Dirk Bogarde was 50 years old when he starred in this excellent movie based on the famous Thomas Mann novel. He plays the prissy and repressed composer Gustav von Aschenbach, who discovers love while on a vacation in Venice. However, he finds love of a different sort, because he falls for the beautiful boy Tadzio who is a guest at the same hotel. Watch him struggle silently and moodily with the realization that the boy infatuates him. And accept this with joy at the end.
The Swedish lad Bjorn Andresen, 16 at that time, plays the loved boy. He gives an extremely fine performance, playing his role with sensitivity and efficient use of body language since he hardly speaks in this movie. Instead he plays his role by using his comely face and body expressions. Very androgenous in hair style and body shape, it is easy to see why von Aschenbach is enraptured by this boy.
See Tadzio romping on the beach in his full covering but still showing all bathing costume. See him tussle with another lad (Sergio Garafanoli) on the beach in one of the frankest flirtation scenes (gay or straight) ever shown on the screen. That this takes place in front of the about to die von Aschenbach is one of the ironies of this movie.
Venice has never seemed so gloomy and ugly in any other movie. Cholera hangs over the city, and the director reflects this in moody dark scenes of what is really one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Bogarde still shows his power to play a gay positive role, first demonstrated in his 1956 movie The Spanish Gardener where he falls in love with Jon Whiteley. Both movies are absolutely non-sexual in the extreme. Yet both show clearly the positive nature of love and attraction between a man and a boy.
The Swedish lad Bjorn Andresen, 16 at that time, plays the loved boy. He gives an extremely fine performance, playing his role with sensitivity and efficient use of body language since he hardly speaks in this movie. Instead he plays his role by using his comely face and body expressions. Very androgenous in hair style and body shape, it is easy to see why von Aschenbach is enraptured by this boy.
See Tadzio romping on the beach in his full covering but still showing all bathing costume. See him tussle with another lad (Sergio Garafanoli) on the beach in one of the frankest flirtation scenes (gay or straight) ever shown on the screen. That this takes place in front of the about to die von Aschenbach is one of the ironies of this movie.
Venice has never seemed so gloomy and ugly in any other movie. Cholera hangs over the city, and the director reflects this in moody dark scenes of what is really one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Bogarde still shows his power to play a gay positive role, first demonstrated in his 1956 movie The Spanish Gardener where he falls in love with Jon Whiteley. Both movies are absolutely non-sexual in the extreme. Yet both show clearly the positive nature of love and attraction between a man and a boy.