Cinematic Representations of Musical Creativity: The Myths of Amadeus, the Beatles, and Freddie Mercury

Abstract Movies about music and musicians often depict musical composition in process. Such depictions may reflect historical accounts of composers’ work processes, but they also rely on common fictional tropes that appeal to the general public. This article examines some of these common tropes as they appear in the movie Amadeus (1984) and reappear in two recent movies—Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Yesterday (2019). Observing the dramatic archetypes (mainly the Faust myth) common to all three movies, this article focuses on the depiction of compositional process from first note to last (the linearity fallacy) and on the depiction of songwriting as autobiography. Comparison is drawn with the Beatles’ songwriting progress as documented in The Beatles: Get Back (2021). Scene analysis using accurate tempo measurement reveals significant subtextual elements in the screenplay and the director's work.