Death in Venice

(1971)

★ 7.2 IMDb · 558 votes

Genres: Drama

Year: 1971

Runtime: 131 мин

Country: Italy, France

Director: Luchino Visconti

Cast: Дирк Богард, Бьёрн Андресен, Romolo Valli, Марк Бернс, Nora Ricci, Silvana Mangano, Мариса Беренсон, Carole André, Leslie French, Franco Fabrizi

Plot

Composer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.

In this adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel, avant-garde composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Sir Dirk Bogarde) travels to a Venetian seaside resort seeking repose after a period of artistic and personal stress. But he finds no peace there, for he soon develops a troubling attraction to Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), an adolescent on vacation with his family. The boy embodies an ideal of beauty that Aschenbach has long sought and he becomes infatuated. However, the onset of a deadly pestilence threatens them physically and represents the corruption that compromises and threatens all ideals.