SHORT TAKE
INTERLUDE IN PRAGUE
There is promise in this drama about Mozart on his first sojourn to the Bohemian capital – that it might be something more than just an underwhelming, bodice-ripping period piece and yet another reminder that so many movies about major composers wind up as minor distractions.
That hope comes in the form of Baron Saloka, played by James Purefoy, who takes unkindly to the visiting Austrian genius being the toast of his town and a romantic rival. With an expression permanently set to “villain” and his urge to deflower Prague’s womenfolk, you might hope the evil aristocrat is actually a vampire and we’re in for an Amadeus v Dracula crossover.
Well, that might have been entertaining. Interlude, though, isn’t very.
Saloka is there to be what Antonio Salieri was in Amadeus, the 1984 Mozart movie that casts a long shadow here and makes this feel, by comparison, a gothic pantomime.
Yes, it has nice frocks, and occasional impressive operatic outbursts from The Marriage of Figaro and a work-in-progress Don Giovanni. But it’s an oddly mannered film; its stilted dialogue sounds as if, despite being a British production, it’s been dubbed into English, from English. It’s also got something of a hole at its centre – as the composer, Aneurin Barnard isn’t much of a presence.
IN CINEMAS NOW