Essay on Viscontis Interpretation of Manns Death in Venice

Viscontis Interpretation Manns of Death in Venicedoubting Thomas Manns Death in Venice is a very complex novella. To put it on screen, a director has to pick the most important (or easiest to portray) elements from the mythological, psychological and philosophic lines of the story. The plot would remain largely intact. I am most raise in the story of Aschenbachs homosexuality, so I would be concerned with the strange-looking men, Aschenbachs dreams, and the mate between the denial of the sickness in Venice and his own denials about Tadzio. passim the novel, Ashenbach notices strange-looking men. The same language is used to describe the features they sh ar. The first is the catalyst for his adventure. The traveler is clean-shaven, snub-nosed, a redhead, with furrows between his eyebrows and his teeth bargond (p 4 Norton Critical). Next are a hunchbacked, scruffy sailor and the theatrical goateed ticket-taker (13). Then, the old tribal sheikh in the yellow suit. He has a sinewy n eck, dentures, a diskette hat, and a habiliments of running the tip of his tongue around the corners of his speak in an obscenely suggestive mankindner, (14). Aschenbach arrives in Venice only to be confronted with some other blip on his gaydar, the gondolier. He is brutal-looking, with a yellow sash, unraveling straw hat, redheaded hair, a snub nose, bared teeth and furrows between his eyebrows. He tells Aschenbach You pull up stakes pay, (18). The last strange fellow, the guitarist, comes much later on. He is emaciated, with a tacky hat, red hair, scrawny neck, beardless, pale, a snub nose, with furrows between his eyebrows and a habit of letting his tongue play lasciviously at the corner of his mouth. He also smells of disinfectant (50). The guitarist, like most l... ...es linger on his admirer, and Aschenbach does not seem as pathetic. The object of his affection is willing, and we lose some of the accent from the novel. Most of the mythological, psychological and philo sophical references have been removed. Visconti makes Aschenbach a composer, not a writer, with a strong relationship to his (dead?) family. His character is not as full rendered as in the novel nevertheless it is sufficient. Tadzio is probably the best ploughshare of the movie. The casting was spot-on and one can see how a grown man could fall in love with that. Some of the strange men are there, most notably the guitarist, but the repetition is not emphasized. The film shows Venices bank line into epidemic well, with the street bonfires and disinfecting of the streets. Overall the movie is almost watchable for an art film, but it does not do justice to the very complex novella.