Death in Venice (1971) review

Embellished - but resplendent - adaptation of the masterful Thomas Mann novella that features an aging artist (in Visconti's version, a composer who looks like either Gustav Mahler or Mann, depending on the review you read) pursuing a Polish boy named Tadzio around Venice.  The flashbacks are abrasive and pointed - Dirk Bogarde and Mark Burns present their various philosophical ideas to one another, with Burns often yelling - and whereas Mann never indicated exactly what Tadzio was doing or whether or not he was interested in the Gustav von Aschenbach character sexually (or even if the older man is imagining the 'glances' from the teenager), Visconti makes no mistake about the youngster's intentions.  In defense of the director, however, this isn't the easiest work to film - Mann intended the boy to represent homosexuality, the desire to be young again and the pursuit of beauty ... which doesn't translate easily to the screen.