|
Death in Venice (1971, It.)
(aka Morte a Venezia)
In director Luchino Visconti's stylistically lavish
adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel - a tale of sexual obsession by
a visiting composer in Venice (plagued by cholera):
- the beautifully shot, quiet and lonely death scene
of aging, avant-garde German composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk
Bogarde) slumped feverishly on a solitary deck chair on a Venice
beach (accompanied by the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Fifth
Symphony) dying of heart failure (other causes could be cholera,
or suicide); he was reclining close to the
Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido where he was staying
- recently-applied dark hair dye dripped from his sweaty,
chalk-white face (from under his straw hat) and down his cheeks,
while he lovingly watched an angelic-looking teenaged Polish boy
named Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen) (also on vacation) and on the beach
wrestling with an Italian youth; he then observed Tadzio who waded
out into the water and pointed out toward the horizon of the pink-tinged
ocean - Gustav's expression mixed contentment, pain, and acceptance
as he reached out his hand toward the unattainable boy before his
death
- the last image was an extreme long-shot of his beach
chair on the large deserted stretch of sand when his body was found
by other hotel guests and carried away by workers
|
Teenaged Boy on Beach, Pointing
Gustav on Venice Beach Deck Chair
Final Long-Shot of Beach Chair with Deceased Gustav
|