Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) and Tadzio (Bjorn Andersen)

Inactivity becomes tiring despite fine photography

Sometimes a man just can't figure out why certain movies get made. "Death in Venice" is merely the improbable story of a sick man, fairly well isolated from his surroundings, who becomes enamored of a 16-year-old pretty boy.

He moons after the boy throughout most of the progress of the movie, if the movie can be said to have progress, and never once talks to

him except perhaps in fantasy.

This sort of activity, or lack lack of activity, grows tiring, although perhaps it is to be preferred to the activities if this were the usual homosexual film.

Luchino Visconti, who takes unusal themes, took this story by Thomas Mann and fastened it on a person who looks very much like Gustav Mahler, the composer. Perhaps not coinciden-

tally Mahler's music is dle-age at most, too much of a 90-year-old shamble for me.

used.

What Visconti has achieved is a feeling of time and place; there seems not.to be one wrong touch in his creation of Venice of 60 years ago. The photography is elegant and excellent. You almost personally walk the corridors of the hotel and eat in the dining room under the potted palms.

Dirk Bogarde creates the protagonist. Usually he is subtle but here he

gives the man, in mid-

'Death in Venice' Directed by Luchino Visconti, who produced, and, with Nicola Badalucco, wrote the screenplay from a novella by Thomas Mann. Warner Bros. release. 131 minutes. Gustav von Aschenbuch

Dirk Bogarde Tadzio Bjorn Andersen Tadzio's mother ............................................................ Sylvana Mangane

Frau von Aschenbach ............................................................ Maria Berenson Mark Burns

Alfred

The man supposedly has a heart condition. In

addition there is cholera in Venice. Thirdly, the man seems to be stricken by physical fits of violent yearning from

time to time.

I for one never knew what he was coming down with, a heart attack, cholera or grand passion.

There is almost no activity. About the most vigorous moment comes when the man gets a haircut. This we are permitted to see. What a change of pace from the previous lethargy.

The barber convinces the man to have his hair and mustache died, color added to his lips and some pasty makeup on his face. This makes him look as though he's yielding to pneumonia in addition to his other infirmities.

The next day, as the mascara and hair dye run down his blanched cheek, he twitches as he watches his young boy friend go swimming.

Visconti, the director, is self indulgent to a fault. When he gets what he thinks is a good scene he holds it until it seems as long as life itself. This produces exquisite boredom. Visconti unfortunately ad-. mires nearly every one of his scenes.

It's not an art picture; it's artsy..