What Am I Missing?

I think it's clear that the movie is full of itself, but that doesn't mean that it's bad. Let's find the most extreme contrast possible and compare it to the new Mad Max. That movie is so completely full of itself too, but fans of the series probably think it's great. I couldn't sit through more than half of it, and I didn't like this one much better. But pursue what what attracts you. That may even be the message behind this movie, and Mad Max too for all I know, though I really don't have a clue.

How is the movie pretentious rubbish? It is an adaptation of a novella by Thomas Mann. Perhaps it isn't to your taste, but it isn't pretentious. Thing is, and try to understand this, the aesthetic experience diverges from the common narrative. If you are aesthetically inclined, you'll appreciate the movie, but most people, yourself included I guess, look for a narrative that will engage them in a more straightforward sense. You are looking for a story, but here you get more of an aesthetic experience, an appeal to the senses. Just avoid these types of movies and you'll be fine.

[deleted]

I recommend you read the book for a better input of Gustav's head, and about the other stuff... yeah, the film relies heavily on aesthetics, so if you don't fancy that too much it's wasted on you, but I think the story is interesting given you get what it is about: the discovery of inner passion and the lack of time to use it.


Imagine this: Tadzio is actually a high class aristocrat woman and Gustav is actually a penniless bloke. Gustav falls in love with this woman and he gets obssesed over her, yet he finds this passion unbearable since he cant act on his feelings, thus making this beautiful woman virtually unreachable for him. The suffering and inner turmoil inside Aschenbach's head should be more easy to relate this way. Hope this movie gets done someday, this is something I can relate to more closely.




now this is acting: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2458172160/tt1528718

Th. Mann struggled with his own sexuality & a rapidly changing world: if I remember class discussion over the novella Death in Venice, story's about an artist's sudden loss of creative ability & questioning whether artistic creation serves any purpose. Aschenbach discovers in Tadzio consummate beauty & art & realizes he could never create anything so wonderful. When Aschenbach learns that a plague is sweeping thru Venice (one authorities've managed to conceal), Aschenbach decides to stay & take pleasure in admiring Tadzio, who, haunted (presumably) by demons of his own, drowns himself, rather than succumb to the plague.

In the novella, Aschenbach's a painter; Bertolucci made him a composer in the movie, so he could use Mahler (who lived 'round the same period as Death in Venice was written) music in the soundtrack. Although the plot & morals may seem antiquated by our standards, that period (c. 1912: the year of Titanic's first & last voyage) was one of grand social upheavals, & Mann saw nothing positive coming out of them.

I saw the movie in college, when I foolishly fancied myself a patron of the arts; when I watch it now, tho, I'm mesmerized by it, however maudlin & depressing it is, in the same way I'm mesmerized by Apocalypse Now or Hunt for Red October: an atmospheric thing, I guess.

51depasser

I have just watched it because a professor gave us an assignment of reading the book (I asked him if I could watch the VHS instead and he said yes - but he has not seen the movie). But from the movie only I would also guess - old man loves young boy - . So I am on these boards trying to understand just what I saw. Old vs young. Only young is pure, old is not. Interesting the way Venice looked so nice and clean in the movie beginning and in the end dirty and burning (the way life is?). The movie does not deal with just why he left Germany and went to Venice. THe Prof says it was because Germany was so decandent and decaying moral wise he left. Who was the man who kept talking to him in his Germany place? Music vs Arts? I still don't know? Did his wife and child die? HELP!

[deleted]

"I think the movie represents the different stages of after-life just before finally ascending from this world. The first hint was the gondolier who refused to change his direction and was later called criminal by the others.... The movie reminded me a lot about Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch - the main characters are strikinly similar in appearance, and the underlying theme too.. Now, with the very first hint the images later in the movie become highly meaningful.. it's a symbolic representation in every sense. It's not about gayness, he just longs for the youth and beauty he has lost.. pure love not sex. The barber prepares a dead mask etc... very interesting movie indeed... and of course, this is my interpretation which arises from my own world-view. "

This is what I got out of it too. When he sees and observes Tadzio he starts to long for the beauty and innocense of being young. I haven't read the book.



One should judge a man mainly from his depravities.Virtues can be faked.Depravities are real.Kinski

LOL




It's called a lance...Hello!

I will probably sound patronizing, so forgive me, but I think you usually have to be older to appreciate a film like this. It's more of a "Why have I wasted my life?" film, and at 20-ish you simply aren't looking at life this way. Come back to it in 20 or 40 years and you may find a deep appreciation of its wonderfulness.

I'm a longtime Bogarde fan and it was fascinating to see him tranformed from his usual extremely beautiful form into a physically ugly, emotionally dead person, who then finally becomes alive again through the joy of love. And attempts to change himself into physically beautiful--with dreadful results, but successful, I guess, in the era.