Death in Venice (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray) PG

The celebrated story of a man obsessed by ideal beauty
29K ratings
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Format:  Blu-ray
item number:  6S9AV
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Blu-ray Details

  • Rated: PG
  • Run Time: 2 hours, 11 minutes
  • Video: Color
  • Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
  • Released: February 19, 2019
  • Originally Released: 2019
  • Label: Criterion Collection

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring , , , &
Performer: , , , , &
Directed by
Edited by
Screenplay by &
Original story by
Produced by
Director of Photography:

Entertainment Reviews:

Fresh67%

TOMATOMETER
Total Count: 21

Upright81%

AUDIENCE SCORE
User Ratings: 6,398
Rating: 2.5/4 -- Visconti's mastery of visual style almost succeeds in creating the very ideas and feelings that his heavy-handed narrative entirely misses. Full Review
Chicago Sun-Times
Oct 24, 2004
Rating: 3/4 -- Death in Venice occasionally suffers from Visconti's artistic overindulgence, but the film's strengths are also paradoxically tied up in its helmer's unwavering eye for detail. Full Review
Film Frenzy
Mar 1, 2019
Rating: 2/5 -- Instead of bringing the story to life, Visconti has, I'm afraid, embalmed it.
New York Times
May 20, 2003
Rating: B+ -- Even critics who didn't like Visconti's version of Mann's novella praised Dirk Bogarde in the lead and the film's production values, especially costume design, which was Oscar nominated. Full Review
EmanuelLevy.Com
Apr 12, 2012
...Visconti and cinematographer Pasquale De Santis impressively recreate an overcast, fin-de-siecle Venice...
Total Film
Mar 1, 2003
Rating: 3/5 -- Not even the classical soundtrack can turn this ponderous portrait of one man's obsession into the cinematic classic it has so often been mistaken for. Full Review
BBC.com
Feb 11, 2003
Rating: 2/4 -- visually beautiful and emotionally and thematically hollow Full Review
Q Network Film Desk
Apr 8, 2019

Product Description:

Luchino Visconti utilized striking cinematography and a precise narrative in his adaptation of Thomas Mann's DEATH IN VENICE. The filmmaker was known for
his deliberate, masterly work in films that delved deeply into a significant historical era or figure.

The story follows the sickly composer, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde), who arrives in Venice by steamboat from Munich. He is deeply distracted, nervous, uncomfortable, and conflicted. Nonetheless, he settles into a breathtaking seaside resort, where he fixates on Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen), an angelic blond Polish boy who is there with his family. While flashbacks to happy times spent with his wife and small daughter fill in some of the blanks of Aschenbach's personal past, others recall his harsh and competitive friend, Alfred (Mark Burns), who criticized Aschenbach's
music for being too technically perfect and thus lacking in beauty and passion.
Via these glimpses into the past, we see that Aschenbach feels defeated in both his personal and his professional lives.

The film uses very little dialogue, relying largely on the characters' facial expressions to communicate the protagonist's tortured psyche, young Tadzio's curious vanity, and the pretentious airs of the bourgeois women who parade the Venetian beaches in taffeta, bonnets, and parasols. As Aschenbach's infatuation with Tadzio grows beyond his control, he learns that "Venice is gripped by pestilence" (as narrated in Mann's novel) and the city is being sequestered to prevent the spread of a cholera outbreak.

With slow and concentrated pacing, some hauntingly surreal scenes, and a color scheme consisting of bold blacks and stark whites that are a constant reminder of the inevitable, DEATH IN VENICE captures the poignancy of Mann's novel with a sharp, sinister, and unwavering accuracy.

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Product Info

  • Sales Rank: 58,565
  • UPC: 715515226516
  • Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
  • International Shipping: 1 item

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