Of the many directors drawn to Venice and its otherworldly beauty, few do justice to the ancient city quite like Luchino Visconti and his classic adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella, first published in 1912. From the opening shot of sea and sky as one, the film unfurls through a series of languid, meticulously constructed shots befitting of its Renaissance setting.

In Mann’s novel, the story’s protagonist, Gustav von Aschenbach, is an author who travels to Venice to escape his writer’s block. In Visconti’s version however, Aschenbach (played by Dirk Bogarde) is a renowned composer who escapes to Venice for his ailing health.

There he becomes infatuated with the cherubic beauty of Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), a young Polish boy staying at the same Lido hotel as Aschenbach with his family. Though the pair never speak, their eyes are constantly drawn to one another, building a tension that compensates for its glacial pace with a never-ending supply of exquisite outfits.

In spite of travelling to Venice to better his health, Aschenbach deteriorates physically and emotionally over the course of the film, tormented by his forbidden feelings for Tadzio. Unable to distinguish lust from his platonic love of physical perfection, the film forces us to consider whether beauty is an inherent, visceral emotion or simply an intellectual construct?

Death In Venice can be streamed on Amazon.

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