Death in Venice

Bea says: I had never seen this, so Cecil insisted we go - we were in Paris, not Venice, but nevertheless. I was immediately struck by how attitudes have changed over the past 30-40 years; nowadays only a very brave (or foolish) producer would contemplate making a film about a middle aged man lusting after a young male teenager on a Venice beach, or if they did, they would handle the subject matter very differently. However, the claustrophobic filming and sense of impending terror drew me in and I was gripped as Venice burned with fever (and desire) under a hot sun. I could sit down right now and watch it all over again, and, I am sure, see many different things in it if I did. There are few films one can say that about - truly a classic.
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Cecil says: This is a classic, Bea is right. Probably 25 years since I last saw this film, but still as gripping as ever. My memory is of a film dominated by homo-erotic scenes, but actually, while Bea is right that the storyline would be treated differently today, remarkably little actually happens and some of the poses by the teenage boy are camp to the point of ridicule.

When I first saw the film I had never even been to Italy, let alone Venice. But I can remember being determined to go to the Lido when I did finally go there in October 1990 and being struck by its emptiness but with echoes of former glories and crowds which probably only go there during peak holiday period or the Venice Film Festival.

Dirk Bogarde is fantastic, though I am struck now by the fact that he is probably portraying a man who is little older than I now am, which makes for a rather different perspective on the film from when I was just 25. Visconti tries hard to get across the complexity of this personality, who has lost his wife and daughter apparently to tragic illness some years earlier, and who engages in heated philosophical discussions with his friend back home, who challenges the very essence of his being on matters of music, beauty and truth.

It's easy to get carried away by the storyline as the main character slips deeper and deeper into trouble, and the musical score just carries you away with the enfolding plot. But, as Bea says, there is so much more to read into this film, and I feel I would need at least one more viewing to come anywhere near understanding the significance of those fiery debates with Bogarde's closest friend.

Oh and one last comment on those opening scenes again: this time a ship arriving silently in a fog-laden Venice: fantastically evocative opening to a great film.

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