Russ Hardin

When it was decided to make a film based on the genius writer Thomas Mann's classic tragedy about lost and unrequited love in 1971 no one had of course ever heard of AIDS. As a teenager then the only sound alike to what would be the deadliest disease of our time was a chocolate diet supplement my mother took called, AYDS. They tasted awful. This is in my top five favorite movies ever. It is timeless and beautiful and heartbreaking and gorgeous. The angst that is generated by Dirk Bogarde's tortured performance of the recently widowed composer Gustav von Aschenbach could fill a stadium. OR two. The cinematography, music, art direction, casting and costuming create this glorious but ragged tapestry that asks the question, "What if we cannot choose who we love?" This is Gustav's ultimate triumph and his cataclysmic undoing. Venice at the turn of the century was not necessarily a place of perfect beauty. It was sordid and dirty. Unclean but irresistible. Loaded to the brim with art and history and genius--but prone to neglect and ultimately--disease. The city becomes the metaphor for AIDS in the 1980's. It's actually unnerving to watch the movie unfold like a modern day, "And The Band Played On". There are so many striking parallels not to be missed. And as an interesting side note follow this with, "The Most Beautiful Boy". It's a recent documentary film about Bjorn Andrésen who played "the boy" Tadzio in "Death In Venice". He was chosen after a world wide search by director Luchino Visconti for the perfect actor to play this role. And Bjorn was in fact..."a beautiful boy". So beautiful that after this film his life was ruined. I mean RUINED. It took him decades to dig himself out. Fascinating! And after all that if you still need to be nudged...Marisa Berenson plays Gustav's doomed wife who dies and leaves him to this sad and tragic quest for true love. What else. A+