Death in Venice

An adaptation of Thomas Mann’s famous modernist novella, published in 1912. Unlike the original, the main protagonist is not a writer, but a musician (modelled on Gustav Mahler) who, during a trip to plague-stricken Venice, experiences an erotic fascination with a teenage boy. For years, Death in Venice was considered a textbook example of a near-perfect adaptation, brilliantly substituting sublime literary means for cinematic ones. There is a dark side, however, to Visconti’s success: the traumatic experience of the young actor, Björn Andrésen, which was recently recounted in the documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World. Still, it would be difficult to question the merits of the film itself, which superbly confronts love and death, youth and old age, beauty and ugliness.

Robert Birkholc