Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice / The Most Beautiful Boy in the World (Dogwoof, UK Blu-ray October 2021)

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Seen Bjorn Andresen being interviewed on Channel 4 last night here

That could be very interesting such a great film. The guy's comments were interesting, really I suppose it's difficult to look back 50 years at the good and the bad of it but he's obviously been affected by it his whole life.

No implication I'm aware of it was "Are you a stone or a sponge" (a quote from Withnail but Bruce Robinson said it was actually asked of him as a 21 year old by a semi-clothed Franco Zeffirelli in his hotel suite on the making of Romeo and Juliet (1968)).

Tis odd because watching the now pensioner I wondered WTF were his parents thinking? A bit like how I think about his fellow Swede and equally used & abused -by millions of people who should know better- the creepy and possible idiot savant, Greta Thunberg.





50years.PNG

Before and after.

Life's a bitch.
 
I'm curious to watch this but I don't want off-screen incidents to taint my adoration of DOV. Does it come across more of a Visconti exposé than a documentary?

Thanks.
 
I've not seen it yet but from what I can see it's not an attack on the filmmakers so it may work as a documentary.

I'd never heard a single thing about the actor and it sounds from what he said on Channel 4 it's been a blessing and a curse.

I seen Death in Venice I think when I was a 12 year old recorded off BBC 2 and it blew me away. It's a masterpiece.
 
One of my favourite films. Ironically my history teacher told me it was her favourite film when I was just twelve. A lot of people sadly don't get it.

I'm new to this forum. Take it there hasn't been much Visconti discussion? This was all I could find.
 
Visconti is big in these here parts the forum had to bring in a couple of extra servers just for this thread.
 
Thought so.;) He's very big in Russia. Didn't Channel 4 show Visconti (and other world cinema) in the 90s before they became obsessed with the youth market? I'm too young to remember.
 
Yeah, I learned French from watching Channel 4 and reading shampoo bottles in the 1980s.
 
I watched that today and thought it was very well done. The best documentaries ending up being about you, the viewer.

On balance looking at his life I'd say Death in Venice was maybe more of a blessing than a curse.

They start and end the documentary with the Death in Venice screen tests and at the end I felt Andrésen was the one testing Visconti.

The super 8 footage was amazing. The production and direction was damn perfect.

I note Andrésen's IMDb profile photo is very telling www.imdb.com/name/nm0001909 That can be changed either through his agent or himself if he wished.


It made me think again about the extremist Greta Thunberg and who the hell was watching out for her? All a bit too late now you can't go back and fix your past. Although a lot of people spend their whole life trying.

9/10.

I'll pick up the Blu-ray for sure.
 
Fascinating. Thank you so much for the heads up. I will give it a try.

Unfortunately people will exploit kids at all costs... whatever agenda it suits.

He was certainly a stunning boy and unlike most of this film's viewers, I didn't read a sexual element in Aschenbach's love (despite knowing of both Visconti and Mann's predilections, and Bogarde's too). I don't think it was designed that way cinematically, but many people disagree.
 
It's on BFI and YouTube for those interested.

The possible sexual tension -or not- in the film has meant very different things to me over the years. In the last few years I feel it's the sister film to The Browning Version.

Yes, the screen tests were wildy inappropriate and the reasoning for that is in the documentary.

I think Bjorn is a good man and the best he can be.

If he does have arrested development the cause sadly is not as simple as blaming Death in Venice.

A sad story indeed.
 
Blu-ray £9.99

 
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