The movie
Death in Venice
‘A feast for the senses, Visconti's darkly enchanting film presents us not only with the beauty of the desired youth… but also with a vision of the city of Venice unmatched in its wondrousness before or since.
Length: 130 min
Country: Italië
Language spoken: Engels
Language subtitles: Nederlands
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen, Romolo Valli, Silvana Mangano
Director: Luchino Visconti
Release date: 1971
Description
In conjunction with the release of ‘The Most Beautiful Boy in the World’, the deeply affecting documentary on the life of Björn Andrésen, cast at age 15 as Tadzio in Luchino Visconti’s ‘Death in Venice’, we are happy to show this one-off screening of the Visconti classic. Having travelled to Venice to recover from his latest failure, sickly composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) develops an obsession with the angelic, always-smiling young man, an obsession that ultimately leads to the composer’s death…
‘A feast for the senses, Visconti's darkly enchanting film presents us not only with the beauty of the desired youth… but also with a vision of the city of Venice unmatched in its wondrousness before or since. It's a city just as beautiful in death as in life, in a state of decay as it is struck by cholera. Once bright fountains foam ominously; broken people huddle in alleyways; doors are barred with crosses and the blue water of the canals grows shadowy with menace, yet this can only add to its allure, the threat of destruction compounding its romance… Innately melodramatic, unremittingly languorous, “Death In Venice” is as complete a film as can be, existing in its own space and on its own terms.’—Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
‘A feast for the senses, Visconti's darkly enchanting film presents us not only with the beauty of the desired youth… but also with a vision of the city of Venice unmatched in its wondrousness before or since. It's a city just as beautiful in death as in life, in a state of decay as it is struck by cholera. Once bright fountains foam ominously; broken people huddle in alleyways; doors are barred with crosses and the blue water of the canals grows shadowy with menace, yet this can only add to its allure, the threat of destruction compounding its romance… Innately melodramatic, unremittingly languorous, “Death In Venice” is as complete a film as can be, existing in its own space and on its own terms.’—Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
