Death in Venice

Luchino Visconti, Italy/France, 1971, 130 minutes

A stylistically lavish adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel, Death In Venice tells the story of composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Bogarde) who, in a quest for spiritual perfection finds himself bewitched by Tadzio (Andresen) a beautiful narcissistic boy. As Aschenbach descends deeper in his personal dilemma, these opposite currents of his being move continuously away from any reconciliation.

Visconti's penchant for a cinema which combines intellectual profundity with stylistic brilliance has something in common with the composer's culde-sac. In this film he makes the ultimate attempt to make all the things which proved detrimental to some of his previous films such as The Damned, work. The initially latent homosexual element is adorned with the intellectual schism between spirit and the flesh and Visconti actually gives us neither of the two. Thus, the philosophical discussions are reduced in shallow arguments which along with an excess of Mahler's music - just because Visconti wants to make sure we know he's talking about Mahler - makes the whole thing more tedious than it actually would have been.

However, the depiction of the decadent aristocratic style which surrounds Aschenbach's world creates an aesthetic context for the story which is admirable. Dirk Bogarde is excellent as the permanently melancholic composer while Bjorn Andresen radiates on the screen as the tempting boy. To deny the exceptional beauty of some scenes in Death in Venice is tantamount denying the aesthetic motive in Visconti's cinema.

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93