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Death in Venice (1971) |
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130
minutes
Rated: PG
Country: Italy
Studio: Warner
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Mark
Burns, Björn Andresen, Nora Ricci,
Marisa Berenson, Silvana Mangano,
Carole André
Director: Luchino Visconti
Screenwriter: Thomas Mann,
Luchino Visconti |
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Synopsis |
The story follows the sickly
composer, Gustav von Aschenbach
(Dirk Bogarde), who arrives in
Venice by steamboat from Munich. He
is deeply distracted, nervous,
uncomfortable, and conflicted.
Nonetheless, he settles into a
breathtaking seaside resort, where
he fixates on Tadzio (Bjorn
Andresen), an angelic blond Polish
boy who is there with his family.
While flashbacks to happy times
spent with his wife and small
daughter fill in some of the blanks
of Aschenbach's personal past,
others recall his harsh and
competitive friend, Alfred (Mark
Burns), who criticized Aschenbach's
music for being too technically
perfect and thus lacking in beauty
and passion. Via these glimpses into
the past, we see that Aschenbach
feels defeated in both his personal
and his professional lives.
The film uses very little dialogue,
relying largely on the characters'
facial expressions to communicate
the protagonist's tortured psyche,
young Tadzio's curious vanity, and
the pretentious airs of the
bourgeois women who parade the
Venetian beaches in taffeta,
bonnets, and parasols. As
Aschenbach's infatuation with Tadzio
grows beyond his control, he learns
that "Venice is gripped by
pestilence" (as narrated in Mann's
novel) and the city is being
sequestered to prevent the spread of
a cholera outbreak. |
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