Herb Kane
Screenwriter
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- May 7, 2001
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Death In Venice (1971)
Studio: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Rated: PG
Film Length: 131 Mins
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Enhanced Widescreen
Audio: DD Mono
Color/B&W: Color
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish
MSRP: $19.98
Package: Snap Case
The Feature:
On February 17th, Warner Bros. will release three internationally acclaimed and award winning films from two of the greatest Italian directors ever. Michelangelo
Antonioni’s Blowup and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned and Death In Venice. The Cannes Film Festival rewarded Death In Venice with a nomination for the Golden Palm and it won Visconti the 25th Anniversary Prize Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The WB press release indicates all three films boast “all-new widescreen digital transfers” …we’ll get to that in a minute.
Gustav von Aschenbach (who’s said to be loosely portraying Gustav Mahler, played brilliantly by Dirk Bogarde) is a professor, conductor and composer who is on a sabbatical of sorts, resting and vacationing in Venice, circa 1910. He is somewhat of an aloof and curt man lacking in patience necessary to gel amongst society. Though much of the story is told by way of flashback, Luchino Visconti's film adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella is a visual masterpiece, and a philosophical thought provoking story about beauty and his obsession with it.
While von Aschenbach is convalescing at the hotel in Venice, he becomes entranced, almost fixated with a young adolescent boy who is also staying at the hotel. He is struck by the beauty of young Tadzio (played by Björn Andrésen) so much so that he becomes obsessed with the boy, who’s the object of von Aschenbach's desire. Von Aschenbach remembers his beloved wife, his deceased daughter and he feels miserable.
Tadzio is his means to an escape, to cherish the inner beauty of a pure young boy unattainable in such a perfect way, but it is an ideal that the composer does not ever wish to attain. Even when he does touch him to fluff his hair, it is merely a gesture one might make to any child, in a somewhat reluctant yet platonic way. Although Tadzio is admired, the interaction between the aging man and boy is limited to distanced glances from afar and the occasional smile.
After von Aschenbach witnesses parts of the city being disinfected, it becomes clear that cholera hangs over the city, and the director reflects this in morose gloomy scenes within the beautiful city of Venice. Although city officials are reluctant to announce the epidemic for fear of the tourism repercussions, von Aschenbach is finally told the truth but now must make the decision to leave the crumbling city or to risk his health and stay after finally finding the beauty he so longed sought after.
This is ultimately a story of a personal crisis, which is revealed by the older man in love or infatuated (?) with an adolescent boy which is somewhat unsettling albeit, in a non homoerotic context. Death In Venice is one of those films that enters your consciousness and surfaces when you least expect it to – one of the many qualities that’s said to be necessary to be a great film. Interestingly, the film is more of an ideal in which its characters speak probably less than a couple of hundred words in a two hour period. We’re left with haunting images which appear throughout the film, especially the final scene on the beach as Tadzio walks slowly into the water.
Video:
Much to talk about… where do I start? Filmed in my favorite AR of 2.35 and considering the absolutely breathtaking scenery with much of Venice as the backdrop, this is a film that should have been a visual beauty. That’s not to say the cinematography isn’t near perfect, but unfortunately the video presentation isn’t.
Let me start by saying that I have never seen this film before on any medium – period. So it’s near impossible to make matter-of-fact claims without having seen it elsewhere, so I’ll merely stick to what I observed noting the good and the bad.
The image quality was all over the map in terms of detail consistency. There were scenes where the detail was razor sharp which varied to other scenes which looked downright out of focus. For the most past, I would classify the image to be somewhat soft with infrequent periods of a sharp detailed image. Black levels were deep and rich and white levels were for the most part, stark and nicely contrasted although they took on a “snowy blue” hue to them occasionally.
Though the colors were mostly vibrant and nicely saturated, there were infrequent scenes where they were somewhat muted. Some good examples of these vibrant colors could be seen in the music room of the hotel where the ladies gowns, the flowers and the stained glass looked almost alive with color. Flesh tones were particularly accurate looking, only looking somewhat red on a couple of occasions.
Film dirt and scratches were kept to an absolute minimum however there were frequent occasions of jitter and light shimmer. Light speckle was also present, albeit, rather sporadically. Much of the film takes place outdoors with a very sunny background and while enhancement was occasionally present, it wasn’t bothersome as I actually had to look for it. There was only a moderate amount of film grain.
I hate to use this expression as I have done so in the past, but I subscribe to the notion that many films from various periods have a distinct look to them (a look of that decade, if you will) and this film has a definite look of the 70’s to it. Not a criticism, merely an observation. Needless to say anyone who’s familiar with the film, I’d welcome your comments.
Audio:
While the video portion had what we might refer to a number of idiosyncrasies, the audio portion simply had a great deal of imperfections. No need to tippy-toe around this one.
Let me start by discussing the dialogue. There were many occasions where dialogue was lacking clarity. Sibilance was also problem-some as it also became an issue as dialogue seemed compressed during its occasion. While hiss was present, it was rarely bothersome but the frequent bouts of static that accompanied it, was indeed as distraction. Static seemed to be almost voice activated which was exacerbated when voice levels would crescendo.
The track had a peculiar sense of dynamics. Footsteps at times could barely be heard, and then say the din of a restaurant or the setting down of a glass would be almost concussive - and annoyingly so. Even during many piano sequences, the thumping on the keys created a thud that was downright aggravating.
Basically the entire film was accompanied by Gustav Mahler’s beautiful Third and Fifth Symphonies. Unfortunately, there was no sense of any separation or spaciousness to the track to allow a true sense of appreciation for the music – it was just plain flat, which I found to be most disappointing.
When you’re down, they kick ya… There were also occasions of the track being out of synch particularly at the 21:38 and 119:40 marks not a big deal, but noticeable.
Unfortunately, the track leaves a lot to be desired and in this case it was the beautiful accompanied music of Mahler that suffered.
Special Features:
There are three special features included. They are:
- Visconti’s Venice which is a somewhat dated although interesting making-of featurette which includes brief comments from Visconti and Bogarde. The feature starts with Visconti traveling to the set early in the morning by boat through the many canals of Venice and we see the preparation of one of the final scenes as the family with Tadzio is crossing the bridge through the smoke filled streets. A very nice find and inclusion to accompany this film. Duration: 8:59 minutes.
- The next feature is A Tour Of Venice which is a gallery of still photography featuring 30 B&W photos of the shoot.
- Finally, the Theatrical Trailer is included which is in reasonable good shape.
Final Thoughts:
Perhaps for a lack of a better expression, this is certainly a film that is “style over substance”. And while the film accentuates the point of beauty, idealism and to some extent, inappropriate obsession, my only criticism of the film is that it simply takes too long to get where we need to go and belabors a point that in my opinion is abundantly obvious. However, though some scenes are painfully slow, I do have to wonder if the film would have been nearly as profound had it been, say, 20 or 30 minutes shorter. Dirk Bogarde is absolutely brilliant in this film - he is the film. Without him, this film wouldn’t exist!
As I mentioned earlier, this is a film that should be a visual sight and sound to behold. Unfortunately the video portion is what I would classify as satisfactory, however, the audio presentation is plagued with problems.
This is a beautiful film overflowing with emotion and atmosphere but to be clear it’s not a film for everybody. I’d venture a guess that fans of foreign film fare or those of Visconti will pick this up, but do so knowing the A/V presentation has a few anomalies.
Release Date: February 17th, 2004
