Death in Venice
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Movie Reviews of Death in Venice
Movie Review: The Harshness and Beauty of Life
Summary: 5 Stars
The word masterpiece in my opinion has been so much overused these days to describe any film which does not bore us to death after ten minutes,and in the process it has lost its true meaning. For we have to go back in time, to the golden age of artistic and creative cinema, 60s to late 70s to re-appreciate what Masterpiece really means.It is directors and artists like Fellini, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Fassbinder,and others that have defined the term with their vision, style and sheer poetry to the eyes and mind,that no other director has come close in our time, the age of finances and lawyers over essence.Artists like Visconti, with classics to his name (Rocco and his Brothers,The Leopard,),have enriched the cinema as an art form of the most sophisticated kind, an accessible intellectual platform to entertain and stimulate at the same time, which Death In Venice (1971) is an excellent example of.
Adapted from Thomas Mann's novel, and starring Dirk Bogarde in top form, Death In Venice is a film that is very much the product of its time.(I would find it impossible with today's jittery sensitivities and more skeptical studios that it can be re-adapted).It is a film that is very intense in its philosophical questions, yet captivating in its simplicity and serene and gorgeous cinematography.
An artist,composer/conductor,Gustav von Aschenbach, goes on a much needed vacation to Venice to recuperate after physical illness and mental exhaustion. There, his life will forever change when he sees a beautiful boy Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen).He admires the beauty of the young lad,at first with curiosity that soon turn into obsession, fueled by the boy's returned gazes, sometimes shyly, at others boldly and even indirectly intimidating. Tadzio intrigues Aschenbach, as he watches with increased interest the obvious and natural contradictions in the boy's youth between the 'virginal' innocence and the playful mischief.
Yet there is more..
Through flashbacks we know more about the artist's life: his deep grief after the death of his young daughter, the decline of his professional life and the public humiliation he endured, as well as his agony over the philosophical nature of beauty that he could not find an answer to.
Amidst all this, Tadzio's beauty triggered in him all these demons, failures and doubts and pushed him to the depth of despair.In a way the artist needed this beauty/fantasy to restore his mental physical and creative health.
We can also feel the artist's confusion when he says : What kind of road I have chosen? this illustrates the inevitable path to destruction he has taken, which deep down he knows is doomed from the start.
Fate plays a dirty hand with Aschenbach when a mixed up in luggage forces the artist to return to the hotel after finally deciding to leave. After initial anger, and in one of the most powerful scenes in the movie, we see him returning to Venice with a smile on his face, for destiny has pushed him back in the arms of the 'idealism' he found in the boy.
In another equally powerful scene, he sits on a bench at night, and say loudly : 'I Love You' ..this is a defining moment in the film , as we see all his defenses floundering and we feel that his end is nigh.
Tadzio remains an object of 'platonic' obsession for the musician, for in my opinion he sees in him, the image of his lost daughter (there are some resemblance), the answer to the age old riddle of beauty's meaning,(Perfection vs Mediocrity) and at the end, the power of life itself..When Aschenbach is dying on the beach from cholera and reaches out for the boy who walks away into the sea and only looks back when is far away, it is also a confirmation that indeed Tadzio is like life, cold, unresponsive,and finally giving up on the artist: Tadzio was the hope that Aschenbach clung to till the very last moment without success.
This makes Death in Venice a film that will force the viewer to think, yet soothes his eyes with breathtaking images, and with very serene scenes of family life at the beach side that in its domesticity and normalcy contradicts Aschenbach's own condition.
I will think twice before using the word Masterpiece from now on, and reserve it to the very few films that truly deserve it, and Death in Venice is certainly one of them.
Movie Review: Sometimes you don't need a Plot
Summary: 5 Stars
Eightteen years ago I read "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann. It was one of those books that lost me early on and I found myself turning the pages hoping that something would eventually make sense. I got to the end but no, there wasn't anything that made any sense; just an old man with a fixation on a boy and I wasn't the least bit interested in knowing any more about that. I had noted that the movie version of the book was pretty highly acclaimed so I thought maybe that could help me understand what I didn't understand 18 years ago. I'm glad I decided to rent the movie.
What impressed me from the start was the cinematography, the sets, the costumes, the location, the focus, and so many other visual aspects of the movie (including the endless varieties of women's gigantic hats). There is a main character who, frankly, is not a very endearing focal point. He is short-tempered, anti-social, argumentative, impulsive, demanding and generally uninteresting. He's also in a physically weakened state which we note from a multitude of cinematic suggestions. He goes through this movie with little purpose. We are aware that he is supposed to be recouping in Venice but he isn't cooperating with himself. Early on, he notices a boy of roughly the age of 14 or 15. The boy and his family are staying at the same luxurous hotel so the old man and young boy visually encounter each other frequently. If this sounds rather uninteresting it's because it IS uninteresting. What compelled me in the film was the outstanding manner in which it is all presented. It's as though we, too, were present during all that transpires. The acting is outstanding and "Death in Venice" comes across to me as an example of how excellent supporting actors can elevate a film. Essentially, the lack of any meaningful plot enables us to just lounge around with the other vacationers and take in the surroundings. Serously, there IS no plot to this film; merely a suggestion, if you're the least bit interested, of a dying man stumbling through his final days immersed in solitary emptiness. One light flickers intermittently but all the other bulbs have long ago burnt out. It is sad to see and the magnificent splendor that surrounds all this serves to illuminate this emptiness all the more.
I did not get any more meaning out of the film version of "Death in Venice" than I did out of the book. I'm sure some would say that Mann created a literary picture the equal to Viconti's visual picture but I would disagree. I have never given a movie a "5 Star" rating without it telling me a story that drew me in and stayed with me for days and weeks thereafter. Luchino Visconti's "Death in Venice", for me, is an example of making an outstanding movie out of a meaningless story by bringing all the cinematic arts to a level of excellence. Halfway through the film it occurred to me that I should activate the English subtitles so as to pick up the Italian dialogue that is interspersed with the primarily English dialogue. It added somewhat to the film but I didn't need to go back over what I had already seen; the film spoke to me in its' own language. Indeed, the limited dialoue in "Death in Venice" merely served to clarify what we were already hearing. What a performance by Dirk Bogarde!
Movie Review: MASTERPIECE!
Summary: 5 Stars
Luchino Visconti's 1971 film adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel "Death in Venice" is nothing short of a masterpiece in every sense of the word. The more I watch this film, the more I realize how perfect it is.For those unfamiliar with Thomas Mann's 1911 novel of the same name, there are a few differences. No movie that I'm aware of follows its original book to a "T". But the changes that Italian director Visconti adds to the story are intriguing and beautiful. I don't mind his personal touches in the slightest. Indeed, the film wouldn't be nearly as good otherwise.
The intuition to make the Aschenbach character really be Jewish/Austrian famed composer Gustav Mahler and set the movie's soundtrack to that of Mahler's 3rd and 5th symphonies was brilliant. I can't say if Thomas Mann originally intended the Aschenbach character to truly be Mahler in the novel or not?
Having the main character be a tired, worn out Gustav Mahler is a brilliant masterstroke of pure genius. We're left with a film that condenses everything brilliant that is Europe. Using Mahler's own music creates a depth and haunting realism to the film as well.
The casting in this film is extraordinary! You could not have casted a better cast to play these characters anywhere. The young man who plays the beautiful Tadzio looks like a Norweignean version of a sculpted Apollo youth. His features are those of a god. His silouette against the backdrop of the sparkling sea pointing out over the waters is one the most erotically charged scenes I've ever seen in a movie. It's breathtaking really, and one almost forgets the possibly taboo homoerotic connotations such a scenario is from the standpoint of the aged Aschenbach.
I have seen many films shot in and around Venice, Italy ("the Italian Job" most recently), but none have come as close to this as personifying the city and showing it as beautifully. In my opinion, Visconti's "Death in Venice" is to Venice what Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" is to Rome.
Foreign film lovers should not miss this classic. Travelers who've been to Italy, or dream of visiting one day, also should not miss this beautiful film. I may not recommend the film to younger audiences who probably aren't ready to understand why a dying man would entertain fantasies of a physical passion for a teen boy. In such cases, I would say the film is probably unsuitable for viewers under the ages of 15 or so.
The DVD has a nice picture in 16x9 widescreen for widescreen televisions and is compressed lightly with low grain and nice blacks and contrast. The sound is stereo and in the English language, so subtitles aren't necessary. The film is also shot in glorious color in a vivid but controlled manner. When I first saw this film I was sorry that it wasn't filmed in black & white, but now that I think on it, this story works better in color and the colors of this film are gorgeous. Venice always photographs well, but I have rarely seen the old city look so sumptuous as it does here. Some grade-A, top-notch cinematography went into the making of this rich and luxurious movie.
Movie Review: Beauty Found and Lost in Venice: Mann + Mahler +Visconti = a Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw "Death in Venice" (1971) about 15 years ago, found it profoundly moving and often thought about it. Watching it again few days ago, I realized that it is close to the top of the great works of cinema. With hardly any dialog it captivates a viewer with the beautiful cinematography, the fine acting, and, above all, the Mahler's music without which the movie simply could not exist.
"Death in Venice" is a stunning Luchino Visconti's adaptation of the Thomas Mann novella about a famous composer (in the novella he was a writer but making him a composer in a movie was a great idea that works admirably) Gustav von Aschenbach (loosely based on Gustav Mahler) who travels to Venice in the summer of 1911 to recover from personal losses and professional failures. His search for beauty and perfection seems to be completed when he sees a boy of incredible divine beauty. Ashenbach (Dirk Bogard) follows the boy everywhere never trying to approach him. The boy, Tadzio, belonged to very rare creatures that own an enigmatic and inconceivable power which captivates you, enchants you, conquers you and makes you its prisoner. Ashenbach became one of the prisoners of Tadzio spellbinding charms. He became addicted to him; he fell in love with him. Was it bless or curse for him? I think both. He died from unreachable, impossible yet beautiful love which object was perfection itself. The last image Ashenbach's eyes captured was that of the boy's silhouette surrounded by the sea and golden sun light. Nothing could compare to the beauty and charm of the scene and to take it with you to the grave is the death one can only dream about. If he could, Ashenbach probably would've said, "I was able to witness one of the faces of perfection, I could not bear it but I was chosen to learn that it exists here, in this world and I can die in peace now because it did happen to me."
Unforgettable music, Gustav Mahler's haunting adagietto of his Fifth Symphony found perfect use in a perfect movie. It reflects every emotion of a main character - it sobs, it longs, it begs for hope, and it summarizes the idea that once you are blessed to encounter beauty you are condemned to die. I may come up with hundreds movies that use classical music to perfection but nothing will ever compare to "Death in Venice". I dare say that Mahler's music IS its main character - it would change and sound differently depending on what was happening on the screen. It sounded triumphantly when Ashenbach returned back to Venice, to what he thought would be his happiness but turned to be his death. It sounded gloomy when he first entered Venice from the sea. You can hear so many different feelings in it - tenderness and adoration, confusion and self-loathing, worship and melancholy, but always - LOVE that gives the purest happiness and breaks the hearts (literally). The movie for a viewer is similar to what the boy was for the aging composer/writer/Artist. We are enchanted and captivated by its power and beauty as much as Achenbach was by the boy's mysterious charm.
Movie Review: The sound of silence
Summary: 5 Stars
The casting, acting, and visual surroundings are superb. One scene in particular stays with me: Aschenbach has seated himself so that he can compose music while looking at the boy (and we hear the Mahler he is composing, and the human singing comes in).
What I don't understand is Aschenbach's interior silence. The story (Thomas Mann's) is told by a narrator, but Thomas Mann hardly ever created a principle character who wasn't full of recordable thoughts and feelings, and Aschenbach is not that exception. Aschenbach quotes (and misquotes!) authors in his head, has recorded thoughts, scraps of thoughts, feelings, scraps of feelings, which grow ever more intense, continually. I can only assume that Visconti, working in a visual medium, wanted to substitute Bogarde's face for what we read on the page. Although this is sometimes successful, it also accounts for the few negative reviews this film got--mostly due to not enough going on. Bogarde's face is wonderful, but Thomas Mann is a little more wonderful.
But STILL...5 stars.
***
"Mr. Bogarde, you have your rings mixed up."
(wriggling his fingers) "No, I don't."
"A wedding band goes on the fourth finger of your left hand, not right."
"Not if you're a German in 1911, it doesn't."
" Is that a fact? Well, nobody else wears one there. So switch it."
(Bogarde switches the wedding band to the fourth finger of his left hand)
"...and with your own ring--the signet--you always wear that one, don't you?"
"Unless the director doesn't want me to, yes."
"Put that one on the little finger of your right hand--it's too much with the wedding ring on the left hand."
(Bogarde moves his own ring to his right hand) "I'll be darned. It still fits there."
"Let's see."
(Bogarde holds his hands out). "Yes, that's fine. This director does not object."
***
The three (or four--depending if you want to separate the prositute's name from her appearance and behavior, in a real or imagined flashback [probably real])references, or borrowings, from Doctor Faustus make me a little dizzy. "Death in Venice" was written in 1911-12, and Doctor Faustus in 1943-47, and none of the the borrowings are--of course--in the original "Death in Venice," as are almost all other scenes, and the few words that are spoken.
I've never been sure why the Mahler music, in another added flashback scene, is offensive to the audience. ( The whistling in an audience in Germany means---I hate it.) Strauss's "Salome," much more daring, was a smashing success in 1905 (and 6). Nor can I make much of Aschenbach's friend's castigation after the hall has cleared and they are back in Aschenbach's room. Or is the music Aschenbach composes supposed to be different from what we hear on the sound track? Don't think so.
But still...five stars.