The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) led a life that was dramatic in many respects, including his career as a child prodigy, his struggles to achieve personal independence and establish a career, his brushes with financial disaster, and his death in the course of attempting to complete his Requiem. Authors of fictional works have found his life a compelling source of raw material. Such works have included novels, plays, operas, and films.
Mozart's music has been used extensively in films since the silent era. In 1930, Buñuel used his Ave Verum Corpus in L'Age d'Or,[18] Papageno's "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from The Magic Flute features in The Blue Angel (1930),[19] the "Rondo alla Turca" in the 1939 film Wuthering Heights,[20] "Là ci darem la mano" in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945),[21] "Il mio tesoro" in Kind Hearts and Coronets,[22] the Symphony No. 34 in Vertigo (1958),[23] Eine kleine Nachtmusik in The Ipcress File (1965) and in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975),[24] the Piano Concerto No. 21 in Elvira Madigan,[25] and in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), the march from Idomeneo in Barry Lyndon (1975),[26] the Jupiter Symphony in Annie Hall (1977),[27] and many others.