In our weekly seriesAnatomy of a Scene's Anatomy, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sexscenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Miloš Forman removes Elizabeth Berridge's nude scene from Amadeus, only to reinsert it 18 years later, and now the film is basically unavailable without it.
There are few, if any, DVDs that I keep once I purchase the same film on Blu-ray, but Amadeus is one of them because the old 1997 DVD release is currently the only way to see the PG-rated theatrical cut of the film. It's non-anamorphic and you have to flip the disc halfway through, but it's literally the only way to see the 160 minute cut of the film that won 8 Oscars in early 1985. In 2002, the film was released in a deluxe edition with a director's cut of the film that bumped the run time up to 180 minutes, and since that time, this is the only version of the film you can see.
In the interest of fairness, I must admit that I prefer the director's cut. It's more time spent in the world of these characters and it feels more fully fleshed out in this form. However, it stinks that in the age of seamless branching on Blu-ray, we couldn't be provided with both versions of the film. Maybe when they get around to upgrading the film to 4K in the next few years, but until then, the R-rated director's cut is the only game in town.
You may also be wondering how it is that a PG film—released in the early days of the PG-13 rating—could bump up to an R with only 20 minutes of new footage. To be honest, I've wondered that myself for the last 17 years as the only additional "objectionable" content is about ten seconds of toplessness from Elizabeth Berridge. There's some brief male nudity at the beginning when the priest enters the hospital, but that was present in the theatrical cut, along with several uses of the words "shit" and "ass," but nothing that would justify such a strict rating increase.
Even the MPAA's official ratings reason for the film is "Rated R for brief nudity." Even they admit that the nudity is brief, but it's apparently so scandalous that it can no longer be viewed by anyone under 17 without parental consent. Now, Amadeus isn't exactly a film that kids are clamoring to watch, but I saw it for the first time as a kid and loved it for many years before the director's cut came along. As a boob man from a young age, I had always admired Elizabeth Berridge's cleavage in the film, but I never knew she shot a topless scene for the flick that was later cut.
The overall tone of the director's cut yields a much darker film, and the added topless scene is a part of that darker tone. In the film, Tom Hulce's Mozart is married to Berridge's Constanze and desires a position teaching music to the Emperor's niece. The only thing standing between him and this lucrative position is the court composer, Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), Mozart's primary antagonist. In both cuts of the film, Constanze goes to meet with Salieri to discuss the position and whether or not her husband is qualified.
She provides him with written samples of his music, which Salieri fawns over with jealousy at their perfection, letting them fall to the ground in a mix of rage and awe. In the theatrical cut, he simply dismisses her and Mozart doesn't get the job. In the director's cut, however, Salieri menacingly indicates that if Constanze is serious about helping her husband get the position, she will come back to his home that night, alone, and give him something in return for his generosity.
Earlier in the film, we've learned that Salieri has pledged his chastity to god in return for the opportunity to glorify god through music. After meeting Mozart and seeing that he is both a musical genius and a spoiled rotten man-child, Salieri sets out to destroyMozart to get even with god for not gifting him with the same musical gifts despite him, outwardly at least, being a more virtuous man. All of this comes to a head when the night rolls around and we find Salieri praying earnestly to a god he no longer believes is working in his best interest, asking god to remove the temptation to bang Frau Mozart should she return that evening.
Of course, she shows up as promised and begins to undress, willing to comply with a powerful man's wishes in order to further her husband's career. Constanze's true virtue comes up against a man who exalts his own virtuousness while being spiritually dead on the inside, a microcosm of the film's overarching theme of man vs god. Constanze undoes her corset, revealing her breasts, when Salieri then rings for his servant, humiliating poor Constanze and telling his servant to dismiss her while still in a state of undress...
This obviously adds tremendous weight to the characters' next encounter, at Mozart's bed side as he lays dying. It's a brilliant scene made all the more bitter with the added knowledge of Salieri's prior humiliation of Constanze. On the film's commentary track, Peter Shaffer, the film's writer and creator of the play on which the film is based, pressured director Miloš Forman to cut the topless scene because he was "sick to death" of all the nudity in film. He felt the story worked just fine without the scene—which it obviously did for 18 years—and Forman acquiesced.
Like many of the other additions made for the director's cut, this deepens both of these characters and makes their next face to face meeting in the film carry more weight. Referring to the theatrical version, it never really made sense to me why Stanze is so cold with Salieri at the end of the film, but seeing just how nefarious Salieri was with her earlier via this scene, her reaction to his presence in her home is totally warranted. Overall this nude scene makes Constanze's journey more heartbreaking in that we've seen the lengths to which she's willing to go to get her husband a job.
It also goes a long way toward showing what a deceitful villain Salieri is. Although he is the protagonist of the story, this more or less cements him as the villain as it's pretty much the most dastardly thing he does in the film—save, perhaps, commissioning a requiem mass from Mozart while dressed as his rival composer's dead father. Either way, he's not a nice dude, but this version of the story—and this action in particular–really eliminates any grey area there.
In both versions of the film, Stanze eventually leaves Mozart because of his repeated philandering and alcoholism. While at a retreat chatting with an eligible young suitor, however, Stanze feels guilt over flirting with a young man while her husband is home. She proved herself willing to sleep with Salieri if it might help Mozart secure a job, but she's not unfaithful in the way Mozart is with her. It adds depth a nuance to her character that's just not present in the theatrical cut.
Upon returning home, she finds Salieri sleeping on a sofa while Mozart lays dying in bed. Now able to wield power over Salieri, she locks up the requiem mass he was helping her husband complete the night before and asks him to leave.Had Salieri been nicer to Stanze earlier and not sexually humiliated her in his home, she may not have foiled his plans of passing off that requiem mass as his own. His ultimate undoing is much more wholly satisfying in the director's cut, though it obviously still works in the theatrical version.
While I love and admire the theatrical cut and still watch it probably once a year, it's a much lighter film than the director's cut. The added scenes, especially Berridge's brilliant ten second topless scene, add depth and dimension, but also make the whole thing more draining of a journey. There's no lightness in your step after watching the director's cut, it's the sort of thing you might only want to revisit every couple of years. And even though Peter Shaffer was right and the film survived without the nude scene for 18 years, don't ever let anyone tell you that nudity can't be integral to the plot. This proves conclusively how much an entire film can shift with just the simple addition of a topless scene.
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy...
—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now
—Scarlett Johansson's Nude Debut inUnder the Skin
—The 2 Very Different Sex ScenesofBasic Instinct
—How Halle Berry's Nude Debut Led Her toMonster's Ball
—HowMulholland Dr.'s Legendary Lesbian Scenes Deepen the Film's Mystery
—Showgirlsand the Dangers of High Camp
—Rosario Dawson Laid Bare for Danny Boyle'sTrance
—Katie Holmes MakesThe GiftWorth Remembering
—Jennifer Connelly Comes of Age inThe Hot Spot
—Lisa Bonet's Bloody Nude Debut inAngel Heart
—Monica Bellucci Gets Brutalized in Gaspar Noé'sIrréversible
—Stanley Kubrick, The William Tell Overture, and A Clockwork Orange
—Wild ThingsPresents Every Man with His Dream Threesome
—Chloë Sevigny Goes Down in History forThe Brown Bunny
—Helen Hunt Does Her Best Nudity at 48 in The Sessions
—Anne Hathaway Wreaks Havoc on Her Disney Image
—Body HeatBrings Noir Into the 80s, Sexes Up the Genre
—The Master Gives Serious Drama its Horniest Protagonist Ever
—Analyzing the Dream Logic of Eyes Wide Shut
—Isabella Rossellini's Intentionally Unsexy Nude Debut in Blue Velvet
—Margot Robbie MakesThe Wolf of Wall Streeta Skinstant Classic
—Angie Dickinson Steams Up the Opening Credits ofDressed to Kill
—The Strange Sexual Dynamics of Dogtooth
—How the Remake of Oldboy Stacks Up Against the Original
—Bob Fosse's Dancers Take It Off inAll That Jazz
—Lindsay Lohan Finally Goes Topless inThe Canyons
—Noir Takes a Trip to the Isle of Lesbos in Bound
—Brian De Palma Gets Cheeky with the Opening Scene of Blow Out
—Julianne Moore Proves She's a Real Redhead inShort Cuts
—Madonna Touches On Her Basic Instincts in Body of Evidence
—Kelly Lynch Can Never Escape Her Road House Sex Scene Thanks to Bill Murray
—Jesus Gets Down Off the Cross to Get Down in The Last Temptation of Christ
