Death in Venice (1971)
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 2
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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 6,103
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Movie Info
Based on a novel by Thomas Mann, Death in Venice stars Dirk Bogarde as a German composer who is terrified that he has lost all vestiges of humanity. While visiting Venice, Bogarde falls in love with a beautiful young boy (Bjorn Andresen). The relationship is ruined by Bogarde's obsession with the boy's youth and physical perfection; the composer realizes that the child represents an ideal that he can never match. The character played by Dirk Bogarde is evidently intended to be Gustav Mahler,
Mar 1, 1971 Wide
Feb 17, 2004
WARNER BROTHERS PICTURES
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Cast
-
Dirk Bogarde
Gustav Von Aschenbach -
Björn Andrésen
Tadzio -
Silvana Mangano
Tadzio's Mother -
Marisa Berenson
Frau Von Aschenbach -
Mark Burns
Alfred -
Carole André
Esmeralda -
Luigi Battaglia
Scapegrace -
Ciro Cristofoletti
Hotel clerk -
Dominique Darel
English Tourist -
Franco Fabrizi
Barber -
Leslie French
Travel Agent -
Sergio Garafanolo
Polish Young Man -
Masha Predit
Singer -
Nora Ricci
Governess -
Romolo Valli
Hotel manager -
-
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All Critics (22) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (4) | DVD (4)
Visconti's mastery of visual style almost succeeds in creating the very ideas and feelings that his heavy-handed narrative entirely misses.
Instead of bringing the story to life, Visconti has, I'm afraid, embalmed it.
Even critics who didn't like Visconti's version of Mann's novella praised Dirk Bogarde in the lead and the film's production values, especially costume design, which was Oscar nominated.
Can never get to the literary heart of the novel without stumbling along on a curiously suffocating course.
This disc has one important extra of note, a featurette called 'Visconti's Venice,'
A sumptuous visual feast, a well-told tale of a tortured artist's sturm und drung.
Visconti's self-conscious and self-reflexive artistry can be off-putting, but with Death in Venice, he's crafted a sumptuous feast for the senses.
Almost absurdly soporific
Bogarde plays Gustav with a hamfist, practically drooling over the kid he's stalking
Despite the omissions from Mann's text, dependence on flashbacks, and overwrought arguments about art and music between Aschenbach and a colleague, it remains a film of great beauty.
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Foreign Titles
- Der tod in Venedig (DE)
- Death In Venice (UK)


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