MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

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, whose haunting music is featured on the film's soundtrack. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: French, Spanish, English
• Features:
  • • cc Behind-the-scenes featurette: "Visconti's Venice"
    • A Tour of Venice stills gallery
    • Theatrical trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Costume Design - 1971 (Piero Tosi)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Art Direction - 1971 (Ferdinando Scarfiotti)
•     Won Best Cinematography - 1971 (Pasqualino De Santis)
•     Won Best Costume Design - 1971 (Piero Tosi)
•     Won Best Soundtrack - 1971 (Giuseppe Muratori)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1971 (Luchino Visconti)

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won 25th Anniversary Prize - 1971 (Luchino Visconti)

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1971

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Luchino Visconti

• Producer:

  Luchino Visconti

• Screenwriter:

  Niccola Badalucco, Luchino Visconti

• Cinematographer:

  Pasqualino De Santis

• Featured Music:

  Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler

• Composer (Music Score):

  Franco Mannino

• Editor:

  Ruggero Mastroianni

• Production Designer:

  Ferdinando Scarfiotti

• Set Designer:

  Ferdinando Scarfiotti, Nedo Azzini

• Costume Designer:

  Piero Tosi

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Giuseppe Muratori

• Makeup:

  Mario de Silvio, Mauro Gavazzi, Goffredo Rocchetti

• Short Story Author:

  Thomas Mann

REVIEW:

• Toward the middle of his life, after having worked in a series of thankless comedies for Rank, which nevertheless made him a household name in England, Dirk Bogarde struck out on his own to make a stunning series of films with American expatriate Joseph Losey, most especially The Servant (1963) and Accident (1967). While much of his earlier work had been inconsequential, these films established Bogarde at a stroke as one of England's most serious actors, and led him on a path of self-discovery that eventually wound its way to director Luchino Visconti's door. In Visconti's intensely operatic The Damned (La Caduta degli dei, 1969), Bogarde played the scion of a German munitions manufacturer in Nazi Germany to brutal effect; in 1971, he and Visconti collaborated on one of the director's most disturbing films, Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia). Loosely based on the novel by Thomas Mann, Death in Venice follows composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Bogarde) as he travels to Venice for a vacation, unaware that a mysterious plague is busily claiming the holiday makers one by one, as the management of the luxury hotel where von Aschenbach is staying stage a quiet cover-up, so that people simply "disappear" without explanation. In the midst of this unsettling situation, von Aschenbach develops an obsession with a young boy staying at the resort, Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen). Aging and well aware that the young man could have no possible interest in him other than to manipulate him for money, von Aschenbach nevertheless finds himself in the grip of a passion he cannot escape or explain, and even resorts to cosmetic measures to alter his aging countenance. But all is to no avail, and the film ends in one of the most nihilistic and hopeless final sequences in the history of cinema. Bogarde's performance is heroic and deeply sympathetic; Visconti's direction is methodical and coiled, gradually springing the trap in the film's final half-hour. A remarkable effort on all accounts, this is one of Visconti's finest films, and one of Bogarde's greatest accomplishments. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, Rovi