Why did Salieri send Constanze away?
The Scene where she stripped down naked in front of him
Director's Cut only
Whoa. Now I kind of want to see the director's cut.
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MovieChat Forums > Amadeus (1984) Discussion > Why did Salieri send Constanze away?
There are generally 2 theories for this:
1. Her humiliation: he just wanted her to know he could have her if he wanted to, and just wanted to see for far she'd go to debase herself in front of him just to get him to read Wolfie's sheet music
2. His humiliation: Maybe he wanted to consummate the deed, but then suddenly panicked and found a way out. Keep in mind, the film indicates he has been celibate all this life, and at that age wouldn't know the first thing about how to have sex, and would suddenly panic and run away scared when presented with the possibility of an actual encounter.
*****
"Mark Wahlberg is wearing a hat."
Those are good thoughts, Thomas, I was wondering about that as well. Everything you said makes sense. She really does love Wolfie, doesn't she?
And before you get too excited, Ripley, she only takes off her corset, not the bloomers and all.
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They didn't have the Internet, TV etc back then showing sex non-stop and society was much more prudish so it is conceivable he was intimidated because of being a virgin.
shareWhile sexual attitudes might not have been so open as today, things in 18th Century upper-class society sure weren't like buttoned-up Victorian-Era England. They didn't wear those cleavage-revealing dresses for nothing.
shareGood question. Here's my take on it:
Salieri never intended to have sex with Constanze. He wanted to refuse to help Mozart, but he wanted to do it in a way that wouldn't reveal how much he really hated Mozart. By offering a 'trade' with Constanze, he would come of as a complete cad, but his secret campaign to destroy Mozart's career would remain hidden. I truly believe that he was expecting Constanze to be offended by the offer, and refuse - when she returned to 'seal the deal' he was shocked. He didn't know what else to do but send her away. It was yet another foiled plan for Salieri.
These are all such excellent theories! Does anyone know if this scene was in the original play?
shareFunny you should ask - I have friends who were in a local production of Amadeus. I had a conversation with one about that scene, so it is definitely in the play.
shareYes I read the original screen play and it was in it together with a few lines of Constanze that was even removed in the director's cut.
shareThis is the only correct answer. He is even shown praying that she doesn't show up.
LOST SPOILERS , IN THE ENDINGit was about the characters and purgatory
I like what you posted. I had a similar idea about why Salieri sent Constanze away. I agree he never intended to have sex with her and figured that she would refuse. I also agree that he was shocked that she showed up. But what I took from the scene was that it was yet another event that showed how "favored" Mozart was in God's eyes. In other words, here is a woman, Mozart's wife, willing to debase herself for her husband while Salieri deemed Mozart as a vulgar creature and unworthy of such loyalty: everything seems to go Mozart's way. This served to inflame his hatred towards Mozart even more.
share@Mgrooms55
But what I took from the scene was that it was yet another event that showed how "favored" Mozart was in God's eyes. In other words, here is a woman, Mozart's wife, willing to debase herself for her husband while Salieri deemed Mozart as a vulgar creature and unworthy of such loyalty: everything seems to go Mozart's way. This served to inflame his hatred towards Mozart even more.
This scene puzzled me, but I really this explanation! share
Yes I completely agree with SelmerVI. She showed up ready to go - she even seemed to like the idea. This totally threw Salieri for a loop and he bailed out.
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I think he had every intention of doinking Constanze when she showed up to beg for Mozart's appointment. While he was waiting, he asked God for a sign that he would be blessed with God's talent, as Mozart was. As soon as he asked God for a sign, his servant announced Constanze's arrival. Salieri took that as a sign from God that the answer was no. I don't think Salieri at this point was in any mood for monkey (or Stanze) business, and in a fit of anger, had his servant toss the naked Constanze out in the most humiliating way.
This scene also explains the tension between Constanze and Salieri at the end of the movie when she returned from the spa to find Salieri attending to her sick husband. She told him to leave immediately, saying that she was sorry she had no servant to show him out....
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No, that is the point, I think, of the previous poster. Her comment, "I regret we have no servant to show you out" was a direct reference to the seen never shown in the film before the director's cut came out. It explains her rage against Saliere, which never made complete sense to me before. I couldn't understand why she hated Saliere so much, but w/ the restored scene, it explains it all. When I saw the almost-sex scene (today, first time), I thought "Huh??" I don't remember that scene before. It's been a long while since I've seen it, but is my memory really that poor?? Then I remembered the descrip on Netflix streaming said "Director's Cut" which I know usually means restored scenes. Out of curiosity, are there others? That's the only one that jumped out at me. It made me sad how ready Stanzie was to boink Antonio. She didn't even seem nervous or self-conscious. I think Forman was right to cut the scene. Maybe it IS in the play, but it doesn't fit w/ Saliere's character, even expecting she would say no.
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I honestly thought she -- and of course F. Murray "Darth Adal" Abraham -- acted that scene very well. It is a difficult scene, and it shows the depths of Salieri's willing cruelty, even to himself. Berridge played it with appropriately immature girlish coquettishness (giggling over the "Venus's nipple" desserts). When he abruptly and cruelly humiliates her by calling in his servant to dismiss her, while she is half-naked and in the middle of her awkward, girlish striptease, she shows that she is devastated, very unsure of herself, and absolutely mortified by the situation. Her sobbing at home later, overcome by guilt and humiliation, as Wolfie holds her in bed, shows this very well.
She really has no idea how to handle Salieri or the situation, whereas an older, more experienced woman could have played him by reading his signals and inhibited reserve better. For example, Salieri's beloved beautiful soprano, with whom he was utterly smitten, could have played Salieri "like a fiddle." Instead she let her emotions cloud her judgment when she slept with young Wolfie, and he did not treat her like the prize both she and Salieri thought her to be. In a way I thought Salieri's treatment of Mozart's wife was payback for Wolfie's seduction of the love of Salieri's life -- the soprano Salieri idealized and would never dream of actually touching.
I just watched the Director's Cut and thought the scene added a great deal to the building hostility.
Honestly this scene should NOT have been cut as it explains the hostility between Frau Mozart and Salieri, which is otherwise unexplained as other posters noted, and it shows just how cruel Salieri was to Mozart, or to anyone who represented him, as his young, vulnerable wife was literally begging Salieri for Mozart to be given the teaching position because they were so very desperate for money. This scene illustrated in a few minutes that Salieri's "piety" did not include empathy or genuine charity -- charity, the most important of Christian virtues. In fact he lacked empathy, and this shows that he was not a true Christian (in the way he wanted to be) just as he was not a "true" composer like the young genius Mozart.
"I love those redheads!" (Wooderson, Dazed and Confused, 1993)
Salieri never intended to have sex with her. He was unable to come up with a reason for refusing to recommend Mozart as a teacher without revealing his envy and hatred, so he made a demand he was sure Constanze would refuse.
When she didn't refuse, he was at a loss. Obviously that left her very confused and humiliated.
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No, he did want to have sex with her--at first.
In the original play, Salieri speaks directly to the audience in every scene and makes his intentions quite clear. He DOES intend to blackmail Constanze into sex--as revenge for Mozart's seduction of the soprano Cavalieri. He only changes his mind when he reads the handwritten scores Constanze brings him when she comes to beg for his help. These compositions are first-drafts, and yet show no revisions--as if Mozart really is "taking dictation" directly from God. This is what pushes Salieri over the edge and really sets the tragedy in motion: he decides that his vendetta is really with God, not with Mozart at all. He will avenge himself on God by destroying His beloved.
So when Constanze keeps her appointment the next day and offers herself to him, he coldly rebuffs her. (In the play, it is not a calculated attempt to humiliate her; he has simply lost interest in avenging himself upon her body). They fight, and he knocks her to the floor. As he tells us:
"You see how it was! I would have liked her--oh yes, just then more than ever! But I wanted nothing petty!... My quarrel now wasn't with Mozart--it was through him! Through him to God, who loved him so."
In the film, he does humiliate her cruelly and unnecessarily, by letting her strip and then ringing for the valet. But that doesn't alter the importance of these two scenes, which represent a crucial shift in Salieri's motivations and deadliness. He will no longer lower himself to anything so "petty" or mild as sexual revenge. From this point on (as he sees it), Mozart is no longer a worthy antagonist--he is just an empty vessel (a puppet) for God's persecution of him (Salieri). This is where his plotting becomes fatal: Mozart will become collateral damage in Salieri's longtime war with God.
Salieri didn't want Constanze, he wanted Mozart's talent and inspiration. God giving him Mozart's wife but not his musical ability, to Salieri was god betraying and mocking him
shareModern explanation is Salieri was in the closet gay. He realized he wanted Mozart not his wife...
The other explanation was he wanted to get Mozart back for stealing his girl earlier. He wanted to see if he could do it back to Mozart but realized he was not interested in her and didn't expect her to actually show up. He was overwhelmed by her devotion to him which infuriated him.
He didn't like her saggy breasts.
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