This film was proposed by our members Marzia Castelli, Carmen Rodriguez, and Marianna Barcenas. Marzia writes: 'I watched this film only once on the big screen and its charm and elegance still resonate with me after many years. The slow pace, the meditation on beauty, obsession and decay, the magnificence of the costumes, Gustav Mahler’s music and Venice: overwhelming beauty is in every single frame that composes this masterpiece by Luchino Visconti. A true gem so hard to find in cinemas.'

Based on the classic novella by Thomas Mann, this late-career masterpiece from Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) is a meditation on the nature of art, the allure of beauty, and the inescapability of death.

A fastidious composer reeling from a disastrous concert, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde, in an exquisitely nuanced performance) travels to Venice to recover. There, he is struck by a vision of pure beauty in the form of a young boy (Björn Andrésen), his infatuation developing into an obsession even as rumours of a plague spread through the city.

Setting Mann’s story of queer desire and bodily decay against the sublime music of Gustav Mahler, Death in Venice is one of cinema’s most exalted literary adaptations, as sensually rich as it is allegorically resonant.

Please note, the screening on Tuesday 10 September is our Free Members' Screening, and the screening on Wednesday 18 September is a general public screening.

Cast:
Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen