Death in Venice

A composer in failing health travels to Venice to rest. He becomes fixed on a boy he sees at the hotel and will not leave even as cholera spreads through the city. The film uses almost no dialogue; the narrative moves through his gaze, Mahler's music and the decay of the city. The idea that pursuing beauty is a form of longing for death is its whole structure. Luchino Visconti directed, adapting Thomas Mann's novella. Dirk Bogarde leads. A real warning: Bjorn Andresen, who played the boy, was fifteen at the time, and years later described in detail the harm the production and the publicity that followed did to him. Watching the film now, that knowledge does not stay in the background.