Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

wolfie-52307 This film is an excellent (though necessarily slightly different) version of Thomas Mann's novella of the same name. Its effect was so powerful that it drew me to the Venice Lido to stay at the Hotel des Bains, where both film and book are set, and even since that hotel closed, I go back regularly. To me it's about the impossibility of obtaining one's heart's desire, and to read ignorant reviews from 17 year olds makes me cringe To them I say" No, it isn't a film version of a video game..what made you think it would be?" Come back and rewatch it when you're grown up, if that ever happens.

alamosa moviereview So many good reviews. The film is excellent the book also. It is mostly a tragic gay love infatuation story. The people who go into beauty--ascetics--death perfection of art on and on (and the movie does present the story this way) are missing the real story.The real story comes out better in the book = a late middle aged man (Dirk Bogarde is too young and handsome for the role) becomes infatuated with a 15 year old boy. Possibly the first such awakening of his homosexual id--in 1913 it was still punishable with prison.In Mann's book Aschenbach was an author (it is widely believed Mann had Gustav Mahler in mind). In any case Aschenbach has had lots of losses in life and recent failures in his career and is suffering from a near mental breakdown. Now comes the ultimate degradation of his persona as he becomes infatuated with Tadzio. Mann was no stranger to psychoanalysis so there was clearly a carnal interest as well.The movie miscasts Tadzio--Bjorn Andreson is too lithesome and feminine and frankly not sexy enough for the role. A dramatically better movie would have cast him better--everything would be much more understandable then. Most of all he needed to be much more masculine.So....Aschenbach sinks lower and lower--dyeing his hair and using make up to attract the boy. The movie is pretty clear about the sexual nature of all this--but has lots of flash backs feeding this cover up that it was all about art and ascetics beauty death blah blah blah. While it was mostly hormones.The costumes are wonderful...everything really well done...I could spend hours talking about symbolism e.g. Esmeralda the boat to Venice also the name of Aschenbach's first prostitute (sexual adventure)... That would be an effort and bore everybody. These things you appreciate as the movie unfolds and add depth and intelligence to the film no need to enumerate them (plus there are too many to count). The film is a jewel that way.Read the novella and buy Mahler's 5th. But you know the film is uniquely good as well. This is rare (a movie as good or better than the book).RECOMMEND HIGHLY

C.J. Blanda I have seen this brilliant film more than five times, and l have never seen a more beautiful film made for the screen in any country; every frame of this film is like a magical painting, to savor, and to see again and again. The acting by Dirk Borgard reached his peak here in 'Death in Venice', Silvana Mangano has never been more elegant. The Music by Mahler is haunting. This film is poetic master piece, it is the most beautiful work of Luchino Visconti's direction that take's you for a ride in History, and place, as no other film has ever done; right now, as l write this, l want to see it again. The young Swedish actor, Bjorn Anderson, is like a mystical painting of an innocent individual, and only a boy, he is a danger to a cultivated man of a certain age; well performed by the young actor. The scenes of the degradation of the elder professor played so brilliantly by Dirk Bogard, is so good, it is painful to see this can happen to a man of letters, l recommend this film on every level.,C.J.Blanda

donwc1996 You haven't seen slow until you have seen this film. And I thought Barry Lyndon was slow. This film makes Barry Lyndon look like a runaway train. And since Mann's book was actually a novella this film is probably longer than the book it is so drawn out. But it is riveting in its own way. Visconti is never dull that's for sure. And his films are always visually stimulating. His eye for detail is unmatched, although he did overlook a couple of TV antennas in one scene, but I doubt anyone would have noticed them. Dirk Bogarde is as always absolutely wonderful and clearly exhibits what makes a star and it's making things happen without lifting a finger. He is in virtually every scene and the scenes are very long so he's on camera forever yet he manages to keep your interest because he is so interesting. The film is really about him and he does carry it brilliantly. But the original story is just too abstract for a film and they should have never made it.