Death in Venice

Morte a Venezia (1971)

Timing: 2:11 (131 min)

7.274/10
462

All about film

Video 1

Photo 22

Actors and characters

Release date

1971-03-05

Country

France, Italy

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures, Productions et Éditions Cinématographiques Françaises, Alfa Cinematografica

Genre

Drama, History, Romance

Budget

$0

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Luchino Visconti

Actors

Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci, Silvana Mangano, Marisa Berenson, Carole André, Leslie French, Franco Fabrizi
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Luchino Visconti, Robert Gordon Edwards, Mario Gallo

Operator

Pasqualino De Santis

Composer

Artist

Audition

Editing

Ruggero Mastroianni, Egidio Quarantotto
All team (51)

• In Thomas Mann's original novella, the protagonist, unlike the film, was a well-known writer whose image was based on Gustav Mahler by the author. Thus, Luchino Visconti in his work simply returned to the source material, making Gustav von Aschenbach a composer.
• For a long time after the film's release, rumors circulated in the press about the death of Björn Andrésen, who played Tadzio. According to some reports, the false information about Andrésen was spread by Helmut Berger, Luchino Visconti's lover and protégé, who was originally supposed to play Tadzio and, not having received the role, was angry at Andrésen.
• Burt Lancaster wanted to play Gustav von Aschenbach.
• Swedish Björn Andrésen was eventually dubbed by another actor because he played a Pole and did not have the appropriate accent.
• 'Death in Venice' is the second film in Luchino Visconti's German trilogy. The first was 'The Damned' (1969), and the third was 'Ludwig' (1972).
• At the premiere, actor Tom Courtenay said that Alec Guinness should have played Aschenbach. Courtenay believed that the audience would then have believed they were seeing a great composer on screen. 'With Dirk, you never felt who he was,' Courtenay said.
• Mark Burns later admitted that he never understood the meaning of the dialogue between his character and Aschenbach in the middle of the film.
• Once, during filming, Bjørn Andresen asked Dirk Bogarde, a Beatles fan, what his favorite song by the Liverpool Four was. Bogarde was unable to give him an answer.
• Film historian Lawrence J. Quirk, in his 1974 book "The Greatest Romantic Films," wrote that some images of Bjørn Andresen taken from the film could be hung on the walls of the Louvre or the Vatican Museums. In his opinion, Bjørn is a symbol of the beauty that inspired Michelangelo and Da Vinci.
• In the final scene on the beach, Dirk Bogarde's face was made up with stain remover, which gave the director the desired effect. The actor only learned about this after filming had finished.