Sex and swastikas! — that combo shows up in both trash cinema and high art. Luchino Visconti’s searing look at Nazi corruption sees an industrialist family torn apart by murderous greed and ambition worthy of the Borgias. The fiendish Countess Ingrid Thulin has raised a twisted son (Helmut Berger) to serve her deadly schemes; her path to power involves framing one heir for a killing while another rival is sacrificed in an SS massacre for the good of the Reich. The chilling treachery plays out at family dinner tables, in the offices of a steel mill, and in various bedrooms; Nazi fervor is equated with sex perversion. The uncut original version, remastered, also stars Dirk Bogarde, Helmut Griem, Renaud Verley, Umberto Orsini, René Koldehoff, Charlotte Rampling and Florinda Bolkan.
The Damned
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1098
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 157 min. / La caduta degli dei, Götterdämmerung / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 28, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde,...
The Damned
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1098
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 157 min. / La caduta degli dei, Götterdämmerung / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 28, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde,...
- 9/28/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen, Marisa Berenson, Mark Burns, Silvana Mangano | Written by Nicola Badalucco, Luchino Visconti | Directed by Luchino Visconti
Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Der Tod in Venedig focused on a German writer named Gustav von Aschenbach, who decides to take a holiday to Venice, where he falls in love. The greatest change in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film adaptation, Death in Venice, is the fact that Gustav (Dirk Bogarde) is instead a composer. The troubling scenario concerning the main character’s paedophilic intentions remains, and is perhaps intensified in this, the best-regarded screen adaptation.
Through flashbacks we learn that Gustav has come to Venice to recover from an illness, possibly brought about by the death of his young daughter. His wife (Marisa Berenson) will not be joining him. Gustav enters a world of aged, crumbling architecture, bathed in a light that always seems to be dwindling – a reflection of...
Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Der Tod in Venedig focused on a German writer named Gustav von Aschenbach, who decides to take a holiday to Venice, where he falls in love. The greatest change in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film adaptation, Death in Venice, is the fact that Gustav (Dirk Bogarde) is instead a composer. The troubling scenario concerning the main character’s paedophilic intentions remains, and is perhaps intensified in this, the best-regarded screen adaptation.
Through flashbacks we learn that Gustav has come to Venice to recover from an illness, possibly brought about by the death of his young daughter. His wife (Marisa Berenson) will not be joining him. Gustav enters a world of aged, crumbling architecture, bathed in a light that always seems to be dwindling – a reflection of...
- 3/19/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
High class Italo filmmaking slips into the ’70s with Luchino Visconti still on top. This handsomely appointed period drama recreates Venice of 1910. Make that a highly stylized recreated Venice. As curiously enacted by Dirk Bogarde, Thomas Mann’s story of a composer’s inner turmoil over a maddeningly attractive teenaged boy becomes a one-man ordeal.
Death in Venice
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 962
1971 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 131 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 25, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci, Marisa Berenson,
Carole André, Björn Andrésen, Silvana Mangano.
Cinematography: Pasquale De Santis
Costume Designer: Piero Tosi
Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Music selections: Gustav Mahler, Beethoven, Mussorgsky
Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni
Written by Luchino Visconti, Nicola Badalucco from the novel by Thomas Mann
Produced by Robert Gordon Edwards, Mario Gallo, Luchino Visconti
Directed by Luchino Visconti
See Venice and die… or isn’t it supposed to be ‘see Rome and die?...
Death in Venice
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 962
1971 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 131 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 25, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci, Marisa Berenson,
Carole André, Björn Andrésen, Silvana Mangano.
Cinematography: Pasquale De Santis
Costume Designer: Piero Tosi
Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Music selections: Gustav Mahler, Beethoven, Mussorgsky
Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni
Written by Luchino Visconti, Nicola Badalucco from the novel by Thomas Mann
Produced by Robert Gordon Edwards, Mario Gallo, Luchino Visconti
Directed by Luchino Visconti
See Venice and die… or isn’t it supposed to be ‘see Rome and die?...
- 2/23/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
After all the debates, controversies, and stereotype accusations have cleared, looking back on Blaxploitation cinema today it’s easy to see healthy portions of the crime and action genres. Using these genres and the struggles of the black community, these films were created for those that wanted to see African American characters on the big screen not taking shit from the man, “getting over”, and–above all else—being the heroes in movies. In the documentary Baad Asssss Cinema, Samuel L. Jackson gives his take on the heroes of Blaxploitation: “We were tired of seeing the righteous black man. And all of a sudden we had guys who were…us. Or guys who did the things we wanted those guys to do.”
The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.
The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.
- 12/4/2012
- by Gregory Day
- SoundOnSight
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