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Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice (1971)

A steamer approaches Venice, as if death personified itself is approaching this amazing canaled beauty. Visually, it is only a steamer carrying a middle-aged Music Composer, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) entering Venice. Yet in reality, the metaphorical grim reaper too is actually collecting innocent souls via the epidemic of cholera, which is slowly worming its way into the unique city of gondolas, waterways and aesthetic architectural brilliance.

The story is set around 1912, the latter end of the Edwardian era (pre-World War-I), where a very ill Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice to get away from his personal stress. This holiday will cement his most beautiful and painful moment in life.

Visually spectacular, the cinematography capturing the city of Venice is just amazing. Beautifully photographed, the outdoor scenes in muted tones, it captures the grandeur of Venice as well as giving it a disheartening bleakness to accompany the tragic story. The cold holiday feels purposely drab, yet the interiors and night scenes have a sense of richness with bolder hues. Amazing costumes and production design too. Piero Tosi was nominated for his fabulous costumes in Death in Venice (1971) at the 44^th Academy Awards in 1972, but lost out the Oscar statuette to the brilliant British Historical epic, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). It was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 21^st Cannes Film Festival too. At the BAFTA’s it lost out the major awards, whilst it triumphed in the technical categories, including, “Best Production Design”, “Best Costume Design” and “Best Cinematography” for Pasqualino De Santis.

Music Composer Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from his Symphony No. 5, has been used quite liberally in the entire movie. Though aware of Mahler, am not familiar with his compositions. Therefore, I shall limit my critique on this subject matter, though I’d say his rhythmic creations, including both his major symphonies, No.3 &No.5, blend soothingly into the narrative structure of Visconti’s Death in Venice. We feel the melancholic music in our bones as the story pulls at our heartstrings.

Really like the input of a few of non-Mahler music in this movie. One beautiful example is the use of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fur Elise. We see the young man playing it on the piano, which harks back to the time when Gustav von Aschenbach first met his future wife. The hint of a wife and daughter is shown, though not specifically mentioned. Later on, we see Street Singers play, fun, happy, foot-tapping, tunes for the hotel guests. As they gyrate with vulgar movements towards the guest, without cheapening the movie itself of course, a vast noticeable societal difference comes into play. We see existence of the aristocracy and the needy, decaying together with awareness and unawareness, immaterial of class differences, due to a place ravaged with the Cholera epidemic. The hotel guests confined to its premises, with visiting Street Singers, all brought together in this one scene of a classy hotel. The lowly Street Singers movements and tongue-out facial gestures is a literal “fuck you” to high society; a combination of jealousy and a blind distaste for the more privileged elite; immaterial of how good or bad their human personalities might be.

The main plot of this movie is about the 50 year old Aschenbach, who falls genuinely in love with a 14 year old Polish boy named Tadzio (played beautifully by a very young Björn Andrésen, who passed away recently, just 2 months ago in October 2025, at the age of 70). Shocking storyline, is it? Subject matter sounds like it might be glorifying pedophilia, but once you watch it, you realize that’s not the case at all. Though Aschenbach’s love for this beautiful boy might seem controversial, his love is non-predatory, it’s more deeply emotional. Yes, if he acted upon his desire for Tadzio, if he sexually abused the underage teenager, then it would have been an issue. We wouldn’t be able to sympathize with him, but his love is strictly kept platonic. Yet, his pain of longing and desire is something we all know of, albeit for adults. Unrequited love, again for mature adults, is something I’ve gone through my entire life. I identify with the pain Aschenbach goes through, though not with the object of his affection. At the same time, Aschenbach’s love is not unrequited. Tadzio does reciprocate. He too desires this much older man and somewhat seduces him, enjoying the attention. Though being a young man of 14 (and probably this being his 1^st love, a 1^st crush, an infatuation), he doesn’t dare approach the 50 year old Aschenbach. They never utter a word to each other, but their romantic gaze and smiles they exchange, say a lot. Here is a story of true gentle love than lust. Now, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is a story of lustful desire of a dirty old man, an opportunist, who takes advantage of a bratty underage girl, a preteen of just 12. The person Humbert Humbert is an unsavory character who does take advantage of the situation. But it’s a brilliant piece of literature, amongst my favourite novels, as are both movie adaptations of Lolita. Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 toned down version with a, slightly older yet still under aged, 14 year old Sue Lyon with James Mason playing the predatory Humbert Humbert is a masterpiece, while Adrian Lyne’s Lolita (1997) with Jeremy Irons playing the disgusting pedophile and Dominique Swain played the 13 year old child is a more accurate and despicably well done depiction of the pedophilic controversial novel. Humbert Humbert is definitely not a sympathetic character. Whilst unlike Humbert Humbert, we do get more sympathetic portrayals of pedophiles in the likes of, the brilliant movie, Little Children (2006) and the television limited series, The Family (2016), played by Jackie Earle Haley and Andrew McCarthy, respectively; who suffer away personally due to their pedophilic tendencies. We see their psychological struggle between self-hatred, pain and lust; and not wanting to fulfill their sexual desires. These people go to the extent of physical self-harm, to avoid harming any child, well aware as to how wrong it would be. There is no consent when it comes to children. In Lolita, Humbert Humbert is no doubt a full blown pervert. Yet, that is not the case with the stately Gustav von Aschenbach, at least not in this film adaptation of Death in Venice. Anyone who doesn’t feel the pain of Aschenbach’s tormented soul after sitting through over 2 hours of this cinematic marvel is merely incapable of any human emotions and is blindly judgmental. All you need is a heart to understand his pain. You don’t need to be a deeply intellectual laureate to understand the simple feeling of love and heartache.

The closeted homosexual, Aschenbach’s, affection for the teenager is more of an admiration of youthful beauty, a beautiful face of a boy transitioning from boyhood to manhood. A kind of attraction towards a muse, for the artiste Aschenbach happens to be. A youth, the dignified Gentleman, Gustav von Aschenbach, probably lost out on due to societal expectations and circumstances he felt trapped in, throughout the Victorian era and now into the Edwardian where he had to adhere to certain rules of repute to be accepted and well respected. Tadzio’s existence, and Aschenbach’s admiration of aesthetic beauty (a bit like Dorian Gray falling in love with deep admiration for his own portrait in Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray, another one of my favourite works of Literature), gives him a second chance energizing himself with a new found youthful zest for life, though he never actually gets close to the boy. It cannot really constitute to being pedophilic in any sense. Besides, that teenage face could be attributed to anyone from 13 to 30. Specifically, if one considers how youthful some people look today, in the 21^st Century. The likes of 30 year old celebs, Troye Sivan and Timothée Chalamet (30 tomorrow), who with their boyish charm and well chiseled facial features, can easily pass over as teenagers. Even much older stars, the 48 year old American actor, Matt Bomer, to Bollywood actresses, 58 year old Madhuri Dixit and 51 year old Kajol, to 57 year old singer Australian singer, Kylie Minogue, to the classy 50 year old Hollywood superstar, Angelina Jolie, to name few. All these stars can easily play, a somewhat mature, character half their age.

In many a flashback sequences we see Aschenbach’s many a philosophical discussions on beauty with fellow musician, Alfred (Mark Burns), probably somewhere in Germany or Austria (their hometown is not specifically mentioned), with whom Aschenbach has a very homoerotic friendship (it’s unclear whether they actually are in a secret relationship, as Aschenbach’s wife is almost always present).  And now here in Venice, Aschenbach falls head over heels for a young androgynous male with golden locks and piercing blue eyes, a young Adonis, for whom Aschenbach’s mind and heart has an obsessive fixation and considers Tadzio, the most beautiful boy in the world. Initially in fear Aschenbach actually tries to leave Venice, but when his luggage is misplaced and a man (vagrant) collapses dead, Aschenbach in (secret) happiness returns to the confines of the hotel at the height of Cholera ravaging this city. It is also interesting to note, that we (the audience) watched this movie post-COVID19. A viral outbreak that went beyond borders plaguing the entire world.  

The last scene, without giving away the ending (though the title itself foretells what happens in the finalé) is so beautifully shot. Towards the end, as we see the statuesque beauty of Tadzio with his blonde waves rush into the clashing ocean waves of the Venetian beach, he stands a quarter submerged as if the Renaissance period Statue of David himself has come to life, more Donatello’s Bronze than Michelangelo’s Marble; whilst we see the black hair dye dripping onto a pale, overtly powdered and almost ashen, face of Aschenbach, with a deeply painful expression of heartbreak and helplessness, it’s one of the saddest ending in cinematic history. As the credits roll, we sit in all hopelessness at the inevitable tragedy that unfolded in front of our eyes, ‘twas not a shock, there was no twist, no surprise, but the fact this entire journey led to this very realistic finalé.

The late Film Critic, Roger Ebert had stated that, “Visconti has chosen to abandon the subtleties of the Thomas Mann novel and present us with a straightforward story of homosexual love,” and doesn’t uphold to the “greatness of Mann’s work,” (quotation source: Wikipedia). That might be so, but a film should be judged on its own merit, immaterial of the source material. Comparisons between the book and movie is inevitable, yet film being a different medium altogether needs to be judged and rated entirely as a standalone piece of artwork, which along with the narrative, everything else that forms the visual storytelling needs to be taken into account, from film directing, acting, cinematography, music, production design, et al; to how aesthetically the story visually narrates on a big wide canvas of a moving picture. To me, who hasn’t read the novel, the movie was Visconti’s magnum opus. Even if I had read the book, I would judge the movie with fresh eyes and see how good a movie is as a movie. In general, am not that familiar with German literature (with the exception of the Grim Brothers’ fairytales), thus I haven’t read works of Mann, Kafka, Goethe et al. Yet, am well aware of what literary greats the works of these authors are, and how they are known specifically for their bleak and beautiful creations.

Visconti’s underrated masterpiece based on Thomas Mann’s novella is pure visual poetry, with the backdrop of the Venetian waterscape in all its glory and pandemic decay, along with spellbindingly amazing performances by the lead cast. A love story without a love story; no romance, no words exchanged, never touched, no intimacy, no physical contact whatsoever, but an emotionally deep affectionate attraction for each another through just loving glances at one another, with a desperately heartbreaking desire, internal struggle, tormented pain and longing. Amongst the greatest movies ever made.

Luchino Visconti was awarded Italy’s most prestigious David di Donatello award for “Best Director”. Due to a tight budget, both Visconti and actress, Silvana Mangano, worked for free in this movie, thus were not paid a salary. Björn Andrésen was compensated with a small amount, whilst Dirk Bogarde and the rest of the cast and crew were quite handsomely paid.

Death in Venice (1971)

My Rating: 10/10!!

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Postscript: The movie was screened as part of the celebrations of Thomas Mann’s 150^th Birth Anniversary. The Thomas Mann exhibition and screenings were held 2 Days in November 2025 and 2 Days in December 2025. The screenings of the silent film Die Buddenbrooks (1923) and, Egon Günther’s adaptation of Mann’s book, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns; which was based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s own love story, which Goethe himself had previously written a fictional novel about, in Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers; in a the movie titled, Lotte in Weimar (1975), took place last month at the Goethe-Institut in Colombo, on 17^th and 18^th of November 2025, respectively. On 18^th of December 2025, there was an enjoyable music talk on Gustav Mahler by music conductor, Srimal Weerasinghe and horn player, Vidurinda Samaraweera, with brief performances, at Goethe-Institut itself. The next day (last Friday) on the 19^th of December 2025, the screening of Death in Venice (1971), took place at the National Film Corporation (NFC) in Colombo. Thus, we got to enjoy the restored version of this fabulous movie on a cinematic scale, with an interesting discussion at the end. All the screenings were accompanied by a poster exhibition by the students of AOD. My only issue with the screening, not the movie itself, was the fact that this Italian English movie which was predominantly in the English language had English subtitles for the English dialogues (which is not a necessity for me personally, but I understand it might be hard to understand spoken English with a non-Sri Lankan accent for some of the other locals), but unfortunately there were no subtitles for the sequences where other European Languages were spoken; of which I could only make out the French nanny’s brief…umm, French. Nonetheless, am truly grateful to the Goethe-Institut and the Italian Embassy for their collaboration in bringing us this opportunity, to local film fanatics and movie maniacs to watch Death in Venice, in all its original glory, on the big wide screen, in Colombo. A rare treat of a 70’s Art House Classic. 

Writing for my Blog after a hiatus of almost 3 years. Many a times I wished to, but was never able to get around to doing so. But these last 3 days, I somehow forced myself to get this Blog-Post done. Enjoy!!!

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