Saturday, October 5, 2024

Rare Oscar Reunion: Mozart and Salieri from 1985 Winner “Amadeus” Toast Annette Bening, Everyone Goes Mad

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“Wolfgang Ah-mah-de-us Mozart!”

salieriAnyone who was alive in 1985 will remember F. Murray Abraham’s thundering intonation as composer Antonio Salieri torturing and taunting poor Wolfie Mozart (Tom Hulce) in the Oscar winning “Amadeus.” And though Abraham and Hulce have each worked a lot in the 32 years hence, they have rarely if ever been seen together since.

Until Thursday night, that is. The pair of former rivals ran into each at the Museum of the Moving Image annual gala on Park Avenue. With the help of Sony Pictures Classics’ Tom Bernard, I was able to get them into this photo. A crowd formed immediately.

Even though he was prodded, Abraham declined to utter that key phrase from which you could not escape in 1985 as “Amadeus” scooped him up 8 Oscars including Abraham’s Best Actor, and more statues for Picture, Director (Milos Forman) and Screenplay (Peter Shaffer).

amadeus-1600x900-c-defaultHulce, who was nominated for Best Actor, is now producing. He’s credited on Michael Mayer’s upcoming film of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” starring the MMI night’s honoree Annette Bening along with Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, and Brian Dennehy.

Abraham, of course, is seen on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” He’s also featured — and is great — in Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories.”

The two men composed themselves (rim shot!) and moved on to meet and greet a lot of celebrities in the house including Warren Beatty, Jamie Bell (Annette’s co-star in “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool”), Kate Mara (Jamie’s wife), Bob Balaban, Brenda Vaccaro, Bruce Vilanch, and James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, who kept it low key and was alone, sans wife Rachel Weisz.

 

photo c2017Showbiz411

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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