The most beautiful boy in the world...

I've just finished watching Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice. It's a movie adaptation of the Thomas Mann novella by the same name, and is about an elderly scholar (a composer, Gustav von Aschenbach) who vacations in Venice. He stays in a hotel and observes the people, including (and especially) a young teenaged boy named Tadzio. He forms an obsession with Tadzio and begins to follow him around Venice.

I've known about this movie since I was in high school but I've never seen it (except for some clips) until now. But I have read the novella - it was in a book with other short stories written by Mann (a few others also had homo-erotic sub-themes). I can't say that I really liked the film... it was okay, but it wasn't earth-shatteringly beautiful (like Pan's Labyrinth). The scenes were dragged on for ages, to the point that the movie sort of became boring. Its MAJOR redeeming quality - Bjorn Andresen - the boy who played Tadzio.Visconti described him as the most beautiful boy in the world.

The boy is gorgeous! I can't say anything more than that. He's just beautiful - too beautiful. His face is androgynous and that's probably why so many people are fascinated by it. How can a boy look like a girl and still look god-damned cute? He can give Heidi Klum a run for her money, and also sit next to Brad Pitt and make him look like a dried up old prune.

Yes, you can look at the movie (and the novella) as a form of pederasty - older man falls for a good-looking boy - and

that view would be right. There's this one scene where Gustav dreams of touching Tadzio's hair - then he immediately recovers and decides against ever talking to him. Another of my favorite scenes was when Tadzio and Gustav meet each other while walking in the hotel grounds at night. Tadzio looks at Gustav and gives the coyest smile ever given on earth. Gustav rushes away, collapses into a bench in the garden and reprimands Tadzio - "You must never smile like that" - before he relents and says "I love you."

Yes, the movie is about pederasty - an impossible love. But it's much more than that. Gustav is an artist. By his very nature, he seeks beauty and perfection. Apparently, he has already achieved this by the time of his visit to Venice. The movie shows Gustav's reason for visiting Venice - apparently, he's lost his artistic touch. No longer the perfect musician, he travels to Venice and meets the perfect boy, the perfect face. And oh... that face! Throughout the movie, Tadzio keeps looking back at Gustav, making the latter follow him, enticing him. Once, he even stops in a dark alley to wait for Gustav to show up so that he could follow. All that time, Andresen delivers us his smile - the smile to end all smiles. That lovely half-tilt of his upper lips.

Enticing us, begging us to follow him. And so we do.

In this, we are not just following a boy - even if he is the most beautiful in the world. We are following perfection. Just as Gustav von Aschenbach seeks perfection, we too seek the same perfection. But remember, nothing on earth is perfect. Gustav learns that the hard way. He dies while sitting in his chair observing Tadzio wading into the ocean, pointing ominously to the Sun.