Death in Venice
by Luchino Visconti
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dirk Bogarde, Marisa Berenson, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci, Romolo ValliDirector: Luchino Visconti
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 131 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-17
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Death in Venice
Movie Review: Technically exquisite, but tedious and pretentious.
Summary: 3 Stars
I found this movie to be beautifully photographed but very tedious, if not pretentious, if not downright *annoying.*
Toward the end of the movie, there's a scene where a woman is singing what I believe is a Polish song. And she goes on and on and on and on and on and on.
She gave me a freakin' headache!
It's interesting that many of the reviewers here who gave the film 5 stars freely admit that it's
... "slow moving"
... "not an easy film to watch"
... "lacking in action."
Yeah, right! So then why give it such high praise?
It's not that a movie has to be "easy" to watch, but it does have to have enough form and substance that the audience cares, one way or another, pro or con, about the central character, especially when the central character is empathetically presented.
I didn't care very much what happened to the Dirk Bogarde character. He was introspective but without the payoff an introspective character should have. "What's on this boy's mind?" I kept asking myself.
Why should we care or empathize with the Dirk Bogarde/Gustav Mahler character? We know very little about him. Yes, Mahler was a great artist, but this isn't a great movie.
The flashback scenes where Mahler is arguing with a colleague about the meaning of art and truth were, for me, forced and overbearing -- throw-ins.
That the Mahler character wanted to stay in Venice just to be around the young boy he fancied -- sorry, but that isn't enough for me as far as a "plot" is concerned. Even great directors have trouble with plots and endings and in that regard this movie, as beautifully photgraphed and as evocative as it is, copped out. Put another way: sometimes less *isn't* more; sometimes less is just less.
When you have a movie with human beings in it, then you need to have them doing things that human beings do. What they do can be absurd, illogical, antisocial -- but have them DO SOMETHING -- fer crissakes!
There seemed to be very little going on inside or outside the Mahler character's mind. Why, for example was he fascinated by the young boy? The film suggests that perhaps he was drawn to the boy because he was obsessed with beauty; perhaps because he's a homosexual; perhaps because as a great artist he inevitably has feelings too large, too sensitive for the world of the mundane. Or a combination of all three possibilities. Ok, but where did the story go from those suggested possibilities? Those are threads, it seems to me, that are relatively "easy" to establish in a movie -- the real art comes in taking those threads and making something meaningful with them. And here's where Visconti's work, ambitious and as technical masterful as it is, falls short.
The threads in great movies may not explain all there is to know or even all there is to contemplate in the human condition, but when the final scene is over, the audience should feel as though some insight has been offered -- insight beyond exquisite technical proficiency and/or outstanding "acting." How can an actor (Dirk Bogarde) give a great performance when his character lacks greatness within the context of the film. here I'm using the word "greatness" to mean a touchstone for an insight into the human condition. That just got by me in this movie.
The only thing I really "cared about" was Dirk Bogarde's luggage!
It's impossible to say that this was a bad movie or a failure, just a great disappointment and a bore.
Summary of Death in Venice
Abroad on a rest holiday composer Gustav Aschenbach (Dick Bogarde) is to all the world reserved and civilized. But when he glimpses someone who inspires him to give way to a secret passion it foreshadows his doom. Director Luchino Visconti (Rocco and His Brothers The Damned) transforms Thomas Mann's classic novel into "a masterwork of power and beauty" (William Wolf Cue). Like Aschenbach Visconti is an artist obsessed: his movies are awash in mood period detail and seething emotions beneath placid surfaces. Earning its maker a Cannes Film Festival Special 25th Anniversary Prize Death in Venice - with a soundtrack feast of Gustav Mahler music and a haunting Bogarde performance-is Visconti at his best.Running Time: 130 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DRAMA UPC:?085392888122Luchino Visconti's adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel is the very definition of sumptuous: the costumes and sets, the special geography of Venice, and the breathtaking cinematography combine to form a heady experience. At the center of this gorgeousness is Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde in a meticulous performance), a controlled intellectual who unexpectedly finds himself obsessed by the vision of a 14-year-old boy while on a convalescent vacation in 1911. Visconti has turned Aschenbach into a composer, which accounts for the lush excerpts from Mahler on the soundtrack (Bogarde is meant to look like Mahler, too). Even if it tends to hit the nail on the head a little too forcefully, and even if Visconti can test one's patience with lingering looks at crowds at the beach and hotel dining rooms, Death in Venice creates a lushness rare in movies. For some viewers, that will be enough. --Robert Horton
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