Advertisements for myself: Fine-Tuning Villainy -- Salieri's Journey from Stage to Screen

In his NY Times article "How Amadeus Was Translated From Play to Film" (September 16, 1984), critic Michiko Kakutani writes that director Forman considered the stylized theatricality of Shaffer's play to be an advantage for the adaptation:  "The fact that 'Amadeus' was so stylized, so theatrical - well, so uncinematic, he argued, was actually a blessing - it meant they wouldn't be tempted to merely translate the play to the screen, but would be forced to demolish the original, then totally reimagine it as a film"

Read the essay.