Based on the classic novella by Thomas Mann, this late-career masterpiece from Luchino Visconti is a meditation on the nature of art, the allure of beauty, and the inescapability of death. A fastidious composer reeling from a disastrous concert, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde, in an exquisitely nuanced performance) travels to Venice to recover. There, he is struck by a vision of pure beauty in the form of a young boy named Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), his infatuation developing into an obsession even as rumors of a plague spread through the city. Setting Mann’s story of queer desire and bodily decay against the sublime music of Gustav Mahler, Death in Venice is one of cinema’s most exalted literary adaptations, as sensually rich as it is allegorically resonant.

Supplements Luchino Visconti: Life as in a Novel, a 2008 documentary about the director, featur­ing Luchino Visconti; actors Burt Lancaster, Silvana Mangano, and Marcello Mastroianni; filmmakers Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli; and others Alla ricerca di Tadzio, a 1970 short film by Visconti about his efforts to cast the role of Tadzio New program featuring literature and cinema scholar Stefano Albertini Interview from 2006 with costume designer Piero Tosi Excerpt from a 1990 program about the music in Visconti’s films, featuring Dirk Bogarde and actor Marisa Berenson Interview with Luchino Visconti from 1971 Visconti’s Venice, a short 1970 behind-the-scenes documentary featuring Luchino Visconti and Dirk Bogarde Trailer An essay by critic Dennis Lim

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