Death in Venice

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Audience Member An Italian production about the death of not just someone but their entire life's meaning. Based on the book by Thomas Mann it focuses on a music composer Gustav Von Auschenbach. He's stricken by ennui. After arriving in the city of Italy he finds new passion for his work. But after a failed performance he starts to doubt his ability. That all changes when he sees a young boy with his mother. There is a lot of meandering shots in this whole thing; the two main leads don't even interact for most of the time. The real character that stands out next to the fantastic scenery is the score. Gives it enough of a dramatic edge. It's a bit empty when it comes to emotional heft though. But it does remind us there's almost no escape from the passage of time catching up to us all. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/03/24 Full Review Alan Joseph H A magnificent film, and one which I never tire of rewatching. It's best on a large screen because of the magnificent visuals. Some describe the movie as too slow, or even boring. Despite my tendency towards impatience, I did not find the film tedious in any way. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/01/24 Full Review A.L.Jude P Slow and boring without an output. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/16/24 Full Review Bob B Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice: I had heard of this movie for years and saw that it was, being offered on TCM and I had time to watch it, or so I thought. I will cut to the chase, it was too long, yes, parts of it were stunning to watch, to see the recreation of the early 20th century hotel, the "hats" (seemed over the top, if you will and extravagant) but I will move on. Everything was slow, you could read a chapter of a book as the camera time and again slowly pans a room, a street, a beach, a family walking to and from somewhere (no reason given, they just walk) as if we needed lots of time in nearly every scene to get the idea. Long. Long boat rides, long walks, distant camera shots of people crossing the sand, the walkways, the piazzas, etc., then in one excruciating scene of entertainers at the hotel on the veranda, I thought I would go mad, it went on and on, there was nothing great about it, it was dull, and as if to make some of us even more crazy, it was brought back as an encore! The combo of musicians featured a near toothless guitar player and other players, I assume it was for comic relief (NOT!) and was a dreadful annoying scene within this slow-paced film. All of it moved nothing forward it added nothing in my opinion to the beautiful boy Tadzio, standing at the rail while the closeted Count Aschenbach stares at him from a nearby table. In fact, there is a lot of starring. The beautiful boy and the Count Aschenbach never speak, they just look longingly at each other for dozens if not more times, they meet, nearly head on a few times, they do not speak, no one speaks, never. I watched half of the film one evening and finished it (growing ever restless with each scene) the next evening, resuming watching it with some deep stomach stabbing dread. When Count Aschenbach dies on the beach while sweating his hair color down his cheeks, while watching the beautiful boy grow distant into the smooth ocean water, I was glad he was dead, I was glad the movie was finally over. TMI in this film, it is spoiled due to a director who couldn't bring himself to throw away half of the film to make a good film. Every word written is not sacred (that's why we have editors) and every scene in a movie is not worth making an audience sit through it and watch the ego trip that it becomes. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/12/23 Full Review ViraRiva people saying this is art and a masterpiece....did we watch the same thing? all i saw was a boring movie about a pedophile stalking a teenage boy. story was slow and confusing at times. some of the interactions(staring at each other) of the man and the pretty boy were uncomfortable to watch. it was hard to distinguish what was reality vs memory/imagination of the man. overall i do not recommend this movie. came for the beautiful boy, left with creeper vibes. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/07/23 Full Review Andrew F A beautiful and thought provoking film. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/08/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Death in Venice

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