Luchino Visconti's "Death in Venice".
1974; Salisbury University; Volume: 2; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0090-4260
Autores Tópico(s)Italian Fascism and Post-war Society
ResumoForm as a dimension of meaning has little to do with morality; and yet as the prize of discipline it is invested with ethical character. This is the central paradox of Visconti's Death in Venice just as it is of Mann's novella. I will discuss elements of form and dissolution in the film, the discrepancies between meaning and manner, between profits of the plague and the price of perfection. I assume a knowledge of both novel and film. The novel remains the best guide to the film's structure. As for the visual setting it is my hope that if, for instance, the microcosm of social hierarchy in the Grand Hotel des Bains is mentioned, the reader can recall images like the ferrying of Aschenbach's key from hand to hand at the desk or the procession of porters who carry his luggage up the steps. My regard for the film is high: I would, but cannot in this space, discuss every feature that appeals to me. In II Gattopardo and L 'Etranger Visconti worked close to respected literary texts. In Death in Venice he follows Mann's schema so faithfully at times that one inevitably attends to what he has chosen to omit or add or transform. The film takes up the action of the novel only as Aschenbach is approaching Venice: after that the significant omissions are few, but like the initial cut they provide insight into Visconti's choice of structure and the mood which is sustained throughout the film. Metaphoric structure takes precedence over action. Visconti has tightened that structure by selecting encounters which reproduce the leitmotifs Mann provides, but he de-emphasizes other elements which would disrupt the mood. Mann's original setting in Munich has been left out, including Aschenbach's encounter with the pug-nosed, red-haired foreigner on the steps of the Funeral Hall, his sudden desire to travel, the vision of the crouching tiger in the jungle, all mention of his coldly passionate service to his art, and any details of biography. The effect of this is to contain the landscape and the mythical dimension of the action: flashbacks relate to other times and places, but they all refer directly to Aschenbach's preoccupation during his term in Venice and introduce biographical information only within the chronology of his death in this city that echoes the name of the goddess of desire. The screen slowly lightens as the titles end, and we realize that we have risen to the surface of a rippling sea. Smoke from the Esmeralda carries across the pale sky. It could be dusk, but we soon discover it is morning. Aschenbach is seated on a portside deck, wrapped against the chill, glancing at a book of poems, dozing fitfully, taking little interest in the views from the ship - the mud-flats, the panorama of the city, the bersaglieri drilling in the public gardens, the domes of Ste. Maria della Salute at the mouth of the Grand Canal (a church, incidentally, built by vow of the senate during a plague) - and he rouses himself only after the health department launch has come alongside. He seems nervous, a little morbid, but beyond that we have no knowledge of his motivation for the trip nor of his expectations. Without warning, as he is preparing to disembark, he is accosted by a debauched old man with dyed red hair, rouged lips and pasty face, who mocks him in greeting and farewell, slurring his words almost unintelligibly and punctuating his remarks with sinister laughter. Au revoir, excusez, et bonjour, your Excellency! And by the way, sir (moistening his fingers obscenely at his lips) our compliments to your leetle sweet ... to your preetie leetle sweetheart . It is the first of several similar affronts. At the end of the film, Aschenbach, bearing a shocking resemblance to this tormentor, has confirmed the old man's insinuations and dies slumped in a deck-chair as the boy Tadzio beckons him to the sea. Meanwhile the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, which led us into the film and which is associated throughout with the measured approach of death, plays out to the end. …
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