Buy Death in Venice on DVD

Death in Venice

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Synopsis

A now-classic film from gay director Luchino Visconti about the unrequited love of an older man for a teenage boy based on the novella by Thomas Mann.

3 Reasons To buy this film

A ravishing beautiful film about beauty, purity, youth and death.
"The film is worse than mediocre; it is corrupt and distorted...it is irredeemably, unforgivably gay." - Time
The blond boy, the object of obsession for the composer, never made another film.

Review

Lucino Visconti's adaptation of the classic Thomas Mann novella of an artist in search of purity and beauty but who ultimately becomes fatally obsessed with an exquisite teenaged boy is a gorgeously melancholy experience. Set in turn-of-the-century Venice, this languidly paced, darkly atmospheric film stars Dirk Bogarde as celebrated composer Aschenbach, an older man enamored with a flirtatious but unattainable blond youth (Bjorn Andresen), and who is gradually weakened by the cholera epidemic sweeping the city. Visconti changed Aschenbach's profession from writer to composer, enabling him to fill a largely wordless film with the sweeping music of Gustav Mahler. (Filmed in English)

-- Raymond Murray

Product Format Information

DVD : $10.99

Availability: In stock and ready to ship
Region Code: 1
UPC: 085391103264
Catalog #: DV1229953

Studio : Warner

Aspect Ratio: 2.4, Widescreen

Customer Reviews

The greatest film of all time.

Barry wrote on 11/28/2009:

There are always generations that need to be reminded of the great stories of the past. Surprised that no one has added a review I add my comments about the most intensely beautiful and meaningful film ever made. Beginning as a short book by one of the greatest writers of all time Thomas Mann (a lot of gay connections and episodes), it was made into a film by one of the greatest film-makers of all time Lucino Visconti (gay and from a noble family who had a couple of ancestors who were popes). It starred Dirk Bogarde (gay) one of the greatest and most sensitive actors of the past (my favourite). Watch his amazing change of expression and emotion several times in a matter of a few moments of a close up. Of course the beautiful Bjorn Andresen as the object of contemplation. (later he was to become bitter over the adulation that followed his character in the last 4 decades)
Later it was to be turned into another masterpiece - the opera version by Benjamin Britten (gay and another favourite) and sung by an aquaintance of mine Robert Guard in the film of the opera.. I have been to Venice and lingered on the steps of the hotel where most of the filming took place and also managed to obtain about 50 publicity photographs and other paraphernalia.

It is the story of the creation of beauty. The argument of Ashenbach is that purity, denial, sweat and labour are the way an artist must go to achieve true beauty of creation be it music or literature. Towards the end of his life he is shattered to see beauty spring forth spontaneously in the person of the boy Tadzio. Undermined and obsessive he is held captive by the image and wanders throughout cholera infested Venice. With the make-up (a handsome actor aged and at the same time made up to look grotesquely younger) melting down his face Ashenbach is confronted with the sight of his perfect vision being sullied as another boy rubs his face in the sand after rejection by the self absorbed beauty. Beauty points the way to heaven and we have Death In Venice. The music of Mahler is an integral part of the film and is a return to what Mann had in mind when he wrote this story. Returning to this film over and over I never fail to uncover new details, references, understanding. It is a true master-work and one needs to allow it to flow over you without disturbance.