross the border to get to the airport in Vienna and return to Hollywood. At the checkpoint, the Czechoslovak police left us sitting idly at the gate, just like a surveillance.”

These tensions between the U.S. crew and Soviet agents finally came to light on July 4th. The production was filming an opera scene, and the team arranged it so that when Forman called “Action,” a U.S. flag was unfurled and the national anthem was played instead of Mozart’s music. Around 500 Czech extras sang emotional songs and expressed their sympathy for the West. But not all.

Forman recalled, “Everyone stood up—except 30 men and women who looked at each other in panic.” [asking] what they should do. They were the secret police, distributed among the extras.