Mozart in Love – Interlude in Prague (2017)

Directed by: John Stephenson | 103 minutes | biography, drama | Actors: Aneurin Barnard, James Purefoy, Samantha Barks, Morfydd Clark, Adrian Edmondson, Anna Rust, Dervla Kirwan, Ruby Bentall, Charlotte Peters, Edmund Kingsley, Ian Bonar, Alena Doláková, Trent Garrett, Nickolas Grace, Gregory Gudgeon, Krystof Hádek, Klára Issová, Jirí Mádl, Jan Révai, Raymond Thiry, Adam Vacula, Claudia Vaseková, Ross William Wild

It is 1787 and the nobles and others closely involved in Prague opera agree to bring the famous composer Mozart over from Vienna. The cheerful and charming young man quickly starts writing a new opera. The intrigue, gruff nobles and beautiful sopranos give him more than enough inspiration to create one of his most famous operas, ‘Don Giovanni’.

If you expect a small childish man of barely 1 meter 60 with the main character of ‘Mozart in Love’, you will be disappointed. In this fictional portrait of the musical genius, the speculations from the history books have been set aside and a handsome and charming young man has been chosen. Aneurin Barnard portrays an emotionally free spirit, who drifts from one problem to another with a slight carelessness. Despite the fact that his character is portrayed very amiably, you are not touched by his misery. The other characters, in the rather tragic plot, don’t manage to do this either. The cast’s play sometimes comes across as a bit too big and glued up and this means that the tissues don’t have to be brought out.

In addition, the plot of ‘Mozart in Love’ is a bit thin. Mozart falls in love with the talented young soprano Morfydd Clark. The evil Baron (James Purefoy) is not happy about this and has also set his sights on the girl, with all the consequences that entails. In addition to this common thread, a sideline or some sort of parallel metaphor would not have been a superfluous luxury to give the film a little more substance. It’s not that the mainline is boring, the beautiful costumes, wigs and music give the film enough to watch, it just could have been more from the material.

The idea of ​​giving substance to the genesis of one of Mozart’s masterpieces is in principle very much liked. The music of ‘Don Giovanni’ is therefore used to reflect backwards or to represent the streams of thought of his composer, but here, just like the plot, more could have been done. Sometimes the underscore also sends the viewer very much in one direction towards what he needs to feel. For example, the Baron always uses dramatic and or exciting tones to illustrate his malice. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but since it is already clear from the beginning of the film what his true intentions are with the female beauty, this paints the roses a little too red.

‘Mozart in Love’ is a beautifully dressed costume drama. There are a lot of elements that are basically very nice to watch and listen to, but where more could have been done. As a result, you sometimes see the idea and the potential more than an effect that is moving.