Death in Venice
Death in Venice
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2h 11m
Directed by Luchino Visconti • 1971 • Italy
Starring Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen, Marisa Berenson
Based on the classic novella by Thomas Mann, this late-career masterpiece from Luchino Visconti is a meditation on the nature of art, the allure of beauty, and the inescapability of death. A fastidious composer reeling from a disastrous concert, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde, in an exquisitely nuanced performance) travels to Venice to recover. There, he is struck by a vision of pure beauty in the form of a young boy named Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), his infatuation developing into an obsession even as rumors of a plague spread through the city. Setting Mann’s story of queer desire and bodily decay against the sublime music of Gustav Mahler, DEATH IN VENICE is one of cinema’s most exalted literary adaptations, as sensually rich as it is allegorically resonant.
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Luchino Visconti: Life as in a Novel
This 2008 documentary about the career of DEATH IN VENICE director Luchino Visconti features new and archival interviews with Visconti: actors Burt Lancaster, Silvana Mangano, and Marcello Mastroianni; filmmakers Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli; and others.
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Stefano Albertini on DEATH IN VENICE
In this 2018 program, literature and cinema scholar Stefano Albertini provides context for DEATH IN VENICE within Italian culture and explores the career, style, and themes of director Luchino Visconti.
