starring Dirk Bogarde, Bjorn Andersen director Luchino Visconti studio Warner Home Video (1971)

background
A 1971 Italian film adapted from Thomas Mann novella, published in German as Der Tod in Venedig in 1912 and is known in the English-speaking world as Death in Venice. The novel itself is is written in rich, decadent prose, and true to many German writers of that era, is heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious and Nietzsche's Apollonian/Dionysian struggles.

Story
Gustav von Aschenbach (Bogarde) is an acclaimed author who went on a holiday to Venice, only to fall completely obsessed with a young Polish boy named Tadzio (Andersen). Written at the time before Stonewall, or before Queer as Folks and Sex and the City are howled and giggled at side by side, Aschenbach of course, suffers from the societal homophobic restrictions of the era. He is disturbed by his attraction to the boy, but continues watching Tadzio without daring to speak a word to him. Tadzio is regarded as an ideal beauty, with frequent mentions of Greek gods and ideal beauty as discussed by Plato and Phaedrus - almost as if he needs this 'high art' to justify the obsession (and his homosexual 'tendency') that he's bothered about.

Despite the outbreak of cholera in Venice, Aschenbach persists to stay in Venice (near Tadzio). On the day Tadzio and his family leave, Aschenbach dies on the beach, watching Tadzio going into the water before his last moment.

While the story falls into the typical no-happy-ending, story-of-a-homosexual-trying-to-supress-his-desire-but-of-course-fails, the cinematic direction is superbly rendered to convey the intensity that the story, at least in my opinion, still evocates powerful charms that would pale many other hordes of movies with similar themes. The use of music by Gustav Mahler (who Aschenbach somehow resembles) and the parallel between them is well, IMHO, quite an ingenious move. If you're not used to artsy/ foreign movie production though, this will test your patience with its emphasize on body language and expressions.

Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was born in Lubeck, Germany, 6 June 1875 and died in Munich, 12 August 1955. A German novelist, essayist, and short-story writer, and a Nobel Laureate, Mann is regarded as one of the most prominent and influential European writers of the 20th century. In his lifetime he was seen as a leading spokesman for German values and culture, an avid opponent of fascism and Nazism, causing him to lose his citizenship in 1936 and became a US citizen in 1944. In the end he moved to Switzerland till his death after being alarmed by McCarthysm. Like many other people of the era, he was married and had children although he was sexually primarily attracted to men.

His other works include:

• Buddenbrooks (1901), his first major work based on his own family history
• Der Zauberberg (1924), translated as The Magic Mountain, another one of his best-known work. The novel is about a group of patients at a mountain sanatorium in the years just before WW1.
• Joseph und seine Bruder (1933-1943), translated as Joseph and His Brothers, a four-volume series of novels, retelling the biblical tale of Joseph.
• Doktor Faustus (1947), a fictional biography of a musician who encountered a prostitute whom he knew to be infected with an STD; an allegory of Germany’s progressive destruction through Nazism.
• Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull (1954), translated as The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man. which is a tale he began and published as a short story early in his career but expanded finally into a novel.
• Several essays, some on Goethe, Wagner, Freud, and Nietzsche - all those who exert considerable influence in his works.

Unfortunately, I've only read translated versions of Death in Venice, The Confessions of Felix Krull and The Magic Mountain - highly recommended, all of them :), although if you're looking for m/m hints, go for Death in Venice. Beautifully written. The new translation by Michael Henry Heim has been receiving great acclaims - again, I haven't read that one, sorry :P;;.

the real tadzio?
With the now published diaries of Thomas Mann and his more private stories known, there has been a buzz about the autobiographic nature of Death in Venice, and the figure on which Tadzio was based on indeed existed in real life. Apparently when Mann went on a holiday to Venice with his wife in 1911, he met a Polish family, and seemed to be awed by the son, Wladyslaw Moes - elaborated in detail in a book titled The Real Tadzio.

Meanwhile, Bjorn Andersen, who played the role of Tadzio in the movie, was featured as the cover of The Beautiful Boy, a book by Germaine Greer that celebrates the beauty of young males (um, shota?). He seemed to be rather uncomfortable with the idea though, and in a Sydney Morning Herald article I read, he claimed once going to a gay bar and everyone staring at him like some meat to be pounced on :p;;;. Ah well, dude, you were too gorgeous for your own good.

Reviewed by kat