Death in Venice (1971) Reviews

This film is based on Gustav Mahler's last days. The soundtrack draws from Mahler's stunning 2nd and 5th symphonies. Although the film is visually (art direction/film technology) dated, it is a time-less masterpiece. The story is slow and perhaps emotionally difficult to digest, but it allows for acting and soundtrack to take over and drive this film. This movie is not for everyone. If you like light-hearted shallow happy ending type films, you will HATE this one. If on the other hand you like to be challenged, enjoy the unusual, and can LISTNE and understand sound, you will love this movie.
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As a movie ... it's difficult to like, due to incredibly stilted dialogue and pregnant pauses that lead to ... more pregnant pauses. I suppose it was an epic in its day, but it is rescued only by snatches of 'beautiful pictures' surrounded by painful patches of mundane plodding. The director seems to take it for granted that we know the story, rather than telling it ... with the sound off, it plays much better.
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This film defines the term, "masterpiece." An older man on holiday suddenly finds mortality staring him in the face as he observes youth embodied, in its real, pure form; in an adolescent boy who (with family) is staying in the same hotel during a summer in Venice. It is not a gay story. The older man is happlessly drawn to the boy (representing his lost youth). The two never actually meet, but the man seems to feel youth now taunts him in his old age, as the boy innocently returns the man's gazes with long, almost knowing stares. It is like a slow death for the man. His ego is wrecked by the boy's beauty and youth like an afront to his own aging; his realization of what he has lost and will never have again. The film is richly embellished in symbolism. The sad music of Gustav Mahler sets off the story and the ageless Venice backdrop. This rare style of art film is nearly extinct. A magnificent film.
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This movie was very dry and boring. Like other critics have indicated, not much dialog. Don't waste your time on this one (unless you're looking for scenes of Venice)-I couldn't even finish the movie.
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There is no story. The viewer gets an idea of what is going on in the main character's mind, but the lack of dialogue, which is maybe 350 words for the whole movie, leaves the viewer guessing. The Travel agent, who the main character has a talk with, has the most lines in the movie, and he was not nominated for any awards that I know of. It is about three quarters of the way through the movie that we get an inkling of what is going through the main character's mind, and it isn't pretty. An older man's fascination for a young boy, who IS very pretty, makes the viewer feel very uncomfortable. The movie is a tragedy, but the bigger tragedy is that it was made at all. Save yourself 131 minutes of suffering. Jam Bamboo splinters between your finger nails. It will be less painful.
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