Classic film with Dirk Bogarde, set in Venice and on the Lido.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4652 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 125 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Luchino Visconti's adaptation of the Thomas Mann story Death in Venice is the very definition of sumptuous: the costumes and sets, the special geography of Venice, and the breathtaking cinematography combine to form a heady experience. At the centre of this gorgeousness is Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde in a meticulous performance), a controlled intellectual who unexpectedly finds himself obsessed by the vision of a 14-year-old boy while on a convalescent vacation in 1911. Visconti has turned Aschenbach into a composer, which accounts for the lush excerpts from Mahler on the soundtrack (Bogarde is meant to look like Mahler, too). Even if it tends to hit the nail on the head a little too forcefully, and even if Visconti can test one's patience with lingering looks at crowds at the beach and hotel dining rooms, Death in Venice creates a lushness rare in movies. --Robert Horton

Special Features

• Visconti's Venice featurette
  
• A Tour Of Venice photo gallery
  
• Trailer
  
• Interactive menu
  
• Scene access

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital (1.0) Mono
  
• Running Time: 2 hours and 5 minutes approx.
  
• Region Code: 2

Synopsis
Luchino Visconti's striking adaptation of Thomas Mann's DEATH IN VENICE follows the sickly composer, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde). As the film begins, Aschenbach is arriving by steam boat in Venice from Munich. He is deeply distracted, nervous, uncomfortable, and conflicted. Nonetheless, he settles into a breathtaking seaside resort, where he fixates on Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen), an angelic blond Polish boy who is there with his family. While flashbacks to happy times spent with his wife and small daughter fill in some of the blanks of Aschenbach's personal past, others recall Aschenbach's harsh and competitive friend, Alfred (Mark Burns), who criticised Aschenbach's music for being overly perfected and thus lacking in beauty and passion. Through these flashbacks, it becomes evident that Aschenbach feels defeated in both his personal and his professional lives. The film uses very little dialogue, relying largely on the characters's facial expressions to communicate the tortured mentality of the protagonist, the curious vanity of young Tadzio, and the precocious airs of the bourgeois women who parade the Venetian beaches in taffeta, bonnets, and parasols. As Aschenbach's infatuation with Tadzio grows beyond his control, he learns that, "Venice is gripped by pestilence," and the city is being sequestered to prevent the spread of a cholera outbreak. With concentrated, languid pacing, a colour scheme consisting of bold blacks and stark whites that are a constant reminder of the inevitable, and some hauntingly surreal scenes, DEATH IN VENICE captures the poignancy of Mann's novel with a sharp, sinister, and unwavering accuracy.

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Customer Reviews

Delightful...
This is an absolute classic. Dirk Bogarde is superb playing the troubled Gustav Von Aschenbach, I would go as far as to say it is one of his finest roles. Adapted from the novella of Thomas Mann, this film is a true credit to the industry of cinema. It has a very well scripted plot that tells the audience everything without needing to show graphic details. It tells of Aschenbach's obsession with a boy named Tadzio...though nothing is ever done about it, he simply watches him from a distance in an admiring manner. The ending of the film is so unbearably tragic that once you see this film it will remain with you forever... Don't let this film pass you by...watch and enjoy.

One of the great films of world cinema
This has to be one of the finest films ever made.

The film has haunted me since I first saw it over 30 years ago. Its scale is operatic, the widescreen photography stunning. Yes it's pace at times is a little sedate, but as I get older it reflects one's own maturity, sitting with dignity and watching consumate beauty. It is only at the end of the film that Bogarde's character (Ashenbach) lets down his guard in an attempt to impress the boy. The boy is somewhere between a child and a young man, he still has the playful qualities of a child but on the other hand he has the coyness of a youth who is aware of the effect he has on others. Bogarde's character is quiety amused by the child yet finds the antics of the youth somewhat intimidating.

The final scene is devastating because though the boy has had the most profound effect on Ashenbach to the boy it is little more than a fleeting and non consequential episode. Did Ashenbach die with an image of beauty as a final vision or did he realise the boy was just a shallow unobtainable goal?

Pure cinema
This film still remains one of the purest pieces of cinema. With little dialogue (unless your Polish is ok) the film is wholly visual in its approach to the communication of a sense of place, time and meaning. Bogarde tells the story of an creative artist who beleives that only man can create true beauty in a purity which can not be found in nature. His chance encounter with a beautiful boy reveal to him how mistaken his belief is. His own death dressed in the artifice of the beautician/barber who tries to restore his youth is in the end a celebration of life. The splendour and decay of Venice presents a perfect setting.