Death in Venice (film)

Death in Venice
Italian theatrical release poster
ItalianMorte a Venezia
Directed byLuchino Visconti
Screenplay by
Based onDeath in Venice
by Thomas Mann
Produced byLuchino Visconti
Starring
CinematographyPasqualino De Santis
Edited byRuggero Mastroianni
Production
companies
  • Alfa Cinematografica
  • PECF
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 1 March 1971 (1971-03-01) (London premiere)
  • 5 March 1971 (1971-03-05) (Italy)
  • 4 June 1971 (1971-06-04) (France)
Running time
130 minutes
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million[3]

Death in Venice (Italian: Morte a Venezia) is a 1971 historical drama film directed and produced by Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti, and adapted by Visconti and Nicola Badalucco from the 1912 novella of the same name by German author Thomas Mann. It stars Dirk Bogarde as Gustav von Aschenbach and Björn Andrésen as Tadzio, with supporting roles played by Mark Burns, Marisa Berenson, and Silvana Mangano, and was filmed in Technicolor by Pasqualino De Santis. The soundtrack consists of selections from Gustav Mahler's third and fifth symphonies, but characters in the film also perform pieces by Franz Lehár, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Modest Mussorgsky. Preceded by The Damned (1969) and followed by Ludwig (1973), the film is the second part of Visconti's thematic "German Trilogy".

The film premiered in London on 1 March 1971, and was entered into the 24th Cannes Film Festival. It received positive reviews from critics and won several accolades, including, at the 25th British Academy Film Awards, the awards for Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound, in addition to nominations for Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Dirk Bogarde. For his work on the film, Visconti won the David di Donatello Award for Best Director. Retrospectively, Death in Venice was ranked the 235th greatest film of all time in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll,[4] the 14th greatest arthouse film of all time by The Guardian in 2010,[5] and the 27th greatest LGBT film of all time in a 2016 poll by the British Film Institute.[6]

  1. ^ "Morte a Venezia (1971)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Death in Venice (1971)". UniFrance. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  3. ^ Kramer, Carol (11 July 1971). "Leftist Visconti Lives Right, But Not Under a Bridge". Chicago Tribune. p. e1.
  4. ^ "Votes for MORTE A VENEZIA (1971)". BFI. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Death in Venice: No 14 best arthouse film of all time". The Guardian. 20 October 2010. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  6. ^ "The 30 Best LGBTQ+ Films of All Time". BFI. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2022.