Death in Venice
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Short description
Death in Venice is set in the early twentieth century and follows Gustav von Aschenbach, a German composer whose health is fragile and whose latest work has just failed. He travels to Venice to recover and to find the peace he needs for his art, but the city does not give him what he seeks. At his hotel on the Lido he notices Tadzio, a young Polish boy staying there with his aristocratic family, and becomes fixated on the boy's beauty. Troubled by his feelings yet unable to leave, Aschenbach stays on as illness spreads through Venice.
The film is an adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella, directed by Luchino Visconti, who also produced it and co-wrote the screenplay with Nicola Badalucco. It was the twelfth of the fifteen films Visconti directed, coming between The Damned and Ludwig. Dirk Bogarde plays Aschenbach, with Björn Andrésen as Tadzio, and Silvana Mangano, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns and Nora Ricci among the supporting cast. The production was Italian and French, and the score draws on Gustav Mahler, whose music Visconti used to shape the character of the composer.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.2 from 559 votes, while critics gave it 7.1 from 28 reviews, so critical and audience assessments are closely aligned. Released in 1971, it runs 131 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- 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.
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